The various vocal coaches on YouTube are often interesting. There are a few that give good insights and she is one of them. I don’t consider that strictly a reaction video since they give more information and don’t just react. After not seeing the Charismatic Voice for a long time I stumbled upon her videos again. Recently she did a bunch of videos to release later one at a time. She was very pregnant and wants to take off several months for the baby.
This.
The worst kind of fake low barrier to entry click mongering.
Yep, I watch them and I enjoy them.
I started during Covid. I’m not sure exactly what drew me to them but I felt a lot like some of the sentiments above, this was clickbait and a time waste. I wanted to only watch one or 2 channels, but over time I started adding more. I think the primary appeal for me is that they are watching movies and shows I’m familiar with. I enjoy watching the highlights, and I enjoy seeing the reactions they have to what’s on the screen. I’ve watched a few reactors react to my favorite series like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and seeing the shows in such an abridged format is a nice way to relive the experience without the huge time suck.
There are so many shows streaming out there now that I am rarely watching the same shows as my friends at the same time they’re watching. So I miss the chance to talk about what I’m seeing. The reaction channels kind of fill that void as well - it feels like I’m watching with somebody else, and the ones I do watch have enough personality that I find it fun.
I still hate reality TV though so don’t judge too harshly!
Real professional musicians watching an amazing performance for the first time and giving blow-by-blow analysis of the awesomeness? Those are really fun, but rare.
Not for a minute will I believe that a professional singer is hearing Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time, but that’s the kind of stuff that shows up from time to time in my feed.
To me, people who have very poorly controlled emotions have always seemed, to put it bluntly, dumb. I mean things like game show contestants practically fainting when they win a toaster oven, or a group of people hooting like a troop of chimps when their favorite sportsball team does a successfully sportsball. I watch a “reaction video” of someone showing some uncontrolled outburst of emotions and sounds every 10 seconds while watching on listening to something, I can’t help but think that it is either hammy overacting or someone with a room-temperature IQ.
Do you believe you are seeing actual reactions, or do you not even care as long as you are entertained?
In my limited experience, music reaction videos seem to be made to reassure middle-aged white folks that they really are the best. Check it out, that young Black kid is going insane hearing Queen for the first time! He can’t believe how great it is! Truly, our taste in music is the greatest.
Took a few years before anyone wanted to talk about them though. That 2013 post had no replies.
I have mixed feelings about them:
- Much of the time it is unbelievable that folks have not heard song X Y or Z. The other day I watched a video where a guy who is apparently a professional music producer was reacting to Who’s Next, which includes Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again, and he insisted that he had no familiarity with the band or those songs whatsoever. I just can’t imagine that, however…
- it’s also a reminder that there’s no reason why anyone, even white middle class Americans, who was born in the age of the internet and maybe never spent time listening to AOR radio or had a house full of albums would have heard certain common songs, or be familiar with popular bands of the 60s-90s.
- Certain songs seem to hit the reaction circuit at the same time, Maybe someone like Rick Beato does it first, and then all of a sudden hundreds of people are doing a reaction to Wichita Lineman, or whatever. A reminder that this is all manufactured content chasing an algorithm and likes/subscribes (not a judgement, just a reminder that these are closer to reality TV than they are sincere human response).
- Most of the responses from “professionals” are pretty vapid and uninteresting. Because it’s framed as a reaction/first-time listening, even when they have some insights, those insights are limited.
- That said, if someone does it right, watching a reaction video gives me warm fuzzy feelings like I’m listening to something with someone else. Even if it’s manufactured, it kind of stimulates the same feelings in me as when I want to share something I love with a friend. “Hey, listen to this, it’s awesome!” And that’s really why these things thrive. It’s an on-demand friend who will sit with you and listen to whatever your favorite thing is. And while it’s not real relationship, or even true “real” reaction, that can’t be all bad.
- I have definitely fantasized about doing my own reaction channel. Seems like fun!
Instant “not interested, don’t recommend channel” response.
Don’t usually care what anyone else thinks about a movie or song.
Very occasionally I find an analysis of a song by a capable musician to be interesting.
But that’s not a first-time reaction, obviously.
In addition to The Charismatic Voice, I really like The Fairy Voice Mother. Both impart much knowledge in a humorous and enjoyable manner.
When I first encountered music reaction videos (in the time of Covid) I watched quite a few to see how people reacted to my favorite groups/songs. That got old pretty quickly and it’s been awhile since I’ve seen one.
I really enjoyed Call Me Caroline’s series of first listens to all the Beatles albums. She came across as being very down to earth and sincere. Beyond the music, what I liked was her positivity…it was just a good vibe. She was trying to get something going as a creator/singer/songwriter but I don’t think she had much success in that department. After the Beatles series she did a few more reactions and bowed out with a nice thank you to her viewers.
Yes, there are a few movie / TV reaction channels that I like to watch. Besides what other have said, I find that especially with shows like Game of Thrones the reactor often noticed details that I completely missed. So I find that watching the reaction video to the previous episode before going into the next episode gives me a better understanding of what’s going on.
This is a good one with two vocal coaches doing a combined video. They go pretty deep into the analysis, it’s not just reaction.
I like Julia as well. She had one of the best reactions to Jinjer.
The only kind of reaction (video or live) I find it interesting to watch is when I have some reason to care how that particular person will react. Live, this is usually because I have some sort of connection to that person. Like, if I learn that a friend of mine has never seen Princess Bride, I’d want to watch it with them, but some stranger, why?
In a video, it’s most likely because the person reacting is in some way relevant to the thing they’re reacting to. For instance, Ray Bradbury’s reaction to the song “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury” is relevant.
You have a point, but it’s wider than that. They seem to be made to reassure EVERYONE that their taste is great. There are just as many videos showing old white guys reacting to the latest pop songs and saying how great they are.
It may not work for you, all cool, but apparently works for others. It certainly works in actual movies, where we watch reactions from not just strangers, but from people pretending to be other people.
And the last I read, in a popular science article, watching people experience things sets off similar neural firings in the viewer’s brain. You watch someone pet a cat, you (normal empathetic you) get some of the same brain activity.
There is a type of reaction video I love. The YouTube page drumeo does it for drums and pianote does it for keyboards. They have professional musicians listen to songs they never heard before with their instrument removed from the track. They then have to add in how they think it was done or how they would do it. Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater has probably my favorite. He has a lot of fun with it.
Most are dull, but some are entertaining.
Team America: World Police, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, and various Mel Brooks movies generally produce amusing reactions.
That’s one of my favorite songs to watch people unfamiliar with it react to. The Charismatic Voice has a great reaction, in addition to the one you linked.
On the whole, there are a handful of reactors that I enjoy watching: CineBinge, Natalie Gold, VKunia (though, I admit, those last two seem to be “love them or hate them,” with very little middle ground), Popcorn In Bed, and Addie Counts are really the only ones I watch on a consistent basis.