On youtube. There’s a class of videos where the channel host watches a movie / television show / music video for the first time, and videos himself or herself reacting to it. Usually they ask their watchers to recommend something to them, and take an informal vote on what to watch next.
These can be kind of cheesey or they can be terrific, depending on how sincere the reactions are. You can usually tell who is hamming it up for the camera, and who isn’t.
I love to see young people checking out some musical artist from way before their time or outside of their preferred genre.
Here’s one I watched last night. A young man is watching footage of Queen’s 1981 Montreal performance - specifically, the song Somebody To Love. His delight in the spectacle is a joy to see.
I enjoyed the heck out of some of the Game of Thrones reaction vids. Especially when Danaerys took control of the Unsullied. Obviously Game of Jones will forever own the genre. Seth and Leslie Jones Watch Game of Thrones - YouTube
But overall, no, I don’t go looking for these vids or spend any time watching them. When a good one comes along, the interwebs will let me know.
Nope. I’m stoic by nature (so a reaction video of me would be pretty damn boring) and kind of look down my nose at people who are highly reactive to every damn little thing (such as people in “reaction videos”, and people on game shows who show more excitement at wining a blender than I would at winning Australia.)
I like some reaction videos, this one I enjoy. I like that video because, personally, I think that Queen performance is the greatest live rock performance ever. Every time I see it, I get chills. So to watch someone else appreciate it, and see it for the first time, is pretty cool.
That being said, I don’t typically go searching for reaction videos on YouTube, but I’ve watched a few of the guy you linked to in the past. He seems genuinely overjoyed to discover new music that he normally wouldn’t have known about.
The same. Plus I assume everything is hammed up for the camera so I’m not seeing a sincere reaction anyway.
The stupidest ones seem to be stuff like “Lawyer reacts to [sit-com lawsuit comedy plot]” or “Doctor reacts to [medical comedy plot]”. OMG you mean Always Sunny wasn’t accurate in their depiction of legal proceedings? Archer isn’t accurately portraying foreign espionage work? Why, I can’t imagine!
Not a fan. Probably for the same reason I consider video game streaming (on video or streaming service like Twitch) to be pointless unless it’s a “how to” thing. I have no interest in watching some other person I don’t know blather on about watching a TV show, playing a video game, etc.
It probably doesn’t help that most of the few I’ve seen have been of teenagers or overly exuberant twentysomethings.
The only exception to my dislike for this kind of video is (sometimes) the ones where people react to trying food from other cultures. Those can be kind of fun.
This is pretty much my curmudgeonly opinion as well.
Maybe I’ll make a video of myself reacting to a reaction video, then somebody else can post a video of themselves reacting to that, and so forth. See how many layers we can remove ourselves from actually experiencing something.
I have enjoyed quite a few of the ones I’ve seen. The appeal of them seems similar to that of playing a song we like for another person to get their take on it, I don’t see why that concept is confusing some people.
I actually first became aware of them from a post on here, someone posted a reaction video to a Pink Floyd song that I thought was cool. That eventually led me to the Lost in Vegas guys, I like those two.
There is a guy named Kalen who works for Ellen I think. I saw a couple of reactions he did to recipe videos that I thought were very funny.
I’ve been drawn into watching a few by the description. 99% of the time they turn out to be boring and not worth the time. Lots of forced comments because the people know they’re on camera and feel they have to say something.
I’ve seen a couple where there’s been genuine surprises like reactions to the Red Wedding. Those are OK
All of these people are, to varying degrees, knowingly performing for an audience. Even sincere emotion gets warped when we know we’re doing it for public consumption.
The more we blur the lines between performative behavior and sincerity the worse off we are as a society, IMHO.
I’m a fan of them, but I agree with others that most are not worth my time.
I watch them for a number of reasons.
First, I really like to share music that I like with other people. This is not an easy thing for me to do, since much of what I like to listen to is not even considered music by most people. When I do meet someone who likes similar music or who is at least willing to listen with an open mind, it is more exciting and produces more good vibes than I can prolly explain. And watching someone get blown away by something that blows me away is fun (for both of us) and extremely gratifying and self-affirming for me: I helped them find something they like, and they confirm my own positive reaction to the same piece of music.
Second, some of these folks bring good insights to their reactions. The Lost In Vegas guys are very adept at teasing out meaning from lyrics, something I almost never bother to do myself. And because they aren’t steeped in metal like I am, they often hear things in the music that I take for granted. I was impressed with their willingness to listen to new things and, of course, there’s nothing a headbanger likes more than to share music with others.
The voice teacher that I watch, Sam Johnson not only gleefully watches all kinds of singers (K-Pop, jazz, Broadway, rock, death metal, etc.) and does excellent analysis of their techniques and habits. The guy really knows his stuff and imparts an incredible amount of information in his videos.
I also like them because a lot of the time, I’m hearing something new for the firs time too. I don’t listen to the vast majority of things that either Mr. Johnson or the LIV guys listens to, so not only do I get to hear something new, I get to hear it with an analysis done by people I like who’s opinions I’ve come to respect. That’s a big win-win-win for me (and at least a small win for them).
I don’t care for them, I have yet to find one where the person wasn’t over-reacting.
But I do find humor in the memes mocking youtubers over-reacting to stuff:
Stewardess: Please watch your step exiting the plane.
Youtuber: OMG! They made me literally jump out of a plane today!!!
Can’t say I’m a fan of reaction videos in general, but there are a few exceptions. In particular, the channel Lost In Vegas, which others have mentioned above, features a couple of guys that are mainly hip-hop fans reacting to (among other things) music outside of their usual experience, and in particular I’ve enjoyed several of their heavy metal reaction videos. They’ve covered some of the more obvious bands like Metallica and Black Sabbath, but they’ve also picked out several less well-known artists like Ne Obliviscaris.
Their reactions seem to be genuine and they take the time to describe their feelings and discuss the specific things they liked or disliked, and do not seem to react for the sake of reacting. One of my favorites from them is Metropolis Pt. 1 by Dream Theater, which kind of flew over their heads, but as a big fan of the band, I found their commentary to be hilarious.
I’ve been very careful to never watch Two Girls, One Cup, but I have seen a couple of reaction videos that were pretty funny. Especially the one with Grandma.
Some of my personal favorites are on the REACT Channel on YouTube.
I also like seeing kids react to the twist at the end of The Empire Strikes Back; colorblind people reacting to those color-seeing glasses; nearly-deaf babies reacting to their first set of hearing aids (surely those are legitimate reactions); “you’re getting a baby brother or sister” videos; kids seeing Mom or Dad return home from war; reactions to Christmas presents or new animals; that kinda stuff.
I like those. I know TV shows are not accurate. But sometimes, a professional explaining how it’s not accurate, or even how something on the show could actually happen in real life can be informative and entertaining.
