1st Listen, 2nd Listen (Dying To See Her Reaction)

About

1st Listen, 2nd Listen (Dying To See Her Reaction) is an exploitable meme format based on a video of a woman showing a friend "Clara Bow" by Taylor Swift for the first time to see her reaction, with the song bringing the friend to tears. As a meme, the song is replaced with another song and an album is often edited beside the girls. The format began spreading on TikTok and X / Twitter as early as April 2024 and was popularized on X that August.

Origin

Prior to April 24th, 2024, TikToker @laurenashleytay posted a now-deleted video in which a woman shows her friend "Clara Bow" by Taylor Swift to get her reaction to it. While the original video has been deleted, portions of it exist through stitches to the original on TikTok (example shown below).

On April 24th, 2024, X^[1] user @billevansfan251 posted an edit of the original video replacing the song with a Bill Evans song, garnering over 2,600 likes in four months (shown below). This is the earliest known example of the meme.

Spread

The format gained viral spread over the following months, becoming notably popular in August 2024. For example, on August 16th, 2024, X^[2] user @billevansfan251 reposted the edit that he originally posted in April, garnering over 7,000 likes in six days.

Later that day, X^[3] user @tylenol_addict posted a version of the meme replacing the song with Chief Keef's "War," garnering over 24,000 likes in six days (shown below).

On August 17th, X^[4] user @unseenopium posted a version replacing the song with "ILoveUIHateU" by Playboi Carti, garnering over 19,000 likes in five days (shown below). On August 20th, X^[5] user @yungleanbrasil posted a version using the song "Peroxide" by ecco2k, garnering over 6,600 likes in two days.

On August 21st, 2024, X^[6] user @sillyanchovy posted a version of the meme placing a speech by Richard Nixon over the video, garnering over 5,300 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References