Welcome to This Week in TikTok Music, where we dig into trends, viral songs, and whatever else the algorithm has decided is sticky enough to camp out on your feed. With more people discovering music through TikTok than ever before, and viral clips capable of pulling an obscure ’90s song straight back onto the Billboard Hot 100, it feels worth pausing to ask the simple question: what the hell is going on over there?

So let’s dive in, get weird, and see what we find together.

chase usa

Somewhere between Tyler, The Creator, Ski Mask the Slump God, and American Football lives the sound of chase usa. It’s almost like a SoundCloud rap revival that kept evolving, leaned into melodic singing, and started flirting with the twinkly guitars of Midwest emo. On paper, those influences shouldn’t click, but in practice they kind of just… do. Nothing feels forced or outwardly strange.

What’s really flooding the TikTok feed, though, isn’t just the music. It’s chase’s fully realized visual world. Think military propaganda aesthetics filtered through surreal pop art. Full retro army fits, oversized Andy Warhol-style soup cans (which he sells as merch), a Hello Kitty electric guitar, and a TV and soundboard setup that would make any emo-head feel right at home. His bio reads, “An army kept secret from the music industry & government.” Welp. Sorry, chase. Guess I’m a music industry op for low-key spilling the tea.

One of his biggest clips, sitting at 2.3 million views, asks the important question: “did he jus buss down how to steal a car over a Pharrell beat?” The video features “HOTWHEELS”, a standout track from his October 2025 EP CHILD REBEL SOLDIER. It’s a perfect snapshot of chase’s range, lo-fi aesthetics, and genre-hopping instincts. The video shows him hunched over, scream-rapping into a mic in an exaggerated spiked military helmet, static buzzing on the TV behind him, all soaked in a VHS-style color filter. Even kicks off the vid with a mic swing...which could be a Taking Back Sunday influence.

@chasexusa this not even a song I jus snitched on myself in 4k #punk #punkguys #chaseusa #emo #theneptunes ♬ original sound - chasexusa

My personal favorites, mostly because of my lifelong weakness for emo and Cartoon Network samples, are “COWBOY BEBOP EPISODE 26 MINUTE 19:06” and “JAKE THE DOG OVERDOSES,” the latter opening with an Adventure Time clip that immediately sets the tone.

@chasexusa bang bang bang bang bang #midwestemocore #midwestemo #emopunk #emoheart #punkboy ♬ COWBOY BEBOP EPISODE 26 MINUTE 19:06 - chase usa

@chasexusa this song is called jake the dog overdoses & it’s abt trying to get my best friend sober n shi #midwestemo #emo #adventuretime #emooutfit #fionaandcake ♬ jake the dog overdoses by chase usa - chasexusa

When he’s not singing, rapping, or shredding guitar in front of his signature backdrop, chase is out here making faux military propaganda commercials starring that massive soup can. The message is pretty direct: the music industry exploits artists, even as it markets them.

One caption reads, “THIS COMMERCIAL IS ABOUT VALUE. IT’S SOMETHING I STRUGGLE WITH OFTEN. ART IS SUPPOSED TO BE A SAFE SPACE, BUT CAPITALISM TURNED IT INTO A MARKET.” Not subtle, but definitely effective.

@chasexusa THIS COMMERCIAL IS ABOUT VALUE. IT'S SOMETHING I STRUGGLE WITH OFTEN. ART IS SUPPOSED TO BE A SAFE SPACE, BUT CAPITALISM TURNED IT INTO A MARKET. I FEEL IT WHEN I CHECK MY NUMBERS. I SEE HOW PEOPLE TREAT ME DIFFERENTLY BASED ON VIEWS, STREAMS & FOLLOWERS. IT SHOULDN'T MATTER BUT IT DOES. "DO I HAVE WORTH IF I AM UNABLE TO BE EXPLOITED AS A BRAND?" NO! WHAT WE EAT POISONS US, QUIETLY AND QUICKLY. OVERCONSUMED SOUP IS ABOUT HOW WE SWALLOW THE POISON. THE CHILD REBEL SOLDIER EP IS ME SELLING WHAT'S LEFT OF MYSELF JUST TO STAY ALIVE. #punkstyle #punk #politicalart #sculptureart #chaseusa ♬ original sound - chasexusa

He drives the point home even harder in his end-of-year Spotify Wrapped video, which he claims Spotify took down. For context, chase usa currently sits at over 120k monthly listeners on the platform. That’s no small number, especially compared to a lot of rising emo-adjacent bands hovering closer to half that.

@chasexusa this is my Spotify wrapped video. spotify took the video down even though i followed every rule. they did not like the message. im not trying to be polarizing. im trying to protect art from becoming another product for a machine. i stand with artists and i stand with peace. I hope we don’t have to break a few eggs to make an omelette #phsyicalmedia #spotifywrapped #undergroundartist #undergroundmusic #chaseusa ♬ New Computers - Slowed + Extended - Girlfriends

Hope you enjoyed this inaugural installment of This Week in TikTok Music. Go check out some chase usa clips for yourself. Just a fair warning: once you do, they will live in your feed forever. The algorithm is relentless. Enjoy!