TikTok Sounds and the Formation of Youth Media Rituals in Transnational Contexts

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of sound on TikTok as a central medium through which transnational youth engage in ritualized digital practices. Focusing on German youth culture as a case study, the research conceptualizes short-form audio clips on TikTok as “ritual infrastructures” that facilitate repetition, emotional synchronization, and identity negotiation. Drawing on media ritual theory (Couldry), mediatization (Hjarvard), and global cultural flow theory (Appadurai), the study examines how TikTok sounds function as modular cultural units that travel across linguistic and geographic boundaries. These sounds acquire quasi-linguistic and affective meanings, enabling youth to participate in globally shared media rituals while embedding local identities. The paper argues that music discovery on TikTok has transformed into a performative and emotionally structured ritual rather than a search-based activity, and that algorithmically circulated sounds foster a new form of cultural synchrony. Through theoretical synthesis and platform-based analysis, the paper advances a new understanding of sound as both a medium of participation and a symbolic anchor in the digital lives of a globally connected generation.