Get the latest gossip

Viral ‘Hostile Government Takeover’ TikTok Gets Turned Into Best-Selling Dance Banger

This week's Trending Up looks at AGiftFromTodd's "Hostile Government Takeover" topping the iTunes chart, as well as a new Yeah Yeah Yeahs synch.

This week: A viral TikTok is remixed into a best-selling protest song, an indie rock institution is introduced to younger fans (again) through a big movie synch and Philadelphia gets to celebrate yet another February win via a breakout rap hit. A few weeks after Donald Trump returned to the White House and started dismantling norms left and right, the TikTok user AGiftFromTodd recorded a 30-second video of himself getting ready to leave his house while crooning an original song that began with the line, “We’re in the middle of a hostile government takeover/ I wanna talk about it, but I’ll be late for work.” Todd’s soulful alarmism went viral, with thousands of likes and shares on TikTok upon its Feb. 4 upload, and while he posted a few new versions of the song in the following weeks, the one that’s crossed off to streaming services in a major way is an EDM remix that pairs hopelessness with a club thump, courtesy of producer Vinny Marchi. “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” which was the lead single of 2022’s Cool It Down and featured an assist from acclaimed alt-pop singer-songwriter Perfume Genius, has gotten a big look in Apple TV’s original movie The Gorge, released on Valentine’s Day.

Get the Android app