Into the Horrid Depths of Instagram Reels Music – Pitchfork

Instagram Reels used to be the place where TikTok trends went to die. It was the retirement home where yuppies would calm their souls with cashmere-soft capybaras and virtuous meal hacks, or get a mild buzz from aspirational travel montages and clips lifted from TV shows like Breaking Bad. But slowly this leftovers lounge became a shortform sideshow, convulsing with lunacy. Now cats are being used as props for deforestation propaganda and next-gen glitch art morphs the world into a Fibonacci fever dream. It’s the breeding ground for “Italian brainrot,” an expansive cinematic universe of AI-generated characters with robotic Italian accents like Tralalero Tralala, a three-legged shark wearing Nike shoes; Bombardino Crocodilo, a crocodile with the body of an attack helicopter; and an anthropomorphic plank named Tung Tung Tung Sahur. For much of its lifespan since Meta unveiled Reels in 2020, there was no distinct sonic ecosystem within the platform; TikTok has always been the short-form hub for music. But now there’s an increasingly large field of songs you could conceivably call “Reels music.” While I always feel bad reducing artists to their presence on tech platforms, these users actively cater to a formula they see working for others and
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