About

The Lion King's "Circle Of Life" But It's About Social Media is a parody song called "Virtual Life" that uses The Lion King's most notable song "Circle of Life" but replaces the lyrics to reference posting or being addicted to social media. The original was made by musicians Dustin and Genevieve in 2016. Music videos and memes using the original were posted to Facebook and TikTok, among other platforms, where many used it ironically due to its cringey nature.

Origin

In February 2016, musicians Dustin and Genevieve posted a song to SoundCloud ^[1] titled, "Lion King – Circle of Life Parody (Virtual Life)," that over the course of six years received roughly 26,500 listens (shown below).

Spread

On February 29th, 2016, the song was used in a YouTube video created and uploaded by the faculty and staff of Rochester University. Over the course of six years, the video received roughly 3,300 views (shown below).

On December 12th, 2018, TikToker^[2] jimboskin posted a video that used the song, as well as a stop motion chalkboard animation that coincided with the lyrics. Over the course of four years, the video received roughly 1.8 million plays and 158,400 likes (shown below, left). On December 23rd, 2018, TikToker^[3] cashbaker used the audio in a video that earned roughly 6.4 million plays and 888,000 likes in four years (shown below, right).

On February 12th, 2019, the Facebook^[4] page and content creation team Music Life posted a video that they titled, "The Lion King Circle Of Life but all the lyrics are about social media…😂🔥," which over the course of three years, received roughly 26 million views and 228,000 reactions. The Facebook video cannot be embedded, however, it can be viewed via a YouTube link reuploaded on February 20th, 2019, by one of the Music Life creators Viva Zworski. In three years, the YouTube video received roughly 30,300 views (shown below).

2022 Resurgence

In 2022, the sound saw a resurgence on TikTok again as more and more creators used it in their videos. A lot of the videos were ironic, regarding Gen Z's supposed reliance on social media. Additionally, the videos still used the audio from jimboskin's 2018 TikTok.^[2]

On June 6th, 2022, TikToker^[5] chris.manzano225 posted a video using the sound that appeared to be earnest, earning roughly 1.3 million plays and 171,400 likes in 11 days (shown below, left). On June 7th, 2022, TikToker^[6] rompadong posted a video that followed this "zoomer" irony, most likely being at the expense of chris.manzano225. Rompadong's video received roughly 445,500 plays and 102,800 likes in 10 days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References