BROADCASTS.com

\u201cNobody\u2019s gonna know. They\u2019re gonna know.\u201d\n\nIf you\u2019ve been on TikTok in the past year, you\u2019re most likely familiar with these two sentences, first drolly uttered in a post by TikTok creator Chris Gleason in 2020. The post has become a hit and has been viewed more than 14 million times.\n\nBut the sound is more famous than the video.\n\nWhen uploading a video to TikTok, the creator has the option to make that video\u2019s audio a \u201csound\u201d that other users can easily use in their own videos \u2014 lip-syncing to it, adding more noise on top of it or treating it like a soundtrack. Gleason\u2019s sound has been used in at least 336,000 other videos, to humorous, dramatic and sometimes eerie effect.\n\nThe journalist Charlotte Shane delves into the world of repurposed sounds, exploring how TikTok and other apps have enabled, as she writes in her recent article for The Times, \u201ccross-user riffing and engagement, like quote-tweeting for audio.\u201d She also considers \u201cwhat makes a sound compelling beyond musical qualities or linguistic meaning.\u201d\n\nWhile \u201cbrainfeel\u201d may be an apt buzzword for the sensation audio memes elicit, Ms. Shane writes, it is more than a mere trend: We have entered the \u201cera of the audio meme.\u201d