Every so often, while mindlessly scrolling through TikTok, I’d come across “first reaction” videos.
I used to be practically compelled to watch them.
Especially if they were reactions to songs by The Beatles.
Now I usually scroll right past them in favour of whatever other time-wasting garbage the algorithm has decided I need.
For a while, I watched a lot of reaction videos. The premise is pretty simple: someone listens to a song or watches a music video they’ve never experienced before, and we get to watch them experience it for the first time.
And I understood the appeal.
Part of it was the novelty of watching somebody discover something I already knew and loved. If someone was hearing “Hey Jude” or “A Day in the Life” or some other Beatles song for the first time, there was something fascinating about watching their face when they encountered the moments I already knew were coming.
There was also something I didn’t fully appreciate at first: watching somebody hear a familiar song with fresh ears freshened my ears.
I’d hear a song I’d listened to hundreds of times, but because somebody else was hearing it for the first time, I’d suddenly pay attention to things I’d stopped noticing. Their reaction could remind me why I loved the song in the first place.
There was, however, one problem.
I was a bit of a musical snob.
Not an especially proud one. But a snob nonetheless.
One of the things that initially fascinated me about reaction videos was how many people seemed to have absolutely no knowledge of music that I considered part of the basic cultural curriculum.
“Here’s my first time listening to ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles!”
Wait. What?
You haven’t heard “Hey Jude”?
How is that possible?
It took me a surprisingly long time to understand that the answer is: because not everybody is me.
I think I finally got over this particular bias a few months ago in the most mundane setting imaginable: the checkout at the Superstore.
I had headphones on, although I wasn’t actually listening to anything. The guy working at the checkout was young—maybe in his early twenties—and had one of those naturally buoyant personalities that some people seem to have. He asked me what I was listening to.
“Prince,” I said.
He looked blankly at me.
“Never heard of it.”
I was floored.
How could someone not have heard of Prince?
“Is it good?” he asked.
I told him that if he went home after his shift and started listening to Prince, his life was going to change forever.
“There is nobody better,” I told him.
He said he’d check him out.
Then he asked me if I’d ever heard of Kanye.
I assured him that I was familiar with Kanye.
That little encounter did something for me.
It reminded me that my musical education isn’t everybody else’s musical education. The songs and artists that seem so deeply embedded in my own cultural landscape aren’t necessarily embedded in somebody else’s.
And that’s one of the reasons reaction videos can be so interesting.
But eventually I started noticing something else.
A lot of the people making these videos weren’t actually very interesting to watch.
They were performing their reactions.
I’d watch someone listen to a song, nodding their head occasionally, as if the head nod itself were an important part of the review.
Don’t worry, everybody. I am enjoying the music.
Then they’d pause the song.
“This is really interesting.”
Play another thirty seconds.
Pause.
“I am really digging this.”
Play another thirty seconds.
Pause.
“I love what they’re doing here.”
And sometimes that was it.
I began to wonder if I was actually watching somebody discover music or watching somebody demonstrate what it looks like to discover music.
There is a difference.
I think the final straw was an XTC video.
I don’t remember which song it was. Perhaps No Thugs in Our House? But I remember the guy reacting to it.
And, to be fair, he was enthusiastic.
Very enthusiastic.
He kept stopping the song to point out particular instruments, vocal moments and musical details. I think he was a bassist and his reaction videos focused more on the bass in songs. As he listened, he was clearly enjoying the bass and everything else he was hearing.
And by the end of the video, I believed him.
Almost.
He kept talking about how much this XTC song blew him away and how he was definitely going to explore more of their music.
And then I noticed something.
He kept referencing a playlist of XTC songs on the screen he used to watch videos.
He had just finished listening to one XTC song. And was so adamant and excited to dive further into more XTC.
And yet he didn’t play another one. If he was as compelled as he seemed to dive into more XTC then how could he not click a button right then to play another one? Even as a tease for a future reaction video?
I sat there thinking:
Play another one now, if you love them so much!
You have the playlist right there!
Click the damn thing!
Instead, the video ended.
And I had become convinced that this guy probably wasn’t going to listen to any more XTC.
Maybe he would. I don’t know. I don’t care.
But I think that experience led me to a bit of a realization. I’d seen enough reaction videos by then to become suspicious of the difference between genuine enthusiasm and performed enthusiasm.
So I made a soft vow to myself.
I was done with reaction videos.
Then a month or two ago, TikTok started showing me clips from a YouTube channel called The Charismatic Voice.
The algorithm, of course, knew exactly what it was doing.
The clips were reactions to Beatles songs.
I am apparently incapable of scrolling past Beatles content.
But there was something different about these videos.
The person behind The Charismatic Voice is a former opera singer who has become deeply interested in understanding and exploring the mechanics of singing and the human voice. Her musical background is rooted in classical music and opera, rather than popular music.
And that makes her reactions particularly fascinating.
She’s not pretending that she already knows everything about the music.
She’s discovering it.
And she’s curious. And she is beyond enthusiastic and joyous about what she is hearing.
She’ll hear something in a song and stop to try to understand what is happening vocally. She’ll explore why a particular sound works, what the singer is doing with their voice, why a particular performance is extraordinary.
But more importantly, she seems genuinely delighted by what she’s discovering.
And that’s what pulled me back into reaction videos.
Not the reaction itself.
The enthusiasm.
There is something wonderfully infectious about watching someone who is knowledgeable and curious discover something that you already know is wonderful.
And perhaps that’s the thing I had been missing.
I didn’t really want to watch people react.
I wanted to watch people experience something.
There’s a subtle difference between the two.
A performance says, Look at me having a reaction.
An experience says, Holy shit. Listen to this.
And The Charismatic Voice does the latter.
She isn’t simply saying, “Wow, that’s good.”
She’s asking why it’s good.
What is that singer doing?
What is happening physically?
Why does that note have that effect?
Why does this particular performance make us feel something?
And in doing that, she gives me something I hadn’t realized I was looking for when I started watching reaction videos in the first place.
She makes me hear familiar music differently.
Which brings me back to Prince.
Remember the young guy at the Superstore who had never heard of Prince?
I would like to think that somewhere, sometime, he eventually went home and listened to some Prince.
Because Prince is one of those artists who can make you understand why people get excited about music.
The Charismatic Voice’s first encounter with Prince was a video for Purple Rain. Watching her experience that song is uplifting. Her second time listening to Prince, though, is like watching a life-changing moment unfold before you. The joy and wonder and exuberance and awe she expresses watching the entirety of Prince’s legendary Super Bowl halftime performance is purity and sincerity incarnate. I have linked it below. It is well worth your time.
I’ve now watched many of her reaction videos and am enjoying them immensely. Because she is enjoying the songs immensely.
I find myself watching her for exactly the same reason I had once watched all those other reaction videos.
I wanted to see somebody discover something amazing.
But this time, I believed the reaction.
And maybe that’s the difference.
I don’t think I ever stopped liking reaction videos.
I just stopped liking performative reactions.
And when somebody’s enthusiasm is real, it turns out I’m still very happy to watch them lose their mind over a song I’ve heard a thousand times.
So here’s Prince. Here’s someone who knows very little about Prince discovering Prince for the second time.
This is why I watch reaction videos now.
Or, at least, why I watch hers.
The Annekenstein Monster 