Insert a date or month into a piece of pop culture, and it’s almost guaranteed to live on the internet forever. For the past few years, a Taylor Swift song struck a claim on the entire month of August, which fans celebrated with aplomb and memes aplenty.
“August” is one of the songs from Swift’s eighth album Folklore, and while it wasn’t one of the album’s singles, it’s still very much beloved by fans: It speaks to a specific mindset as summer starts to draw to a close.
Since Folklore was released in July 2020, interest in the song has increased every August, according to Google Trends. But this year, Swift joined in on the fun.
But even before Swift marked the start of August, people were anticipating when they could fully embody the spirit of “August” and spend the next 31 days playing the song on repeat.
Fans are also quoting lyrics at one another, which included the opening lyrics of “salt air”
They’re celebrating the start of “August” on TikTok, too. One video showed a fan grabbing salt from the pantry and tossing it into the air to create that fresh salt air smell.
@shaynasversion make sure u salt the air tonight – its a swifties yearly tradition #taylorswift #august #saltair #saltairandtherustonyourdoor #augusttaylorswift #erastour #swifties #swifttoker #saltairtaylorswift ♬ august sped up – r & m <33
Another anticipated putting it on repeat at midnight on August 1.
@nayhafeeza me on august 1st 00.01 🙂🙏🏻 #august #augusttaylorswift #fypシ ♬ august – Taylor Swift
The song reportedly had its biggest-ever day on Spotify with over 5 million streams. And with August just beginning, “August” could very well get even bigger. And we never needed anything more.
