The Strange and Wonderful Celebration of Cultural History via Modern Reaction Videos
Symptom of a Crumbling Empire, Honoring of Culture, or Both?
The popularity of reaction videos on YouTube and other platforms might be seen as a symptom of a crumbling empire and decaying culture. This writer is not entirely willing to dismiss such an interpretation, as it possesses at least some merit. We currently live in an era where sequels, remakes, and reboots clutter the entertainment landscape, and legitimately new stories, ideas, and concepts are quite rare. Under such circumstances, maybe it should not be surprising that the act of watching television and films (not to mention video games), and the act of watching people watch these things, has grown in popularity. Furthermore, the success of reaction videos and their significant growth over the past several years has also brought a considerable level of opportunists who seek to exploit the algorithm. You can usually spot such opportunists by their ridiculous thumbnail images, where they appear wide-eyed, mouths agape, portraying their reaction experience as something nearing an orgasm or spiritual epiphany. These types pollute the realm of this genre of streaming media and contribute to the understandable notion that it is a ridiculous and useless format with little to no value.
There are, in fact, a number of informative and entertaining reaction videos to music, film, and television, often done by experts in a certain creative field including composers, musicians, and vocal coaches. Some reactions are done by simple novices, yet they may also offer insight and thoughtful commentary.
This current era of reaction videos seems to speak to a modern world where people feel perpetually disconnected from their fellow human beings. This was already well in motion years ago, but was arguably compounded to a tremendous degree as a result of lockdowns and many people managing much of their social and/or work life remotely due to COVID-19 in recent years. It is little wonder why, under such a scenario, reaction videos continued to grow in popularity. We have lost real connections with the people who would have traditionally been close to us, including neighbors and family members, because of a combination of an increased culture of living online, public health concerns, and growing politicization that has made informal conversations with those historically in our social sphere become increasingly difficult to maintain and nurture.
This reality makes the popularity of reaction videos a possible sign of the pathetic state of real world discourse and social cohesion. Their popularity may well be a symptom of all the ills mentioned above, but one could also look at them as an odd and most contemporary iteration of a widely-held, sincere love for cultural history.
Cultural history, broadly defined, is an appreciation and analysis of a people’s literature, music, film, fashion, photography, and other forms of art and expression. It is an aspect of history so fundamental to the discipline that no assessment of a culture is complete without it and it is so common that many people who regularly appreciate such things do not realize that they are themselves practicing a form of cultural history.
The fact is that any time a song is listened to, a book is read, a film is watched, or a painting or sculpture is looked upon, the participant experiencing and appreciating these mediums are practicing cultural history and—in some small degree—adding to the discourse. This is especially true of those producing reaction videos and putting them out into the world. This is a nuanced point, however, because just as not every history book is worth reading, not all reaction videos are of equal quality or merit. Video responses that are not much more than “Wow, man… That was…. Wow” are not really worth anyone’s time (and yet, many get thousands of views somehow). That said, those offering thoughtful analysis about a creative work’s technical achievements, originality, and artistic vision, are giving a modern form of cultural criticism and cultural history to the world in a way that should not be entirely overlooked or dismissed.
Finally, something that also needs to be said about the current popularity of reaction videos is that they are, generally speaking, joyous and extraordinarily positive. In a time when many think there is reason to believe that things are dark and gloomy, most reaction videos—particularly those that respond to different mediums of art and entertainment—offer a ray of light and positivity in an era where such things are in short supply. Their general lack of cynicism and the honoring of the talents of others is something to be appreciated all the more considering these difficult and uncertain times. For this reason above all, I say, let us give kudos to the reaction videos and those who make them. Not all of them are good. Many are quite bad, but the good ones are sometimes very good. Most importantly, they transport us back to times when we first discovered those songs and films we love, and remind us that art and culture are among the things that make life worth living. These videos provide a service by prompting us to remember that fun for fun’s sake is sometimes the best antidote to unhealthy and counterproductive pessimism. Enjoy life. Enjoy the art and music you love. Enjoy our cultural history.
[James M. Masnov is a writer, historian, and lecturer. His next book, Rights Reign Supreme: An Intellectual History of Judicial Review and the Supreme Court, published by McFarland Books, is scheduled for release soon. His first book, History Killers and Other Essays by an Intellectual Historian, is available here.]