What phrase from Taylor Swift’s “august” inspired TikTok’s recurring late-summer trend?

The phrase “August slipped away” from Taylor Swift’s “august” inspired TikTok’s recurring late-summer trend.

TikTok creators use the song as background music for montages of summer memories, travel, friendships, sunsets, and everyday moments. The trend works because the lyric turns the end of August into a metaphor for time passing quickly.

The song itself was released in July 2020 on Folklore, but its popularity resurges around August each year. This seasonal pattern is unusual for a song that was not initially issued as a conventional single. Streaming and short-form video activity give it a new audience every summer.

The full lyric continues with the idea of August disappearing into a moment in time. The trend is sometimes described as an “August” or “August slipped away” trend, but its central association is the quoted phrase and the nostalgic videos built around it.