Hello!
As promised, here is part deux of my exploration into niche YouTube. Thanks for following along — the process of sharing the research I’ve found interesting really helps me to iron out my thoughts and find the angle.
Last week I shared some niche channels that have built an audience around a kind of educational voyeurism. People aren’t necessarily going to try out the skills on show, but they’re compelled to keep watching to see exactly how the experts do the things they do. In this way, creators have more control over their niche corner of YouTube, less influenced by The Algorithm than less specialised channels. That is, a diorama maker just keeps making dioramas, there’s not as much in the zeitgeist that will affect the diorama community. A detailer is not about to use the high pressured hose for stunts (although, watch this space).
To explain the algorithm, here’s a YouTube video:
Or, TL;DW (Too Long; Didn’t Watch): “Statistically speaking, you are ignorant of everything on YouTube…” The algorithm was designed to keep you on the site, suggesting videos to you based on what you’ve watched. The algorithm chases the audience, while creators chase the algorithm. In the end, you get content that is somewhere between the desires of the audience to watch and the creator to create, until the luck of the zeitgeist stumbles on something original, and the process starts again. To jostle for attention, that is, getting the algorithm to promote your video to potential viewers, creators resort to sensationalism and misdirects in the title and thumbnail picture of the video, otherwise known as ‘clickbait’. (Notice the thumbnail for this video. It’s sold as a How To Be Successful video, like a You Too Can Be A Millionaire sales pitch, when in reality it’s just a straightforward explanation one.)
Got it?
Reaction Videos
One of the simplest videos for YouTube creators to make is the reaction video. You just need a static camera and a rudimentary knowledge of video editing software. Reaction videos are linked back to a device used in Japanese variety TV shows wherein a celebrity, contestant, or audience member’s face is shown in a small box in the corner of the screen watching the main action. Online, the first viral YouTube reaction videos date back to 2006 and focussed mostly on the reactions of people getting scared. Then, it moved onto disgusted reactions to more Adult content. Finally, the reaction video found its way into the mainstream consciousness, via late night talkshows, with videos of viewers reacting to shocking TV episodes, the most famous of which was “The Rains of Castamere” episode of Game of Thrones, otherwise known as The Red Wedding.
Now, I must admit here that a few years ago when I saw a video in my recommendations called “Burlington Bar Reacts to Game of Thrones” had over a million views, I scoffed. I scoffed when I first heard of the TV show, Gogglebox, too. But there’s something to this type of voyeurism that scratches an itch, whether it’s a secondhand thrill or reassuring empathy — that people everywhere react to things the same way you do. Sam Anderson explained it best that watching experiences by proxy is “like Perseus looking at Medusa through the reflection of his shield” in his 2011 NYT piece on the topic.
These days you can find reaction videos to almost everything: video gaming, movie trailers, unboxing products, kids playing with toys. You get channels dedicated to the phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and millions of views per video. If you think this is all indicative of people wasting their time online, then you probably haven’t found the reaction video channel for you yet — they’re popular for a reason.
So, without further ado, here are some of the reaction videos that I, personally, find fascinating.
First up, a straightforward and cinnamon bun-wholesome channel called ReacThing. It features a 30-something Korean woman, Zoey Kwonn, and her delightful grandmother, reacting to food and other cultural phenomena from around the world. Zoey has lived in the US, so has had much more exposure to different cuisines and subcultures than her 80-something vlogging companion, but they both explore difference with very open hearts. Here’s the duo sharing an American breakfast:
The origin of this type of channel, of which many exist, was probably the intersection between the Korean phenomenon of Mukbang — or ‘eating broadcast’, which became popular around 2010 — and food exchange videos, wherein people try snack food from other countries and record their honest opinions. Because of this popularity, and subsequent oversaturation, creators have had to up the ante. Enter the next channel, Reactistan, from Pakistan. This one teeters on the edge between culture curio and content farming, and as I watch the videos, the word ‘exploitation’ crosses my mind. Unlike Zoey and her grandma, the makers of Reactistan’s videos aren’t in front of the camera. There’s hardly any information about who these people are. Their bio reads: “Real reactions from real people” and nothing else. The channel’s focus is instead on a group of ‘tribal people’ trying things for the first time, no doubt inspired by the evergreen fascination of ‘untouched’ communities, like those in the Amazon, Papua New Guinea, or the Andaman Islands. This BBC video released several years ago gives you a taste. Here are the ‘tribal people’ trying Nutella ‘for the first time’:
The comments on these videos are mostly very encouraging and positive and repeat viewers have favourite tribal persons. However, there’s absolutely no background to why these people are sitting in front of a green screen. The list of things the tribal people react to — Dalgona coffee, donuts, Mexican food, Donkey Kong, American breakfast — reads like a list of the trending topics the algorithm has pushed over the last four months of the channel’s operation. While ReacThing follows the algorithm, too, at least the grandmother seems to enjoy co-hosting with her creator granddaughter. The hook of watching an 80 year old Korean woman be so open minded, whether in reaction to pancakes or a trans woman’s coming out video, would be for many a cathartic watch. What do viewers watching ‘tribal people’ glean other than a shallow anthropological awareness that people from the north of Pakistan aren’t all over sashimi yet? While the reactions on both channels still look real, the jury’s out for me with Reactistan’s sincerity. Already, another channel, mysteriously called ‘WMW’, which says it’s based in India, has sprung up piggybacking on Reactistan’s success. In just 2 months it has produced 4 videos of isolated ‘tribesmen’ from Afghanistan trying food from neighbouring countries. Do these people get paid their fair share or are they just coveted commodities to please the algorithm?
The next type of reaction video is the music reaction video. Reacting to popular music for the first time fascinates me because it seems like an easier thing to fabricate (Really? You’ve never heard the song that the algorithm is telling you is popular for reaction videos right now? OK, sure). However, when one of these videos strikes the right note of authenticity, they are quite enjoyable, and sometimes sublime. What’s even more fascinating is that a lot of music reaction channels are made by young Black Americans, which suggests there are a few elements at play here: the authenticity/believability that a young Black American would be open to all genres of music, that they would have missed certain genres from decades past, and that their passionate reactions fit a stereotype of naivety. It’s hard to know for sure why people start making their particular YouTube channel, but some definitely join the reaction video bandwagon because the algorithm is saying, “Music reaction videos with Black creators are hot right now”. Some channels are genuinely keen to be musically educated and interact a lot with their viewers’ recommendations, while others seem to chase the algorithm. You can tell the latter by how they run out of ways to connect to the music.
Anyway, here are a couple of examples that made me smile. The first is from Jayvee TV listening to Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. My favourite part is when after the lyric “Mama / I just killed a man” he says “My man just snitched on himself!”.The second comes from India Reacts listening to Nine Inch Nail’s ‘Closer’ — a song, for the uninitiated, contains very graphic language. Her reaction is priceless.
The music reaction video, along with the TV show and film reaction video, also interests me by being the conduit for passing culture across generations and around the world. When I was young, we had 5 TV channels and the restrictions of distribution costs/rights dictating what we watched. We had two music video programmes that you had to watch at a certain time each week to hear the latest releases. Now, experiencing a broader range of culture is at our fingertips, the only restriction being what the algorithm is ignoring that month.
The last type of reaction video is, by its very nature, not as easy to make, or fabricate. The language surprise reaction video (my name for it) can be found here and there, but it depends greatly on the asymmetric relationship English speakers have with the rest of the world. That is, English speakers are known to be monolingual, so there’s surprise when they can speak a vastly different language fluently. Here’s Sydneysider Paddy from Thai Talk With Paddy who uses the sensational language of the YouTube algorithm to his advantage:
And here’s a one-off video of a Maori guy speaking Mandarin at an Auckland market:
Phew!
Thanks for staying with me until now. It’s a lot and there’s so much more to discuss on the topic, but I’ll stop.
A few other things of interest from the week:
Mystery seed parcels from China sent to people around the world
From a while ago: Linguists start to hear a new accent form on Antarctica
That’s all for now. Thanks for your continued support. If you think someone you know would find this newsletter interesting, please share.
Until next week!