Spread
The song received critical praise from critics, including positive reviews by Rolling Stone and Vulture. On January 11th, Variety reported that “Drivers License” was the most-streamed song in the U.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
The song saw massive success on TikTok, where users posted reactions to it, skits, and lip-sync videos among other things. For example, on January 11th @victoriagarrick4 uploaded a skit to TikTok where she describes the song to her boyfriend, garnering over 3.7 million views in 3 days (shown below, left). On the same day, @karinapasternakk uploaded a video where she texts the song’s lyrics to her ex, garnering over 10 million views in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).
Falling Trend
On January 8th, 2021, @spoiledmel uploaded a video to TikTok lip-syncing to “Drivers License” to TikTok (shown below). Part way through the video she looks straight at the camera and falls backward. The camera cuts to a bird’s-eye-view show of her lying on her bed, where she continues to sing. The video gained over 5.4 million views in 6 days, and started an imitation trend on the platform.
Drivers License From Alternative Perspectives
On January 9th, 2021, @andimitchellll uploaded a video to TikTok singing a new version of the song written from the perspective of Sabrina Carpenter, who some believe the song is about as she is dating Rodrigo’s ex (shown below). The video gained over 8.2 million views in 5 days. It is unconfirmed whether this video started the trend or not.
Various Examples
Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/drivers-license