Yes, the piano solos are shorter now. Yes, the dance moves are faster. But look closer. In between the meme references and the lip-syncs, students are still just trying to do what we always did: make their friends laugh, impress their crush, and feel seen.
Remember the school talent show? It used to be a parade of classical piano solos, a magic trick with a slightly bent spoon, and a painfully off-key rendition of "Wonderwall."
The line between and popular media hasn’t just blurred—it has vanished entirely.
When a school play incorporates popular music or a debate club uses the structure of a viral podcast, engagement skyrockets. Students see school not as a museum of old ideas, but as a laboratory for current ones. Using popular media teaches media literacy —students learn to deconstruct why a song is catchy or why a certain camera angle makes a moment emotional.
Fast forward to today. That same talent show now features a student doing the exact dance from a Bridgerton ballroom scene, a lip-sync battle set to a sped-up TikTok remix, and a comedy skit referencing a meme that went viral three hours ago.
They just want it to go viral while they’re at it.