There is somebody named Diane Jennings who has a YouTube channel. For background, she is in her twenties and grew up in Ireland.
She has an ongoing series of videos in which she reacts to songs by bands that she supposedly has never heard before. Here are some of the bands she listens to for “the first time”: AC/DC, Aerosmith, the Beach Boys, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Journey, the Kinks, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, the Moody Blues, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Prince, the Ramones, the Rolling Stones, and the Who.
I find it hard to believe anyone could grow to adulthood without having heard any of these bands. But is that a reflection of me being an old boomer who grew up when these groups were popular? Or is it a reflection of me being an American and assuming my popular culture is global? Or is Jennings perhaps stretching the truth a bit? (I’ll admit I haven’t watched all of these videos but in the ones I have watched she seems to be holding to the idea that she is unfamiliar with the songs she listens to.)
I look back at performers like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Nat King Cole, who were all popular before I was born. But I had at least heard their songs when I was growing up.
There are LOADS of YouTube channels out there which are, “We listened to this song for the first time!” Reaction videos. Low effort but get clicks and make them money.
Like you, I don’t buy it. Maybe some are true but so many you’d have had to have lived under a rock with no access to music to miss hearing so many of those songs. I suppose some few may slip through the cracks but mostly I am surprised when these people say a given popular song is new to them.
I can somewhat accept people saying they are watching a movie or a TV show for the first time. No matter how popular those are, they require some initiative to view.
But a song? How do you get through life without ever hearing Stairway to Heaven or Paint It Black or Baba O’Riley on the radio?
For someone in her twenties, I guess that’s unlikely, I’m not sure. I have no experience with that demographic. But for younger people, for sure it’s possible. My son is 13 years old and I can pretty much guarantee he’s never heard any of those three songs. For one thing, he never listens to the radio. He mainly hears new songs via video games.
I know a lot of my exposure to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra (as an example) came from my parents. I would not have found them on my own but mom and dad played it in the car and in the house.
Other songs I got through watching TV shows and movies (e.g. watch the “Supernatural” series for loads of classic rock).
Yes, it’s true that my son has heard a bunch of songs I like just from being around me when I’m playing music. But as it happens, I never play Led Zeppelin, the Who, or The Rolling Stones.
I’m in the grumpy category of assuming it’s all (reaction vids in general) 95% theatrics for clicks. I can believe that someone never knowingly listened to a band/song but, if the response wasn’t entertaining, no one would stick around to watch it.
I have a buddy who is Hispanic and was born in the 80s and never heard most of the big 60s-70s classic rock stuff. When he got into his teens, he got into more hip-hop, rap and Latin stuff so maybe he heard some stuff in passing on a store PA system, movie scene or commercial but he never actually noticed or listened to it. He used to DJ dance music (again hip-hop, Latin, house, etc) so he has some sort of music background.
One day we were playing an online game and throwing suggestions out there for him. Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zep, etc and he’d listen to a few tracks as we were gaming. His responses to them ranged from “Nah” to “Ok, this song is pretty good.” Shockingly, not once did he go silent, get saucer eyes and start screaming “OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!!” at any of the finest 70s classic rock.
An Australian youtuber (Call Me Caroline) did a “first listen” of all the Beatles albums a couple of years ago. Of course she knew who the Beatles were and was aware of some songs via cultural osmosis, but she had never sat down and listened to the albums front to back. It was quite enjoyable to witness someone experience most of their music for the first time.
My wife wasn’t born in the US and lived in Peru and Saudi Arabia until she moved here at 13. At the rate those countries would get US media combined with her moving, she has a large US pop culture void from the mid 60s to the late 80s. It didn’t help that her patriarchal-minded father’s idea of “real music” was mostly 40s & 50s standards.
She is, of course, generally aware that Pink Floyd is a band that exists but by the time she was in the US, they were music that long-haired stoner kids in high school listened to, not anything she cared about. Likewise for most classic rock stuff. For some classic 80s stuff, it’s been amusing to sit next to her through her first viewing of Goonies or Gremlins or Fast Times. In terms of music, she likes some of the softer stuff (Elton John, CSNY) but never took to the ‘classic rock’. She says the only time a Pink Floyd song is half decent is when someone else is covering it.
Anyway, all that (and my previous post about my friend) is to say that there’s people out there who have legitimately never really heard this stuff. Maybe it’s penetrated their earholes in passing but they weren’t sitting and soaking in “Paint It Black” during its loop in a movie preview.
How often do you unintentionally listen to a radio? I, for example, often find myself listening to music over a PA system when I’m shopping in stores. Or when I’m in a bar or club. Or riding in somebody’s car.
There’s also the use of songs on soundtracks. Somebody who says they’ve never heard a Who song is also saying they’ve never seen an episode of any of the CSI series. And there’s 828 of those.
In the Aerosmith one, she flat out sings the one song she knows from them. And she says she’ll likely recognize other songs. What she means is that she’s never intentionally listened to them.
I’ve followed Diane since her days on the Irish FACTS channel, where Irish people would react to things (mostly food and drink) from other cultures (mostly American). The early videos in the series were far more literal. But she takes requests. And so, later on in the series, she often has some familiarity with it.
That said, I don’t recognize the song she sang. I grew up with the radio mostly on Christian music (if we had a choice) or country (if we didn’t.) If I hadn’t sang them in choir or watched music theory YouTube, I wouldn’t know any Beatles songs even.
Most likely I’ve heard a song from a band that was popular, but I wouldn’t know who they were. I’m not the type who always has music on.
So I don’t find it hard to believe some people haven’t actually heard this stuff. There is so much out there that people are surprised I’ve never heard.
But you don’t generally pay attention to the music in those contexts. And you definitely don’t know which artist is singing them.
Those who have only heard their music incidentally have not actually listened to a band’s music. They will still be surprised at what they will actually hear.
I suspect the only reason you are aware of what you are hearing and pay attention is that you already know the songs.
I’ve never watched any full episode of any of the CSI shows. And even if I had, being exposed to a song in the opening credits isn’t really the same as listening to an entire song and paying attention.
There are lots of reaction videos to music, with the Youtubers mentioning that it’s their first time hearing the song. I’m sure people are exposed to all sorts of songs in their lives but haven’t actually sat down and listened to them. I know a few Taylor Swift songs by name, but haven’t really stopped to listen to any of them in detail.
One of my favorite music reactors is the Charismatic Voice, and she’ll mention that she’s heard a song in a soundtrack or is casually aware of it, but never really listened closely. She’s an opera singer and really hasn’t been exposed to a lot of pop music over the years. It’s not that difficult to imagine.
I got a kick out of Elizabeth “The Charismatic Voice” Zharoff’s reaction to Won’t Get Fooled Again. It’s pretty clear she had no clue about the band (“They have a lot of energy!”) but she was appreciative – and a little shocked-- by the performance.
I’ve checked out a few videos where a younger person listens to classic rock selections for the first time. Some of them are amusing, but bottom line, my reaction to their reactions is that they’re trying to pander to old guys like me to monetize their channel. It’s always a favorable reaction. I’ve never seen one in which the “reactor” just comes out and says, “God damn, this song blows dead rats. Whoever wrote it should be dragged out into the barnyard and fed to the hogs!” Someone reacting that way would get me to hit that Subscribe button hard (with the stipulation that they have to sound sincere about it). Maybe there are some out there. I’m just saying I haven’t seen any.
I remember one video that had a young man and woman who were listening to the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen,” and they expressed utter shock—shock, I say!—at the notion that Lydon wasn’t thrown in jail for singing the queen “ain’t no human being.” Well, I can’t help but think that’s a reaction manufactured for folks who were fans of the Pistols back in the day.
I’ve never seen any episode of a CSI series. But I was also very into the Who for a couple years in high school.
When I drive my kids places, I intentionally play from a varied playlist so they get some exposure to American culture. Stuff from AC/DC to Buddy Holly to Cherish to 4minute. So they at least have heard a lot, even if it’s not conscious.
They also recommend back to me, like Lizzo and Taylor Swift.
Hah, yes. When I see a young black guy going apeshit over Solsbury Hill, my cynicism imagines someone, somewhere saying “You know what old middle-aged white guys love? Young minorities confirming that the white male 45-65 demo has always had the best taste in music.”
100% agree (or Survivor math, 110%). I stumble upon these occasionally and don’t believe it for a second. But then again, I don’t think most of those types of vids are real. It’s like those people who get “pranked” at a supermarket - they don’t notice there is someone standing there ‘filming’ them? Not enough roll-eyes.
And what do you get out of watching someone listening to music, even if it were to be real?