Something in the Way

About

Something in the Way refers to a song recorded by Nirvana and sung by Kurt Cobain that received increased attention in memes on TikTok and Twitter in early 2022 after the release of The Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne. The song's use in the movie helped shape Pattinson's portrayal of Batman as both modern and brooding. On TikTok, memes and videos were shared that used the song, most of them following a template of before and after seeing The Batman with the song as evidence that they've changed.

Origin

Kurt Cobain and his band Nirvana originally recorded "Something in the Way" in May 1991.^[1] It is the 12th song on their second album, Nevermind, which was released in September 1991. A video of Nirvana performing the song on MTV in 1993 was uploaded to YouTube on December 6th, 2019, by the official YouTube account of the band. Over the course of three years, the video's received roughly 26.5 million views (shown below).

And I'm living off of grass
And the drippings from the ceiling
It's okay to eat fish
'Cause they don't have any feelings
Something in the way, mmm

In 2022, the song became the main theme of The Batman movie, with its first use being in the initial trailer, released to YouTube on August 22nd, 2020 by the YouTube channel FilmSelect. Over the course of two years, it received roughly 40.7 million views (shown below). Once the film was released, it was featured within the movie multiple times. For instance, in the opening monologue scene, it played in the background as Bruce Wayne pulled into the Bat Cave.

After the movie was released to American theaters on March 4th, 2022, users on Twitter started referencing the song in humorous tweets about the movie. For instance, on the 4th, Twitter^[2] user AlexBatEmoji tweeted, "The urge to ride around on a motorbike blasting something in the way is very strong," earning over 340 likes in 12 days (shown below).

Spread

As the trend continued to spread on Twitter shortly after the movie's release on March 4th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user nightwaynes captioned an image of Parasite director Bong Joon-ho saying, "To, me, that's cinema," with, "Whenever Batman’s theme or Something in the Way played in #TheBatman," earning over 670 likes in 12 days (shown below).

On March 6th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user lesbobomb posted a meme that re-edited the Babe Please Stop template, making the Yes Chad a version of Batman and having Aya Asagiri saying, "babe please stop listening to Something in the Way, it's not going to make you more like The Batman." The meme (shown below) earned roughly 14,100 likes over the course of 10 days.

"Something in the Way" TikToks

Before the March 4th release, some TikTokers were using a sound^[5] called, "Something In The Way (From "The Batman")" created by Geek Music. The sound was ripped from the original August 2020 trailer rather than just being the original song's audio. TikTokers like buckscountybatman2^[6] used this sound on October 24th, 2021, showing himself waiting in line at a store, earning roughly 9.8 million plays and 642,600 likes over the course of five months (shown below).

Besides a couple of precursor examples like the aforementioned one, most TikToks using the sound in reference to The Batman came on or after its March 4th release date. For instance, on March 6th, 2022, TikToker^[7] nicrutledge started a trend of using the song to demonstrate being depressed after watching the movie. His TikTok (shown below, left) received roughly 2 million plays and 290,400 likes over the course of ten days. On the 7th, TikToker^[8] profitonearth used the sound^[9] for a video of his father emotionally standing outside and watching snow fall, earning roughly 1.7 million plays and 330,100 likes in nine days (shown below, right).

Developments

Increase in Spotify Streams

On March 10th, 2022, the Twitter^[10] account LightsCameraPod posted a tweet that revealed the Spotify streams for "Something in the Way" had experienced a 1200% increase since the movie's release. The tweet (shown below) received roughly 2,500 likes in six days. It included within it a video meme that used the "Babe Please Stop" meme posted four days prior.

Nirvana’s ‘Something in the Way’ has been experienced a 1200% increase in Spotify streams since the release of #TheBatman (via @chartdata) pic.twitter.com/VOSEtovccK

— Lights, Camera, Pod (@LightsCameraPod) March 10, 2022

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References