The Limits of Small Stories on TikTok. Audiovisual Dissonance in Rescripted Self-Narratives

Abstract

An analysis of the Top 10 song-centric TikTok trends (2023–2025) shows that users are rescripting audio content from viral small stories with new visuals that can distort the rhetoric of the original message’s intended meaning. Drawing upon rhetorical narratology, this paper argues that TikTok videos demonstrate the devaluation of authorial ethos as creators/users privilege pathos via the modality of song, often at the expense of narrative logos. This paper addresses two key questions: what limits and dangers arise when song-focused small stories on TikTok become viral macro-narratives that cross media platforms; and how are rescripted TikTok self-narratives creating audiovisual dissonance? The “Anxiety Dance Trend” serves as a case study to ground this theoretical analysis to demonstrate the limits and potential dangers of viral small stories on TikTok. A wider analysis of viral TikTok song-centric videos shows how audiovisual dissonance occurs within rescripted videos and the increased limited meanings of these small stories once they are reported as viral trends across other media (i.e., macro-narratives). By identifying and analysing this phenomenon, the study reveals the three key communicative limits (i.e., what, how, and where) associated with TikTok’s viral song-focused self-narrative trends.