Published 12 March 2024

8 min read

Our monthly Pop Culture Pulse brings you the most important developments across entertainment and online culture. This month, we’re listening closely to an eight-hour story time that’s sweeping TikTok, join fans in recreating fantastic dishes from Netflix’s latest anime hit and explain how new app Downpour encourages people to be playful with their photos.

Social Media & Internet Culture: Who TF Did I Marry?!? & The Lure of Confessional TikTok

Gaming: Pacific Drive Builds Cosy Rest Stops into Horror Survival

Music & Sound: Universal Music Group & TikTok’s Rift Mutes Memes

Entertainment: Delicious in Dungeon Activates Global Fans

One to Watch: Downpour Provides a Digital Crafts Table

Everyone on TikTok is bingeing Who TF Did I Marry?!?, a woman’s personal story time about a messy year-long relationship with a man she describes as a pathological liar. Delivered in 50 10-minute segments, with a total run-time of more than eight hours, it’s the short-form platform’s latest long-form success, highlighting the immense pull of personal confessionals.

Everyone on TikTok is bingeing Who TF Did I Marry?!?, a woman’s personal story time about a messy year-long relationship with a man she describes as a pathological liar. Delivered in 50 10-minute segments, with a total run-time of more than eight hours, it’s the short-form platform’s latest long-form success, highlighting the immense pull of personal confessionals.

Summary

Social Media & Internet Culture: Who TF Did I Marry?!? & The Lure of Confessional TikTok

Everyone on TikTok is bingeing Who TF Did I Marry?!?, a woman’s personal story time about a messy year-long relationship with a man she describes as a pathological liar. Delivered in 50 10-minute segments, with a total run-time of more than eight hours, it’s the short-form platform’s latest long-form success, highlighting the immense pull of personal confessionals.

Gaming: Pacific Drive Builds Cosy Rest Stops into Horror Survival

Released on February 22, Pacific Drive, from Seattle-based developer Ironwood, is a survival game where players drive through a nuclear exclusion zone crawling with unpredictable supernatural phenomena. The high-stakes adventure is tempered by calming stretches of car maintenance, offering players a crucial balance of adrenaline and cosy downtime.

Music & Sound: Universal Music Group & TikTok’s Rift Mutes Memes

Following fruitless negotiations, Universal Music Group (UMG), the biggest record label in the world, has pulled its catalogue of music – including artists like Taylor Swift and BTS – off TikTok. Now, popular memes built around UMG-owned songs have been muted, and creators are filling the silence with karaoke and non-musical soundbites.

Entertainment: Delicious in Dungeon Activates Global Fans

Netflix’s anime Delicious in Dungeon follows an adventuring group of fantasy heroes with a narrative focus on the prosaic challenge of feeding themselves. Weekly episodes are simultaneously released in Japan and as dubbed international versions, while the show’s synched-up global fans eagerly try their hand at the anime’s fantastic dishes, indicating a new branch of actively engaged fandom.

One to Watch: Downpour Provides a Digital Crafts Table

Launched on March 6, social app Downpour lets users build interactive experiences out of the contents of their camera roll. Created by independent game developer V Buckenham with the goal of making the fundamentals of game design accessible to everyone, Downpour unlocks a novel way of turning photos into interlinked mini-experiences.

Pop Culture Pulse: March 2024

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