About

Rodger Cleye (@rodgercleye) is a TikToker whose known for his singing videos in which he takes song requests and sings anything. Due to his persona and his aesthetic as a white man with dad signifiers, he's become a notable meme reference on TikTok by creators who greenscreen him into POV Memes that pretend that the viewer has walked into the creator's room wherein they're singing to themselves. Cleye gained a large following on TikTok since he started posting in early 2021. His content creation style is similar to that of Mike Kara. One of his most viral videos is of him singing Gunna's "P Power" with the lyrics, "She wanna go viral. We been fuckin' for hours. That pussy got power."

Background

Rodger Cleye lives in Lake Forest, California, and is 56 years old as of September 2022.^[1] His interest in music predominantly started when he was 27 years old when he produced on an 80s synthesizer and a guitar that was gifted to him by his mom. When writing about why he became interested in music in his Songtradr^[1] bio, he wrote, "I was a 28 year old frustrated male. I was trying to make sense of the world around me." He graduated college with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from a currently unknown university.^[1]

Online History

Rodger Cleye uploaded his first TikTok^[2] on March 25th, 2021, being a cover of the song "Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho. Over the course of a year and a half, the TikTok received over 700 plays and 90 likes (shown below, left). From March to June 2021, Cleye's videos gained little engagement with only a few exceptions gaining over 1,000 plays. On June 9th, 2021, Cleye posted a TikTok^[3] that received roughly 11,600 plays and 2,000 likes in 15 months, being a cover of the Death Grips song, "On GP" (shown below, right). The aforementioned video was Cleye's first semi-viral hit.

On February 14th, 2022, Cleye posted a TikTok^[4] of himself greenscreened in front of Playboi Carti, singing the Playboi Carti song "Vamp Anthem." The TikTok earned roughly 495,500 plays and 108,500 likes in seven months, being Cleye's first video to reach over 100,000 plays and likes (shown below, left). Thereafter, Cleye started posting more hip-hop and rap covers like ones of Chief Keef songs and Kid Cudi songs, among others. Cleye also started greenscreening himself more often. On February 17th, 2022, he posted a TikTok^[5] for his cover of Tay-K's song "I Love My Choppa" in which he greenscreened himself in front of a black background so that others could insert him elsewhere. Over the course of seven months, the video received roughly 5 million plays and 860,100 likes, being his first viral hit (shown below, right).

Continuing into mid-2022, the majority of Cleye's TikTok videos featured him in front of a black background. He started to receive over 10,000 plays for every video, responding to user comments in each that included song recommendations.

Related Memes

Rodger Cleye Greenscreen TikToks / POV: You Walk Into My Room

Going into mid-2022, Cleye's follower base became predominantly female due to his expressive singing and willingness to sing any song, including ones from emotional female pop singers. For instance, on May 25th, 2022, Rodger Cleye posted a TikTok^[6] in which he sang Taylor Swift's song, "this is me trying," earning roughly 226,100 plays and 51,900 likes in four months (shown below, left). On June 22nd, 2022, TikToker^[7] veganberniesanders greenscreened Cleye singing Swift's song into a bedroom setting and wrote in text overlay, "pov: you come into my room at 3am," in order to humorously portray a moment of uniquely feminine sadness. Over the course of three months, the TikTok received roughly 1.2 million plays and 303,700 likes (shown below, right). The aforementioned video is currently the first-known Rodger Cleye greenscreen meme.

Continuing into late 2022, more TikTokers used Cleye's videos for greenscreen edits with each edit including more elaborate settings with many PNG image macros layered on top. For instance, on August 21st, 2022, TikToker^[8] greenstars29 posted a Cleye greenscreen video, receiving roughly 3.9 million plays and 931,400 likes in one month (shown below, left). On September 18th, 2022, TikToker^[9] abbiehowe posted a different iteration, gaining roughly 7.4 million plays and 1.3 million likes in five days (shown below, right).

Rodger Cleye Singing Gunna's "P Power"

On April 14th, 2022, Rodger Cleye posted a TikTok^[10] in which he covered Gunna's song "P Power" in reference to the Pushin' P trend. Over the course of five months, the video received roughly 6.1 million plays and 1.1 million likes (shown below, left). The TikTok received multiple greenscreen edits later on. For instance, on September 22nd, 2022, TikToker^[11] multifxndxmz used the "P Power" cover, gaining roughly 1.2 million plays and 242,200 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Following

By late September 2022, Rodger Cleye amassed roughly 1.6 million followers on TikTok.^[12]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References