I find music youtubers really annoying...

[Franko]

I don't want to sound like a jerk.
And honestly, if you have a million people following your channel, then kuddos to you,
you are obviously offering content that people seem to like.
I don't want to be a hater. I just find a lot of them arrogant and annoying.

Jared Dines, Rick Beato, Steve T, MusicIsWin etc etc...

some are less annoying than others.

I enjoy guys like Rob Scallion, or Adam Neely because they feel like they are generally excited about what they're doing and are "sharing" with the viewer, rather than "explaining" to the viewer.


I was reading an article the other day about being a youtuber, and it said that if you don't constantly put out videos, the algorithm kinda screws you over. So thats why you see these guys putting videos out CONSTANLY. And obviously if you have to make content at that rate, its obviously not gonna all be Grade A quality. This is why I always see a title like "I just bought a 60$ Guitar online!!! Does it sound good?!?!?!" accompanied by a thumbnail of someone with their eyes really wide holding something close to their face. God, I hate that shit.

Does anyone else feel this way? Just curious. Are there some youtubers you prefer to others?
Thanks for listening to my rant

 

[budda]

I just avoid youtube unless im researching an item or looking up a song.

 

[narad]

Maybe Rick is annoying, but he's offering a lot of wisdom in his channels. I don't know (m)any people who could do what he does anywhere near the level he does it at.

 

[SpaceDock]

YouTube is so bad right now. Garbage content, too many commercials, but it is super helpful when I want to see a specific review or something like that. Kinda scares me because all the young people I know don’t watch normal TV or shows anymore, just YouTube all day long.

 

[dr_game0ver]

That's the difference between music related Youtubers and musician making Youtube videos.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

 

[TedEH]

I used to watch a lot of stuff with Rob Chapman in it, 'cause I kinda like the attitude of the people in that circle - him, Anderton, etc. It's a bit obnoxious at times, and I can get why people wouldn't like them, but it's nice to have some content that doesn't focus on drama and negativity and fails and talking down at people and SCREAMING FOR NO REASON AS IF THAT'S A CHARACTER and other youtube tropes.

They're like the anti-Glen Fricker. I get why the "being an asshole on the internet and pretending that makes you 'real' for views" thing works for some people, but that novelty ran out real quick for me and now I find him unwatchable. His mixes aren't that great, his advice is sometimes just bad, he's an elitist about a bunch of things, talks down to/at people.... just lots of nope.

Beato I only know from the odd video he's put out where he had some "hot takes"....? I don't remember.

Jared Dines strike me as more youtuber than musician, so I just don't have interest.

Steve T... is like that weird kid you kinda want to punch in the face because he doesn't know how to turn off the obnoxious fishing for attention.

I find music youtube worth watching lately is drummers. Harry Miree doesn't put much out but he was pretty good. 66Samus (I didn't realize until now what his real name was) is fun to watch. Random drum playthroughs.

Yeh I guess "music youtube" is kinda lame for the most part.

 

[gnoll]

There's some good stuff on youtube about music theory/analysis/composing/writing etc. But often the good stuff can be a bit hard to find without doing some digging/knowing what you're looking for.

I can't stand most youtube videos about gear.

 

[Adieu]

Yeah screw those guys

Buncha OCD/borderline F20.0 basement dwellers and semi-retired elders milking disability

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

It all depends on what type of content you're looking for. You're either after musicians making videos on YouTube or YouTubers making videos as musicians.

Probably the best example I've seen amongst the names mentioned herein this thread thus far would be Adam Neely or Rob Scallion since they are still recognized by our community. These two guys fall into the latter category of musicians making videos on YouTube. They both are absolutely content creators by definition, and they make videos that are informative and educational about a topic, but they don't create content constantly. You don't see a new video from these guys every single day or every other day. And usually, when these guys do make a video, they shape the topic around a really bizarre idea that is meant to ignite creativity. Examples: Adam Neely's 7/11 time signature video or his video on the vaporwave internet genre. Rob Scallion's slap guitar video or his approach to thumping video. This goes without saying that, sure, they've both also had some flubs that are solely meant to be clickbait content, such as Scallion's banjo metal video (which, let's admit it, was pretty unique and hilarious at the time when it was getting passed around social media). But not every video can be a hit, right?

Guys like Rick Beato (for example) are clickbait overlords. Yes, Beato did initially start out as an immensely educational channel, and I remember his early days of being a YouTuber fondly; however, now because of the need to constantly generate content in order to appease the platform's algorithm, he has regressed to becoming nothing but a clickbait fisher. I mean, the titles of the man's videos and lack of genuinely insightful content nowadays ought to explain all. It almost seems like he just Googles trending terminology or trending artists then does a video (based on a template) either with them or about them before slapping on a clickbait title like: "BOOMER REACTS TO TOP 10 POP SONGS" or "BOOMER WANTS TOSIN ABASI TO SLAP HIS ASS".

Glenn Frickner is simply an online persona/character that he has to play-up. I haven't watched more than two or three of his videos, but he does have some pretty insightful presentations for the DIY home studio crowd, even if his online personal is rather grating and annoying.

Jared Dines had his 15 seconds during the earlier days of this wave when he was doing nothing but making his endless, low-tier, low-effort "list" videos that got old really, REALLY fucking quickly. (Ten types of metal guitarists, ten types of drummers, ten types of producers, ten types of this, ten types of that...) His time in the spotlight sputtered out pretty quickly, and I'd venture to say that Dines is now irrelevant to the community. I don't know if he is still making video content as I don't keep up with the guy, but the fact that he has had to lean heavily on Fluff for literally everything (including a second-wind of online attention due to Fluff's two failed bands that Dines was a member of) ought to say enough.

Rob Chapman...after all the shit he did with the online bullying, extortion, embezzling funds from his own company, and general asinine behavior online, it's no wonder why no one wants to associate with him or even touch his cheap guitars with a ten-foot pole. That man dug his own grave.

Stevie T...he made (past tense) content specifically geared towards young children, as evidenced by his demeanor, presentation, and online persona, which all of us utterly hated. Everything was strictly tailored to young children. Like, seriously, if you're over the age of 12 and would intentionally sit and watch his content, I would greatly, greatly question your mental status. Anyway, last I checked, Stevie T.'s YouTube channel got hacked and taken down after the massive online mob went after him for a slew of pretty disgusting activities that he was engaging in such as: misleading advertising (not explicitly stating that ads were ads or that sponsors were sponsors in his videos), widespread online bullying of a mentally handicapped man, directing his young children viewers towards pornography (whether inadvertently or not), and pedophilia.

As you're reading through my post here with these named individuals, I'm sure you can come to the conclusion yourself that each one falls into the category of YouTubers making videos as musicians.

The music-based side of YouTube isn't all hell though. It just seems like the hell of trash content seems to congregate very heavily around our little online guitarist community.

There are some genuinely fantastic YouTube channels out there, but you really, really have to dig deep to find them because there are so many content creators out there. Thanks to our current technology, literally anyone can become a content creator with minimal time and energy invested. (Whether or not they become a successful content creator is a totally different story/question though.)

An example of a fantastic channel is 8-Bit Theory. The unnamed individual behind the channel is a formally educated jazz drummer who does some absolutely incredible analysis of music from video games by breaking down the theory and explaining what was probably the VGM composer's approach to the music. I'll freely admit that I'm addicted to the content that he posts on his channel. I'm subscribed, I'm in the channel's Discord, I'm supporting his Patreon, etc. The guy is truly a musician making videos on YouTube.

Another channel that I wrote-off for a bit but have come around to genuinely enjoying is insaneintherain (Carlos Eiene). He is a formally trained brass and woodwind player who also plays a ton of other instruments, and he creates some very masterful, complex jazz arrangements of video game music. If I recall correctly, he took a break for awhile in response to the pandemic and burnout (like many folks have done) but he recently came back to content creation a day or two ago. Again, like 8-Bit Theory, this guy is a musician making videos on YouTube.

 

[Choop]

There are some that I think are worth watching -- Rick Beato has a lot of useful info, and I really like watching his stuff titled "What makes this song great?" where he breaks down a popular/hit song in terms of theory and interesting stuff that the artist does.

The "Captain Meets" interviews on Anderton's channel have been good as far as I've seen (especially the one with Petrucci). Ben Eller is good, there seems to be some annoyances with the guy 'round here but I think his videos are helpful. Maybe it's the raised eyebrow face that he does XD.

Leon Todd does some nice gear playthroughs...JHS pedals channel is cool because Josh isn't just trying to hock their pedals, he's a genuine pedal nut. There are some other channels (mostly instructional ones) that I will occasionally watch. 66samus is good, he does kind of have that youtube character thing going on, but I also think he's probably just a real goofy and hype guy regardless haha.

 

[Carrion Rocket]

The only music centric youtubers I follow are Goniloc and Does it Doom?.

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

I do the same lol, I avoid using YouTube at all. It's not just the personality-centered channels, which I've been fed up with for a long time as well. But the advertising in the middle of a music playlist, it fucking sucks, I don't care what their reasons are. I quit watching TV years ago because I hated ad breaks and now YouTube is pretty much the same. So I quit. As soon as people see it not as a hobby, but as a way to make a living, and the corporations get involved, it becomes shit. Just find the next new thing I guess...

 

[Adieu]

Disagree.

Stevie isn't fake, lad's just genuinely not quite right... and had a pretty decent run at trying to monetize despite having a pretty serious disability

Yeah he got blatantly greedy, but it's not like the poor guy is employable in a regular job. Hard to blame him for trying.

 

[Crungy]

I stick to Leon Todd videos. He's a great player and seems pretty genuine with good information. Does It Doom is great for all the stuff he covers and he does it well. I don't subscribe to JHS but his videos have been good without being obnoxious.

 

[StevenC]

Here's the list of music YouTubers I'm subscribed to:

• 12Tone
• Adam Neely
• Ben Levin
• Charles Cornell
• Daniel Crowford
• Evan Bradley
• J-Music Ensemble
• JHS Pedals
• John Browne
• Lorcan Ward
• Make Weird Music
• Metal Music Theory
• Michael Neilsen
• Nahre Sol
• Ola Englund
• Paul Davids
• Pete Thorn
• RezaMatrix
• Rick Beato
• Rotem Sivan
• Saxologic
• Shaun Crowder
• Sideways
• Tantacrul
• That Pedal Show
• Zack Grooves

Plus some artist pages and people like Vihart who also do music sometimes. And then there are others like David Bruce, Ben Eller or Aimee Nolte that I watch from time to time without subscribing. There's some meme-y stuff in there, but you don't have to watch every video that comes up and you can just subscribe to stuff that interests you.

 

[Andromalia]

I don't watch a lot of music youtubers. Got tired of Glenn Fricker pretty quick, as the constant negativity is just annoying. The Stevie T/Fluff/Jared Dines group I watched maybe 20 times in total, combined, and find them utterlyt uninteresting. Only guy I watch on a regular basis is Ola Englund. He talks like a normal person and has actual credentials. I don't care much for his personal segments though. (Ola and his wife doing bobsleigh or whatever)

 

[Crungy]

John Browne also a good one and I do enjoy Ola. He's interesting keeps it entertaining and not too over the top meme-y (in my opinion) to keep me watching. Even if it's a lot of content about chugging lol

 

[Steo]

Metal music theory is great for breaking down, what is probably complex theory into examples that the music illiterate can understand.
Daniel Crawford is similar.
I like Ola's in the room gear demo's. Nothing worse than someone demoing a pedal or amp, but it's been recorded, eq's and mixed. What's the point of that? Show off what it sounds like, if you buy it and set up in your room/practice space.

 

[Crungy]

I wanted to like Fluff's videos but they just come off as really boring. If he had another person in his videos with some banter I think that would be much more interesting to watch.