Monday started out typically on Pop Crave, the influential social media account that’s been cheekily compared to the Associated Press for the celebrity obsessed. “Happy 25th birthday to the talented GloRilla,” Pop Crave posted. “Saweetie looks astonishing in new photo”; “‘One Last Time’ by Ariana Grande has reached 1.5 BILLION streams on Spotify.”
In the afternoon, though, the account veered into different territory. “Cardi B defends Kamala Harris from misogynistic comments online.” And four hours later: “Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has raised over $200 MILLION in a week.” Pop Crave’s many competitors and imitators followed a similar trajectory: “The election is officially 100 days away,” noted Pop Base, showing a picture of a smiling Harris next to a glowering Donald Trump. “Kamala Harris shared a heartwarming moment with a child who opened up about their ambitious dream,” Buzzing Pop shared the previous day.
The memes that accompanied the surprise launch of Harris’s presidential campaign went so viral, so fast that they’re now all but played out, less than two weeks later. The Charli XCX endorsement, and the interest it helped generate among a generation that had tuned out Joe Biden, have been the subject of 10,000 hot takes. The coconut tree and the Venn diagrams are now as familiar in political discourse as Trump’s overlong tie or weave.
The shift in the celebrity-media ecosystem toward Harris hasn’t caught pundits’ eyes in the same way. But if it holds, it could be an edge for Harris in her underdog campaign. The Pop accounts—and other viral, celebrity-focused outlets, like the Shade Room, Hollywood Unlocked, and Bossip—not only have millions of followers, they reach an audience that isn’t exactly waiting through pharma commercials for Lawrence O’Donnell’s next segment or checking their inboxes for a newsletter from Semafor. “They’re a great strategic advantage,” Mike Nellis, a former senior adviser to Harris and the founder of the digital-advertising agency Authentic, tells me. “This is how you break through.”
You’re not, to use a word of the moment, weird, if you’ve never heard of these accounts. But you may not be a borderline-unhinged fanatic about pop music or summer blockbusters either. For those of us who are, these outlets deliver a second-by-second ticker of the latest celebrity developments, and celebration of the biggest stars of the moment. You don’t have to be a Swiftie or a Livie or a Hottie or a Barb, or a member of any stan army at all, to love these outlets, but it kinda helps. The accounts also serve as the collective engine for the broader entertainment news space, driving the agenda the way Matt Drudge or Politico did for campaign news in cycles past. Back when I worked at Rolling Stone, we knew a cover story or an investigation was about to blow up when the Pops latched on. And for now, they’ve latched on to Harris. When Pop Base shared her first campaign ad on Twitter, that post brought in more than 5 million views. When Pop Crave resurfaced a video of Harris authorizing gay marriage in California, 6.9 million people watched. (Direct messages to Pop Crave and Pop Base went unreturned.)
The surreal last couple of weeks has generated a surge of interest in media of all types—cable ratings are up, big news brands have seen their highest traffic levels in a year or more, and TikTok has gone into full campaign mode. Big-name celebrities have added to the interest by jumping into the fray: Jennifer Aniston and JD Vance are feuding, Olivia Rodrigo endorsed Harris, and some of hip-hop’s trollier rappers are doubling down on Trump. That’s driving additional coverage from the celebrity news accounts.
To Nellis, it makes sense. The accounts whole mission is to highlight what’s hot. “There’s a lot for them to gain by tying themselves to the biggest internet sensation of the year,” he says. These accounts appeal to a younger, more diverse audience. So does Harris, at least compared to the octogenarian she replaced in the race for the Oval Office, and the septuagenarian she’s running against. But it’s a trend that’s likely to continue, at least for a while. Rap stars Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo appeared with Harris at an Atlanta rally on Tuesday. Pop Base posted about it five times. Pop Crave went even harder, with seven posts. Given that kind of attention—and the election’s stakes—those stars won’t be the last.