Let the rain fall down, people on TikTok are coming clean: they lack rhythm, at least when it comes to Hilary Duff‘s “Come Clean.”
The 2003 single, which was released on Duff’s album Metamorphosis, has been making the rounds on TikTok in a new trend where users try to clap along and “find” the beat to the song. But some TikTok users are hilariously failing. Several videos show mostly men attempting to clap or tap along to Duff’s pop hit, only to lose the rhythm amongst the electro pop synths and drums — and flail helplessly as they do.
One video, which has 375,000 likes (one of whom is Billie Eilish), shows a man clapping completely off-beat to the song, and finally finding his flow only to lose it by the next verse. In a comment, one user wrote, “It’s really difficult to clap OFF beat but he’s succeeding!”
In another video, someone shared, “I asked my husband to clap to the beat of the song…” and showed a clip of a man trying to concentrate on the song’s chorus, clapping and tapping his foot only to give up at the end.
The trending challenge even spread to daytime television with a local Tampa Bay news outlet attempting it. Anchors Farron Hipp and Maggie Rodriguez immediately found the seemingly elusive beat, and started dancing along to “Come Clean.”
The women news anchors weren’t the only people who managed to find the beat to the song. Since the trend started surfacing over the weekend, other more musically-inclined users have taken on the challenge themselves to flex their music theory skills. In one video, another husband, who happens to be a drummer according to the video’s text, finds the beat quickly and even has help from his son, who claps along in rhythm.
Duff has yet to take on the challenge herself or respond in anyway. In 2021, the singer-actress went viral on TikTok when her 2007 The Tonight Show performance of “With Love” resurfaced for and highlighted Duff’s lackadaisical dance moves. In response, Duff stitched one video in which someone used the performance choreography and showed just how much energy she could put in, even years later.
