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Music Reaction Videos are a Thing
File under: “Nobody predicted this”.
So very recently an almost 40 year old song hit #2 on the Apple iTunes charts. What was the song and why?
Well, two young brothers posted a YouTube video of their reaction to hearing Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” for the first time. They were a little surprised to hear the point where the drums come in, and their video went viral; currently well over 6 million views. And this boosted interest in the Phil Collins song.
So music reaction videos are a thing. Folks set up a YouTube channel where they film themselves listening to a song for the first time and reacting to it. Viewers subscribe to the channel and make song suggestions, and apparently there’s some ad revenue involved. And it’s a way to promote songs.
So what’s happening here? A couple of things…
The music industry hasn’t really had a business model for a few decades. (I don’t consider “fraction of a penny per megabyte” streaming to be a valid business model.) Before the mid ’80s, radio stations would curate, present, and promote songs, and record sales would follow. And that worked pretty well. In the ’80s, MTV took that job over, at least for a couple of genres. And it’s been messy ever since.
While it sure had its faults, the earlier radio-and-record-based business model matched the cultural, artistic, social, market, and human nature needs pretty well. And much of that has been missing since.
So I think the reaction videos are addressing the need to say, “Hey, check this out, lemme play something for you”.
But there’s something else; modern popular music is, for the most part, really awful. Sure, it’s easy to dismiss an older guy whining about “you kids with your lousy music”. But by any objective measure, the songs on the charts are not very musical; in terms of melody, chord changes, theme and variations, lyrics, arrangements, beauty, craft, creativity, sophistication, playing skill, and so on.
So the reaction videos are folks hearing examples of this sort of musicianship for the first time.
Sometime last year I started enjoying a specific genre I’ll call “Black people hearing Pink Floyd for the First Time”. And if you do a YouTube search for “Pink Floyd reaction”, well, that’s what you see.
My favorite Pink Floyd song is “The Great Gig in the Sky”.
Modern popular music is also compartmentalized into very restrictive genres. In the ’60s and ’70s, exploring combinations of genres was itself a form of creative expression.
And while music used to bring the races together in wonderful ways, as the left has weaponized racism, music has suffered.
So I guess there’s this new genre I call “Black People Hearing Black Music for the First Time”. I kid, but this reaction to Living Color’s “Cult of Personality” is priceless:
Published in General
He sings in Gran Torino as well; it goes about as well as this.
We could do a whole thread about Clint Eastwood songs. Remember Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can?
I’m shocked I’m the first to post this:
Well, that would qualify as a reaction video considering Bart and Homer.
“Here comes Lee Marvin, he’s always drunk and violent!”
(If it isn’t marked properly, you’re looking for 50:23).
While I understand a need for craftsmanship, I have a hard time understanding why there exists so much prejudice against modern music and especially Christian music.
Now, certainly music stations (especially Christian) over play songs, likely due to the limited supply. I don’t know. But there exists good musicality if you go out and find it.
My first reaction video was to a Hillsong worship song… Oceans I think. Guy wasn’t a Christian. He was into it. Now the girl’s voice isn’t my thing for worship music because worship has a different rubric than music for the sake of the craft. But she uses her voice properly with natural distortion to get a particular sound. Like the heavy metal hair bands, but different. Meaning, heavy metal singers were not poor singers. They actually frequently were well trained and have excellent ears for musicality, but they distorted their voices and could do it without damaging their vocals.
Christian music, while being a bit repetitious in chord structure and rhythm, has excellent command of what they need for worship music in this modern world. We don’t live in a world where people go to wednesday night choir practice. Hate to break it to you, but the average congregant is afraid of singing. And for amateur guitarists leading worship, where experienced pianists and organists are hard to find, they need accessibility to pick up a variety of music quickly. They are writing for corporate worship with modern challenges that all to many music directors are aware of.
All of this feeds this so-called lack of originality in Christian music, but ignores the use of vocal harmony (which can be complex) and poetry. Not every song is the same thing over and over again. “He calls me out onto the waters… where feet may fail.” “I touch the sky when my knees hit the ground” (another hillsong lyric).
Or Lauren Daigle’s “How Can it Be” which is a perfect baptism/easter sunrise song, capturing the lenten/death of guilt and human frailty while raising up the hope of what Christ has done.
The criticisms launched at Christian music are unfounded in many respects. It isn’t the 80s anymore, fellas. We have complex lyrics now with more than just evangelicals writing music, but obviously liturgically based songwriters entering the fray with seasonally appropriate contemporary music, taking on the challenge of writing lyrics that stay within the church season guidelines, like Matt Mauer and Elias Dummer.
Yeah, there’s dreck. But the 80s had that, too. You cant just take a cursory survey of the modern music scene and say there’s nothing here.
To your point I listen to the Political Beat music podcasts on National Review which does lengthy reviews on the music of acts from the 60s to the 90s. The podcasts are fun and insightful and presented by (not) young folks but (not) old folks like me – probably 20 to 30 years younger. I noticed the difference between someone talking about the music of a band they did not experience in real time compared to my experience for these acts in the 60s, 70s, and 80s when I distinctly remember each release, the context, and the events going on at the time. I felt it in a very different way.
Reaction videos are so meta, watch someone watch tv/movie or music video… Its like we’re so starved for content, that we have to make ‘unboxing’ videos to recycle older content. For reactors, I prefer music coaches or musical professionals who break down the technical details of what we’re hearing. Some of my favorite reaction videos:
Steely Dan hated critics and in one interview supposedly described one composition as “a pan-tonal 13-bar blues with chorus”.
Yeah, the reaction videos of people just making faces during the song and then saying “That was great” at the end don’t do much for me. I like to hear a some level of analysis during/after. It doesn’t have to be on the professional level of a coach, but just some thoughts on what they like/didn’t like, or noticed that I might have overlooked.
I forget, which one involved a half-hour fistfight?
Yes.
My friend and I chose to interpret Gran Torino as ‘Walt overcomes his prejudice because of the sheer awesomeness of Hmong food.’
Well, I guess mafia and gang connections aren’t that different; MC Ol’ Black and Blue Knuckles.
My favorite along those lines is Helene the flute teacher from Finland discovering Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull:
Nice harp in the background. Ooh, and a recorder.
I was speaking specifically of modern popular music; the songs in heavy rotation on the charts. They are unmusical at their very core. (And if you saw how they were produced, it would be pretty clear.)
There is some artsier modern music that is quite good. I haven’t been following them, but off the top of my head some possibilities might include The Decemberists, Arcade Fire, The Mars Volta, The Flaming Lips, Snarky Puppy, Umphrey’s McGee, and so forth.
I don’t know anything about modern Christian music. What’s going on there?
Certainly a lot of 60’s east coast folk music was influenced by, and even included, Christian hymns.
Ive never heard anyone ever pronounce Jethro like her. I have to admit the only real connection I’ve had with Jethro Tull is from the movie “Armageddon” I’ve never really heard him play before – I have to admit, I thought he was more of a country/folk performer in same vein as say the “Doobie Brothers”- but only guessing that from cultural references – I havent heard much of their music either…
Well, that’s perfect!
Set up a YouTube channel, get some video editing software, loosen yourself up a little with your choice of drink or herb, we’ll suggest some excellent Jethro Tull and Doobie Brothers songs… And you’re ready to start your new career. The bucks will come rolling in.
Or Yetro Tull.
Every flute player my age knew full well who Ian Anderson was. My cousin was a big fan.
Here’s another, in which she learns a new technique: