Three-panel TikTok collage showing playground chains, a cat at a window with the 'Proof that not everything can be an album cover' caption, and a woman in a

Proof That Not Everything Can Be An Album Cover

2021catchphraseclassic

Published November 15, 2026

A TikTok trend where users snap deliberately bad photos set to The Drums' song 'Money,' trying to produce images too ugly to work as album art. Started by @iamthemuffinm4n in July 2021, it hit peak virality in early 2023 when creators like @benjikrol racked up tens of millions of views posting their failed attempts.

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Overview

Proof That Not Everything Can Be An Album Cover is a TikTok trend built on the inverse of a bigger joke. Earlier videos using @HiAini's 'Album Cover' CapCut template argued that any photo, properly filtered and cropped, could pass for indie LP art. This trend flips the premise: creators try their hardest to shoot something so awkward, blurry or mundane that the filter cannot save it12.

A typical post runs through a handful of deliberately ugly photos, ceiling fans, half-eaten food, a cat's rear end, the inside of a fridge, each stamped through the CapCut filter with The Drums' 2009 song 'Money' playing underneath1. The gag almost always backfires. Comment sections fill with viewers insisting the 'bad' shots actually look great, which has turned the catchphrase into a running joke about how forgiving the filter really is1.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok
Creator
@iamthemuffinm4n
Date
2021

The earliest known viral post came from TikToker @iamthemuffinm4n on July 5, 2021, who used the 'Album Cover' CapCut filter made by @HiAini and captioned the video 'Proof not everything can be an album cover'1. She photographed a grab bag of random objects set to The Drums' 'Money,' and the clip pulled in over 10 million views in the two years that followed1.

Know Your Meme documents her post as the first viral entry in the format1. Later creators kept the exact caption, song and filter combination intact, which is why the trend stayed recognizable across years rather than splintering into separate variants.

How It Spread

After @iamthemuffinm4n's video, the format saw steady resurgences. On September 28, 2021, @charlotte__martel posted a version that reached over 8.1 million views in two years1. On August 19, 2022, @69philly69 posted another entry that hit 11 million views in roughly six months2.

Early 2023 is when the trend broke wide. The Voros Twins posted their take on January 30, 2023, pulling 3.2 million views in a week3. The following day, @raymondthecatman ran the format using their cat as the subject and picked up 3.9 million views in seven days4. On February 2, 2023, @benjikrol posted the standout entry of the wave, which reached over 38 million views in six days5.

The comment response became part of the joke itself. On most viral posts, the top replies argue the 'failed' photos would in fact make great covers, a reaction KYM notes appears repeatedly across entries in the trend1.

Timeline

2021-07-05

@iamthemuffinm4n posts the earliest known viral entry using @HiAini's CapCut filter and 'Money' by The Drums.

2021-09-28

@charlotte__martel's version reaches over 8.1 million views.

2022-08-19

@69philly69 posts an entry that gains over 11 million views in six months.

2023-01-30

The Voros Twins post a version that hits 3.2 million views in a week.

2023-01-31

@raymondthecatman runs the trend with their cat, reaching 3.9 million views in a week.

2023-02-02

@benjikrol posts the biggest entry of the 2023 wave, hitting over 38 million views in six days.

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