About

Clout is an English-language word informally used to describe someone's ability to influence their community.

Origin

According to Dictionary.com,^[1] "clout" is a derivative of the Middle English word "clūt," meaning a worthless piece of cloth, which originated before 900 A.D. During the 1960s, Chicago-based journalist Mike Royko began using the word to describe influential politicians, business and community leaders.

Spread

On June 7th, 1973, Royko published an article entitled "What 'Clout' Is And Isn't" in the Chicago Tribune.^[2] The article breaks down the widely misused forms of the word, claiming it for the city of Chicago and its local politics.

More than 30 years later, on June 12th, 2009, Urban Dictionary ^[3] user Jaded1 defined the word as, "Influence or power in political and community circles. Originally popularized by Chicago journalist Mike Royko to describe local movers and shakers when Richard J. Daley was mayor in the Sixties and early Seventies. Usage spread nationally." The post (shown below) received more than 286 points as of August 2017.

In 2008, Klout,^[4] the social media aggregator, which calculates a user's influencing power on between their various social media accounts, launched. The site grades the user's ability to use social media, delivering them a quantified score based on likes, shares, reactions, etc.

On June 1st, 2017, YouTuber Live Vlone posted a video of rapper Denzel Curry wearing thick, white, oval-rimmed sunglasses, which he refers to as "Clout Goggles." The video (shown below) received more than 84,000 views in three months.

The style of glasses were popularized by late-Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain were designed by Christian Roth, who re-released the style in May 2017 due to their popularity among rappers. Less than a month later, Urban Dictionary^[7] user Mica(yu)h posted a definition of the glasses. They define it as "A pair of white sunglasses that mumble rappers wear." On July 25th, GQ^[8] published an article about the popularity of the sunglasses entitled "The White Sunglasses You’re Seeing Everywhere Have a New Name."

On June 21st, YouTuber ^[5] sethical posted a video entitled "No Clout." The video (shown below) received more than 1.5 million views in two months.

Clout Gang

In August 2017, YouTuber FaZe Banks began referring to his collective of friends and other content creators as "#CloutGang." The group, according to FaZe, is a reaction to YouTuber Jake Paul's Team 10.^[6] On August 20th, the YouTube account DramaAlert posted the video ''RiceGum, FaZe Banks & Alissa Violet INTERVIEW! #DramaAlert Jake Paul FINISHED? (Security Footage),'' which sees Banks explaining CloutGang. The video (shown below) received more than 2.1 million views within four days.

On May 5th, 2018, Redditor XenMorph ^[9] asked the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit "What is up with all these 'clout' and 'clout gangs' I keep seeing?" The post received more than 1,900 points (90% upvoted) and 390 comments in three days.

Redditor^[10] sanderson22 responded with a lengthy description of the group and their history. They also shared an image of the "Clout House" where the group resides (shown below). They name the group as consisting of YouTubers FaZe Banks, Alissa Violet Ricegum, Wolfie and Instagrammer Sommer Ray. The post received more than 2,500 points in two days.

Search Interest

External References