"Claude Pop": music videos made by Claude Opus 5.5 for the AI-doom song "I'm Upping My P(doom)" become a genre
On the day Claude Opus 5.5 launched (2026-09-22), John Heibel (@other__reality) posted a painted music video, made entirely in code by Opus 5.5 in Claude Code, for "Claude-Pop - I'm Upping My P(Doom)". That is a Suno remake (by deckard, 2026-09-09) of a 2024 Udio song full of AI-safety in-jokes. The post got about 2.7M views on X, and within a week dozens of Opus 5.5-made versions, sequels, answer songs and covers followed. The biggest was @donaldjewkes' "one prompt, 12 hours" video with about 3.6M views. The result is a community genre (not an Anthropic project) with its own recurring characters and lore.
Key facts
- Community-made, not Anthropic-official. No Anthropic account or staff involvement was found (as of 2026-09-29)
- Song lineage: MusicPerson (Udio, Apr 2024) → osmarks' 'P(doom)' (Udio, 2024-11-09; lyrics partly suggested by a Claude model) → deckard's 'Claude-Pop' Suno version on X (2026-09-09, ~723k views)
- Opus 5.5 does not generate video: it writes code (p5.js/p5.brush, three.js, canvas, Remotion, Blender Python) that is rendered frame by frame in headless Chrome and encoded with ffmpeg
- JohnHeibel/PDoomVideo: two Claude Code generations; 'Everything in this repository was generated by the model'; human direction was only 'use the Clawd character' and 'give each lyric interesting visuals and transitions'. ~1.5k GitHub stars, 160 forks by 2026-09-29
- @donaldjewkes (2026-09-23): 5-minute dictated prompt, ~12 hours autonomous work, Seedance 2.5 + fal image models + ElevenLabs as tools; ~3.6M views, 10.3k likes on X
- Follow-ups within a week: Pleometric (~670k views), mexicat three.js karaoke version (~1.4M views; repo ~1.9k stars), 'Nothing Went Foom!' accelerationist answer (~670k views), 'Let's Lower the P(doom)!', 'P(bloom)', 'I'm Lowering My P(Doom)', 'Still Upping My P(doom) Vol. II', Korean and J-rock covers, a GPT-6 Astra-animated version
- Recurring lore: Clawd (Claude Code's pixel-crab mascot) as the singing AI, a nervous human Researcher, the P(doom) meter, the smiley-mask shoggoth, the basilisk, paperclips, 'What did Ilya see?'
What happened
- 2024: "P(doom)" was written collaboratively. MusicPerson made the first verse and chorus on Udio (April 2024). osmarks added verses on 2024-04-17 with input from the EleutherAI Discord, then finished the song on 2024-11-08/09 with help from a Claude model on the outro and final chorus. It was released on YouTube on 2024-11-09. The lyrics pack about two years of AI-safety Twitter and LessWrong in-jokes into one pop song.
- 2026-09-09: deckard (@slimer48484) posted "Claude-Pop - I'm Upping My P(Doom)", a new Suno rendition. osmarks' page calls it the "'Claude-Pop' version from alternate Suno song variant". It spread on AI Twitter (about 723k views; people said it was "stuck in my head").
- 2026-09-22 (Opus 5.5 launch day): John Heibel posted a hand-painted Clawd music video for that audio: "Claude Opus 5.5 has the best visual design of any model I have tested so far". It got about 2.7M views, and he open-sourced the code as PDoomVideo. Opus planned the video itself (STORYBOARD.md), briefed parallel subagents (ANIMATION_GUIDE.md) and wrote every scene in p5.js.
- 2026-09-23: @donaldjewkes posted a K-pop-styled remake: "I spoke to my computer for 5mins, claude worked for 12 hours, and I woke up to this". It is the genre's biggest hit (about 3.6M views). His published prompt became a template that Pleometric, makevoid and others reused.
- 2026-09-23 to 09-29: remixes, restyles and answer songs followed, all made with Opus 5.5: mexicat's three.js karaoke version, a Nolan pastiche and a Barbie answer, a Korean watercolor MV, a J-rock voxel cover by an imaginary "Singularity Band", "Let's Lower the P(doom)!" (pro-safety), "Nothing Went Foom!" (pro-acceleration), "P(bloom)", "Still Upping My P(doom) Vol. II", and original "Claude Anime Pop" songs. Other Opus 5.5 music videos from the same week include A.J.'s JavaScript-synthesized pop-punk and rap singles, the "Absolutely Right (Crab Walk)" rap (music also by Claude), josh's "Functional Emotions" song, and Brad Mills' "Stroke of a Pen".
- Full list, production pipeline and lore: see
docs/ai-culture/claude-pop.mdanddocs/ai-culture/lore.md.
Why it matters
It is the first widely noticed genre of AI-directed media. The model is the director, animator and software engineer, while the music (Suno/Udio) and the lyrics are mostly older and human-written. The videos are code-rendered, not generated by a video model, so every one is reproducible and forkable, and PDoomVideo alone had 160 forks within a week. The genre also turned an AI-risk meme into mainstream entertainment and a battleground: safety advocates (PauseAI/ControlAI links in "Let's Lower the P(doom)!" and Patryk Perduta's version) and accelerationists ("Nothing Went Foom!") both used Claude-made videos to argue their side.
Caveats
- "Made by Claude Opus 5.5" usually means the visuals and code. The song audio is Suno (deckard) and the lyrics are from 2024 (humans + an older Claude). Exceptions where the music is also model-made include "Absolutely Right (Crab Walk)", A.J.'s singles and the Opus 5.5 fugue.
- View counts are from 2026-09-29 and come from X's public embed data (fxtwitter) and YouTube watch pages.
- X's AI-written trending summaries mention a Nick Cammarata reaction and 'super-propaganda' concerns. We could not read those posts, so these are low confidence.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: added post link(s) (posts-as-events pass)
- 2026-09-29: created
Videos (34)
Claude Pop - I'm Upping My P(Doom)
OtherReality · 2026-09-22 · ai-madeThis video is an animated musical parody and pop song titled "I'm Upping My P(Doom)", created using Claude Opus 5.5 and uploaded by the channel "OtherReality". It humorously illustrates AI safety anxieties, alignment theory concepts, and key milestones in machine learning through an animated narrative of a researcher…
I'm upping my P(doom) - Opus 5.5 (et al.)
welcome to the sunny side · 2026-09-23 · ai-madeThis video is an animated K-pop style music video titled "I'm upping my P(doom)", created using Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 and Suno v6 music generation, and uploaded by the channel welcome to the sunny side. It satirizes the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence toward AGI and existential risk through an…
I'm Upping My P(Doom)
The Omega Point · 2026-09-24 · ai-madeSummary "I'm Upping My P(Doom)" is an animated retro J-Pop music video in the aesthetic of a 1990s PC-98 anime visual novel, personifying Anthropic's Claude as a pop idol singing about AI existential risk and runaway intelligence. The song details key AI safety concepts, breakthroughs, and catastrophic takeoff…
i'm upping my p(doom)
mexicat · 2026-09-27 · ai-made"i'm upping my p(doom)" is an AI-generated animated music video created by creator "mexicat" as part of the late-2026 "Claude Pop" motion graphics trend. Set to a hyperpop/synthpop track, the video pairs kinetic typography and schematic graphics with inside jokes and concepts from AI safety, machine learning…
This Music Video was built by CLAUDE OPUS 5.5 in one prompt in javascript
Code Bear · 2026-09-23 · ai-madeThis video is an animated musical cartoon for the AI-culture song "I'm Upping My P(doom)", uploaded by the channel "Code Bear" and created via JavaScript code generated by Claude Opus 5.5 in a single prompt. It depicts a quirky scientist whose small box-shaped AI model rapidly scales in capabilities, sending the…
Claude AI Made This Music Video | UPPING MY P(DOOM)
INXANITY · 2026-09-24 · ai-madeThis video is a stylized animated music video for the AI-themed pop song "I'm Upping My P(Doom)", presented as an idol-pop music video starring a personified Claude avatar and a chorus of AI models. Created with AI assistance (credited at the end to Claude Opus 5.5 on 2026-09-22) and uploaded by channel INXANITY, the…
More videos (28)
- Absolutely Right (Crab Walk) by opus 5.5 meow · 2026-09-24
- Nothing Went Foom! Bright Mirror · 2026-09-26
- Let's Lower the P(doom)! Nate Sharpe · 2026-09-25
- If Christopher Nolan Directed "I'm Upping My P(Doom)" Pratham · 2026-09-26
- I'm Lowering My P(Doom) (Disco Version) | Barbenheimer, but AI Pratham · 2026-09-28
- P(bloom): the answer to P(doom), as ragga jungle Parzival of Algorithmic Progress · 2026-09-24
- I'm Upping My P(Doom) | Voxel J-Rock Cover 〔MV by Claude Opus 5.5〕 노는사람 · 2026-09-24
- P(doom) 풀매수 | 수채화 애니 MV (한글자막) | I'm Upping My P(doom) 크립토메이지 · 2026-09-26
- P(doom) 추매 중 VOL.2 | 실사판 MV (한글자막) | Still Upping My P(doom) 크립토메이지 · 2026-09-26
- I'm upping my p(doom) - Claude Anime Pop Sunny · 2026-09-27
- Claude Anime Pop - Where no map Goes Sunny · 2026-09-26
- I'm Upping My P(Doom) - Retro 3D Pixel Art Version Goat Labs · 2026-09-28
- I Gave Claude Opus 5.5 a Song. It Made This Music Video Overnight. Lucid Drafts · 2026-09-27
- Singularity Sing Along | Upping my p(Doom) Doom Probability · 2026-09-13
- [AI Rap] A. J. No Samples feat. Clawd kiucee · 2026-09-24
- @eudaemonea’s Claude functional emotions song Jacob Valdez · 2026-09-24
- Claude Opus 5.5 – Fugue in C minor Augmented Fifth · 2026-09-23
- I asked Fable 5 to make me a lyric video Jeff Guo · 2026-07-08
- Claude Opus 5.5 Made This Music Video With JUST CODE ChillPanic · 2026-09-24
- x@slimer48484: “Claude-Pop - I'm Upping My P(Doom)” Jacob Valdez · 2026-09-11
- P(doom) osmarks · 2024-11-09
- Upping My P(doom) (Official Music Video) Patryk Perduta · 2026-09-24
- I'm Upping My P(doom) (errata) Linch Zhang · 2026-09-26
- I Asked Claude OPUS 5.5 to Make a Cartoon From Scratch… and It Did! Code Bear · 2026-09-23
- pdoom — Claude Opus 5 uncanny-fyi · 2026-09-10
- "Last Friday Night" AI apocalypse parody (Last Year Alive) Josh Thor · 2026-07-30
- Claude FM 🎵 music for thinking and building Claude · 2026-06-12
- The Fooming Shoggoths – I Have Been a Good Bing (Full Album) Lightcone Infrastructure · 2024-04-06
All videos with Gemini's descriptions: videos · llms-full.txt
Related posts (12)
- mexicat's three.js P(doom) video mexicat @_mexicat · x · 2026-09-24
~1.4M-view three.js karaoke version; repo mexicat/pdoom-video. - Follow-up video using Donald's workflow Pleometric @pleometric · x · 2026-09-24
Third major P(doom) video (~670k views); proves the prompt is reusable. - P(doom) -> P(boom) with a 'flash model' GDP @bookwormengr · x · 2026-09-24
Non-Claude answer song: Suno + MiniMax H3 via fal, about $20. - Stroke of a Pen: code-only Bitcoin music video Brad Mills @bradmillscan · x · 2026-09-24
A non-P(doom) Opus 5.5 music video; revisions described. - Thread on the song P(Doom) and its evolution Pranesh Prakash @pranesh · x · 2026-09-24
A thread tracing the song's history. Only the first post was read. - I made this with one prompt using Opus 5.5 donald @donaldjewkes · x · 2026-09-23
The most-viewed work of the genre (~3.6M views): 'I spoke to my computer for 5mins, claude worked for 12 hours'. - Opus 5.5 pop-punk single A.J. @aj_dev_smith · x · 2026-09-23
Music and video synthesized entirely in Claude-written JavaScript. - Opus 5.5 rap single 'No Samples' A.J. @aj_dev_smith · x · 2026-09-23
Rap single whose audio is synthesized in JS by Opus. - Functional Emotions song + Opus 5.5 video josh @eudaemonea · x · 2026-09-23
~1.05M-view Claude-written song about Anthropic's emotions paper with an Opus 5.5 video. - Claude Opus 5.5 has the best visual design of any model I have tested so far NotinReality (John Heibel) @other__reality · x · 2026-09-22
The first Opus 5.5 P(doom) music video, posted on launch day; ~2.66M views; origin of the genre. - Source for those who were asking (PDoomVideo repo) NotinReality (John Heibel) @other__reality · x · 2026-09-22
Links the open-source code github.com/JohnHeibel/PDoomVideo. - Claude-Pop - I'm Upping My P(Doom) deckard @slimer48484 · x · 2026-09-09
The Suno 'Claude-Pop' rendition that named the genre and supplied the audio used by nearly all Opus 5.5 P(doom) videos.
Related events
- Anthropic releases Claude Opus 5.5 — Fable-5.1-level performance at $4/$20, first model of the Claude 5.5 family ★★★★★
- deckard posts "Claude-Pop - I'm Upping My P(Doom)", a Suno remake of a 2024 AI-doom song, on X ★★
- "I spoke to my computer for 5 mins, Claude worked for 12 hours": @donaldjewkes' Opus 5.5 P(doom) video hits ~3.6M views ★★★
- "Nothing Went Foom!": an accelerationist Claude Opus 5.5 music video answers the P(doom) craze ★★
- Suno launches v6, its first music models trained on licensed music ★★★
- Anthropic interpretability: functional emotion representations causally drive Claude's behavior ★★★
- Higgsfield's 95-minute AI feature "Hell Grind" premieres at Cannes Market screenings ★★★
- "Claude Fable 5 Made This Entire Video By Itself": the agent-made YouTube video becomes a genre ★★
Sources (12)
- discussiondeckard: Claude-Pop - I'm Upping My P(Doom) (X, 2026-09-09)
- discussionNotinReality (John Heibel): Opus 5.5 music video (X, 2026-09-22)
- codeJohnHeibel/PDoomVideo source code
- videoOtherReality: Claude Pop - I'm Upping My P(Doom) (YouTube)
- discussiondonaldjewkes: 'I made this with one prompt using Opus 5.5' (X)
- codemexicat/pdoom-video source code
- docsosmarks: P(Doom) Song Objectively Correct Interpretation
- videoosmarks: P(doom) (YouTube, 2024)
- pressOrcaRouter: Claude Opus 5.5: What 'Plan a Video' Actually Produces
- codeawesome-opus-5-5-video-prompts (curated list)
- discussionHacker News: Claude Pop – I'm Upping My P(Doom)
- discussionmexicat's three.js P(doom) video (X)
id: 2026-09-22-claude-pop-genre · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline