The Raindance AI Trend, Explained

What the videos look like

Almost every Raindance AI video copies the same few shots. Once you know them, you can spot the trend in a second:

• The pier. A long, weathered wooden pier with old black tyres hung along its side, stretching into a flat, calm sea with a low shoreline on the horizon.
• The light. Late afternoon sun, low and warm, coming from the side. Skin glows, the sky stays pale blue.
• The frame. 4:3 instead of widescreen, so on TikTok it sits between two bars. It reads as “music video” straight away.
• The action. Someone sits at the edge of the pier looking out to sea, then turns and sings to the camera or to the person next to them. Duets trade lines.

Why the videos are 4:3

The original pier clips that the trend copies are framed in 4:3, the squarer shape of old film and early television, and that frame is now part of the joke. When a 4:3 clip plays inside the tall TikTok screen it sits between two bars, so viewers read it as “a music video” before they even hear the song. Creators who crop the clip to full screen lose that cue, and their posts look like any other AI video. A 4:3 frame also leaves room for two people side by side, which a vertical frame does not.

Why most of them are duets

“Raindance” is a duet: Dave and Tems trade parts, and the two voices answer each other. The trend copies that structure. One person takes the first line, the other answers, and the pier is long enough for both of them to sit at the edge. That is why couples, best friends, sisters and even rival football players work so well: the video is a small conversation between two people. Solo versions exist, usually a close-up of one person singing to the camera, but the duet is what most people want to recreate with someone they know.

Where it comes from

“Raindance” is a duet between British rapper Dave and Nigerian singer Tems from Dave’s album “The Boy Who Played the Harp”. The song already had a big life on TikTok before the AI wave: fan edits, choreography and live clips with millions of views. The AI version started in late September 2026, when creators began using AI video tools to put other people on the pier from the music video. Searches for “raindance ai” went from almost nothing to a steady climb within a week (see Google Trends).

The versions people post

When we looked at the most-viewed Raindance AI posts on TikTok on October 3, 2026, they fell into a few groups:

• Couples and best friends. Two people on the pier, one verse each. This is the version most people want to make for themselves.
• Cartoon and movie characters. A Shrek version passed 670,000 views within days, followed by Gru, Harry Potter villains and others.
• Pets. A cat sitting on the pier, staring at the sea, reached over 700,000 views.
• Tutorials. “How to make the Raindance AI trend” videos in English, Portuguese and French, the biggest with over 500,000 views.

How to make your own

There are three ways people make these videos:

The template swap keeps the scene, camera move and timing of a clip that already looks right, and only replaces the people. A Solo clip costs 15 credits and a Duo clip 30 credits. The full walkthrough, including adding the song in CapCut, is in how to make a Raindance AI video. If you would rather prompt it yourself, our Raindance AI prompts are free to copy.

Posting tips

• Add the official “Raindance” sound from the TikTok library instead of uploading audio, so your post joins the sound’s page.
• Start the sound at the line you want the singing to land on; an 8-second clip fits one line of the chorus.
• Keep the 4:3 frame. Cropping it to full screen loses the music video look.
• Common tags: #raindance #raindanceai #daveandtems #aivideo.

Keep it fair

Only use photos of people who said yes. Raindance AI does not accept photos of celebrities or minors, our templates use AI-generated people rather than the artists, and finished videos come without the song so the original audio is added through TikTok or CapCut’s licensed library.