Gen Z has created its own version of Rick Rolling on TikTok with this classic 2000s banger

• People on TikTok are using Iyaz's 2009 single "Replay" in intricate bait-and-switch memes reminiscent of Rick Rolling.
• While some use the song's iconic opening hook "Shawty's like a melody in my head" as a punchline, others create tangible Spotify Codes via 3D printing or embroidery that link to the song.
• "Replay" ticks off many of the same cultural boxes as the original Rick Roll song, "Never Gonna Give You Up," harkening back to Gen Z's middle and elementary school years.

Rick Rolls have been the de facto, music-based bait-and-switch meme for over a decade at this point. The classic trick is now built into the fabric of meme culture itself, drawing people to click on a link that unexpectedly leads to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." In time, however, people have adapted the Rick Roll bait-and-switch to other culturally significant songs, and the latest is Iyaz's 2009 single "Replay."

The song pops up like a Rick Roll in unexpected places, as users go to extreme lengths to weave it into their content as a punchline. It's different from many of TikTok's musical trends in the respect that it's not tied to a dance challenge and doesn't soundtrack another trend: rather "Replay" is the meme itself.

Since the "Replay" bait-and-switch trend isn't concentrated under a single audio clip — the point is to begin with something unique before leading into the sound itself — it's difficult to track exactly when the trend began. Early uses of the track as a meme in the #shawty tag on TikTok date back to at least late April 2020, although there are instances of the song popping up in TikToks prior to that.

Over the course of May and early June 2020, however, the song has become a popular meme, to the extent that you almost start to expect it to pop up in videos that seem to be leading up to a sound-based punchline. The generic formula takes an object that makes a certain sound when used in a certain way, but when used differently, "replay" begins to play.

Another salient strain of the "Replay" meme features TikTokers going to great lengths to create tangible Spotify Codes by embroidering them on fabric, printing them and creating temporary tattoos, or 3D printing them, among other methods. All roads lead to "Replay."

The joke is the same basic format as a classic Rick Roll, which helped to popularize the bait-and-swtich format online in the late 2000s and 2010s. One TikToker highlighted the similarities in a roundabout way by pretending to herald that "Never Gonna Give You Up" had reached approximately 420 million views and 6.9 million likes (the most popular upload of the video actually currently stands at around 705 million views and 5.6 million likes) before cutting to "Replay."

"Replay" seems poised to potentially become a spiritual successor to the Rick Roll in Gen Z circles on the app. In fact, it seems to tick many of the same boxes as the original "Never Gonna Give You Up," but shifted a generation forward.

An oral history of the Rick Roll from MEL's Brian VanHooker dives into the origins of the meme, which began in 2006 and 2007 (primarily on 4chan) and exploded online in 2008. At the time, the 1987 "Never Gonna Give You Up" was about 20 years old and Rick Astley was cemented in public consciousness as a one-hit-wonder. As VanHooker puts it, the song's 1980s musical sensibilities and low-budget music video made it "a symbol of a bygone era."

"Replay" seems to have many of the same qualities. While the single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on Jan. 9, 2010, it didn't seem to have made a particularly salient mark on the 2010s zeitgeist from that point onward, nor did any of Iyaz's other singles ever reach the same heights on the chart. Some of its lyrics date it to the late 2000s as well — particularly the, "Na na na na everyday, like my iPod's stuck on replay."

While the trend hasn't been exclusively executed by members of Gen Z (some of whom are now as old as 23, per the Pew Research Center), it's steeped in their pop-culture history. "Replay" was released during Gen Z's middle or elementary school years, and as a result, bears a specific brand of nostalgia that traces back a period of life typically viewed through a cringe lens. For teens and young adults, those years can already feel like a "bygone era."

As one of the most popular songs of the time, "Replay" is a powerful nostalgic signifier that ties back to a shared experience. Ultimately, that's what makes it a great meme.

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