A Deep Dive Into YouTuber Music
Ah, YouTube. Has any other form of media been quite so influential to my personality, sense of humor, and social development? Surely not. A combination of a relative lack of regulation on the platform in its early years and (mostly) unrestricted access to the internet by my well-meaning, yet clueless parents meant that YouTube was a source of much of my education as a child on subjects I really had no business knowing about. It's where I heard certain words for the first time, ones that my friend's mom called "naughty" when I got in trouble for showing her daughter a Jenna Marbles video in first or second grade. Was this exposure harmful to my development as a child? Probably. But it's my honest, based-on-very-little-actual-research belief that literally everything a child experiences is harmful to their development in some way. At least I had fun.
Youtube was a constant in my life from early childhood. And for as long as I can remember watching YouTube, I can remember listening to YouTuber music. It's the soundtrack to so many of my memories: my friends and I creating a choreographed dance to "My OCD" by Rhett & Link as a sixth grader, watching the music video to "Literally My Life" by mylifeaseva over and over in fifth grade after a much cooler friend mentioned it offhand, becoming outraged at the lyrics to Ryan Higa's "Nice Guys" as an eight-year-old budding feminist because my brain wasn't yet developed enough to understand the concept of satire.
Just a few years too young for the "Chocolate Rain" era, and thankfully too old for songs like "Among Us in Real Life", it would be my instinct to say I was brought up in the golden age of YouTuber music. But was it really a golden age, or was it just the age I experienced during my most formative years? Is my perception of it clouded by nostalgia? I revisited the most iconic YouTuber songs of my childhood in order to determine the answers to these questions. Here are my findings.
Finding number one: there is a LOT of YouTuber music.
Sure, YouTube now may be a lawless hellscape oversaturated with offensively stupid children's content, a concept which certainly extends to music ("Baby Shark", anyone?), but what I didn't realize going into this was just how many major YouTubers from last decade have released music at some point. From around 2010 to about 2017, releasing a song – like publishing a book or going on tour – was just one of those things that YouTubers did once they reached a certain subscriber count, whether it was something they were genuinely talented at and passionate about or not. In my research for this piece, I had a hard time locating a single somewhat popular YouTuber from the aforementioned era who hasn't released at least one song, whether as a serious attempted venture into music, a silly parody song for a video, or an obvious cash grab meant to capitalize off of the YouTuber music trend. Seriously, did anyone else know LaurDIY had a song about crafts?
For the sake of conciseness and my own sanity, I'm not going to be focusing much on these one-off songs, most of which didn't gain popularity outside of their creators' existing audiences, and more so on the "mainstream" Youtuber music which would be recognizable to nearly anyone who was on YouTube in the 2010s. This brings me to finding number two.
Finding number two: The YouTuber diss track era deserves to stay dead.
There's no denying the absolute chokehold that YouTuber diss tracks had on elementary and middle school children everywhere. As someone who has proudly never directly consumed any Paul brothers content (until now), I couldn't escape accidentally learning the lyrics to "It's Every Day Bro", nor could I escape the information that the brothers were (allegedly) beefing because one had slept with the other one's girlfriend. At the time, I would've told you that was more than I ever needed to know. But maybe I missed out. Maybe giving the songs a proper listen will make me realize their true genius.
Listening to all five Logan/Jake diss tracks properly for the first time, I wasted about twenty minutes of my life to learn only a few things: that Logan is a marginally better rapper than Jake (though still terrible), that there's absolutely no way they didn't plan this entire thing together ahead of time, and that the "England is my city" line from "It's Everyday Bro" is still, admittedly, a little bit funny.
Other staples of the YouTube diss track era – subsidiaries to the Paul brothers and their (definitely real, not at all manufactured) feud – are YouTubers Ricegum and KSI, who would also occasionally drum up beef with one another, the Pauls, or some random third party. Upon listening to their tracks for the first time, both are slightly better rappers than Jake and Logan. Neither is good. Both allegedly used ghostwriters. The Paul brothers' mutual ex-girlfriend is involved again, somehow. Also, "I Didn't Hit Her" by Ricegum is maybe the most insanely misogynistic song I've ever heard. My jaw was on the floor the entire time. I'm so glad I wasn't on this side of YouTube as a child.
I also listened to some of Pewdiepie's diss tracks (yes, plural) against T-series, the Indian record label which dethroned him for the title of the most subscribed channel on the platform. Aside from being occasionally racist, these songs are wholly unmemorable, the musical equivalent of white bread. Pewdiepie isn't the worst singer or rapper, and the songs have decent production. They're just fine. Maybe I would find them more interesting if I had had any stake in the Pewdiepie vs. T-series subscriber count battle, but I truly never cared about it, and I struggle to care now, more than five years later.
I will conclude this section with the finding that "Insecure", a then eighteen-year-old YouTube rapper Quadeca's diss track against KSI, is maybe the only genuinely good YouTube diss track. This isn't much of a surprise, considering Quadeca is now a well-established artist who's collaborated with Kevin Abstract and brakence, but it certainly was a breath of fresh air to hear while wading through the intense mediocrity of the YouTube diss track landscape.
This is not an era that I am particularly nostalgic for. I, for one, am happy to leave it far behind.
Finding number three: The YouTubers whose music got the most undeserved hate were children.
Perhaps it was the unexpected discovery of 13-year-old Justin Bieber's singing videos by music executive Scooter Braun which inspired so many children (or was it really their parents?) to create YouTube singing channels of their own, in the hopes of being launched into a comparably enormous career. In some cases, this worked – Shawn Mendes, Charlie Puth, Tori Kelly, and Alessia Cara were all "discovered" in a Bieber-esque fashion, playing songs from their childhood bedrooms for an online audience.
In other cases, a child – either unknown or one with an existing following on YouTube or TikTok (at the time, Musical.ly), was scooped up by some low-level industry professionals, given a prewritten song to talk-sing, and told to dance around for a music video. These children, being prepubescent and having most likely built a following by lip-syncing, were not good singers. Nowadays, this doesn't matter as much – not only because autotune is of much better quality, but because TikTok stars and YouTubers are taken more seriously as money-makers by the industry and thus given songs with higher production value (see Addison Rae and Lil Huddy's music for examples). Back in the early 2010s, though, very little was done to mask poor singing or to create an illusion of a professional, industry-grade music video. And the poor children who were promised a Hollywood career? They were absolutely torn apart.
I firmly believe that the relentless, unmatched vitriol the general public has for child stars needs to be studied. In this case, the criticism went beyond "this song is bad". It was public shaming and death threats. It was absolute, unbridled hatred, on a level simply not seen for adults making music on YouTube, even universally disliked figures like the Pauls.
Perhaps the most famous example is Rebecca Black. At thirteen years old, her parents paid a record label to turn her into a star. Instead, they turned her into one of the most hated people online.
Upon revisiting the offending song, "Friday", it's bad. Of course it's bad. It was written and produced by a couple low-level studio execs in probably fifteen minutes, and as a literal middle schooler, Rebecca Black can't sing very well. Obviously. But the song is also fun, catchy, and harmless. It deserved a giggle or two at its absurdity, and nothing more. And yet, children and adults alike decided to absolutely rip Rebecca Black to shreds – including comments encouraging self-harm, eating disorders, and death – to the point where she mostly retreated from the public eye until her twenties.
For the record, she makes pretty good music now. It turns out that she just wasn't very good at it as a literal child with no creative control. Who would've guessed.
This pattern has repeated itself several times since "Friday". Tiktok (then Musical.ly) stars Jacob Sartorius and Danielle Cohn were flayed alive for their songs "Sweatshirt" and "Marilyn Monroe", respectively.
Once again, upon revisiting these songs, they're not good. But both Sartorius and Cohn became famous for lip-syncing, not singing. Sartorius was 13, and Cohn was (probably) 11. Both were almost certainly pushed into making music by either their parents or managers telling them to diversify their content. It's very unlikely either one had much, if any, creative control over the songs. And yet, once again, it's the kids who single-handedly faced the barrage of hatred.
There are still more examples of this – MattyBRaps, even JoJo Siwa when she came out with "Boomerang" at age 12. I'd like to think the historical public outrage at attempted child pop stars might convince parents to stop posting their children singing online, but I know better than to hope for that. This is, unfortunately, a trend that will continue, whether on YouTube or TikTok or whatever other platform becomes popular. Truly depressing stuff.
Onto the next finding!
Finding number four: Minecraft parodies will never die.
Many of the most popular early YouTube videos were song parodies. Bart Baker and Wassabi Productions were two channels to blow up for making such content in the early 2010s. I, personally, knew every word to Jon Cozart's "After Ever After" series (which, upon a relisten, is still pretty awesome).
In my opinion, though, YouTube truly hit its stride in the era of Minecraft parodies, especially the ones with animated in-game music videos. CaptainSparklez is a god among men. There's just something so ridiculously funny about changing the lyrics to a Coldplay song to be about fighting off mobs. "Revenge", CaptainSparklez's parody of "DJ Got Us Falling In Love", might very well crack my top 25 songs of all time.
I was surprised and pleased to discover, though, that the creation of Minecraft parodies did not completely cease in 2017. They're still being made to this day, and they're still as timeless and as popular as ever. "Redstone Elevator" by Quentin Lovejoy, a parody of Chappell Roan's "Red Wine Supernova", is an instant classic.
It makes me emotional to think that new generations, too, will grow up with the luxury of hearing these incredible works of art. May their legacy live on forever.
Finding number five: (some of) the classics hold up.
In planning this article, I was particularly excited to revisit Rhett and Link's music, as it's their hefty discography which I listened to most as a child. Relistening to some of their most popular songs, including "I'm On Vacation" and "It's my Belly Button", they're just as silly and fun as they've always been; if anything, they've only gotten better with age. Jake and Logan Paul truly have nothing on Rhett and Link's "Epic Rap Battle of Manliness". They couldn't reach that level of self-awareness if they tried.
Of course, it's impossible to separate my personal biases from the quality of the songs, but they're just so good. It's so hard not to like them. Sue me.
One song to subvert my personal bias was "Superluv" by Shane Dawson, which I expected to be awful but was actually kind of fun. Not to defend Shane Dawson for the gross things he's said, obviously, but the song itself was a nice surprise; kind of like an ultra-camp return to 2000s emo pop.
Some songs that were unfortunately just as bad as I expected were "Where My Baes At?" and "Haters Back Off" by Colleen Ballinger a.k.a. Miranda Sings. Obviously, Miranda Sings is a character who's meant to be terrible at music, so these songs are bad on purpose; however, they don't even succeed at being bad in a funny way. They're completely unfunny and genuinely hard to listen to. Of course, I understand that maybe I'm not the target audience, considering all of Miranda Sings's fans are below the age of 12, but Rhett & Link's songs were meant for kids, too, and those are still just as enjoyable. Also, all the weird sexual innuendos in these songs make it pretty unclear if they're even meant for children at all.
This article is way too long already, but I don't want all the songs I suffered through to go to waste, so I'm going to speedrun my thoughts on the rest of the ones I listened to:
"Monster" by Gabbie Hanna: honestly not that bad, tries way too hard to be taken seriously but she can sing pretty well. The genius lyric video will always be hilarious though.
"Hefner" by Tana Mongeau: objectively bad but still kind of fun to listen to. Why is Bella Thorne here?
"Nice Guys" by Ryan Higa and Chester See: genuinely a funny, well-made song. This is the section of YouTube I'm most nostalgic for, honestly.
"Mask" by Dream: I'm sorry, I feel bad because it's meant to be such a serious song but this genuinely the funniest thing I've ever listened to. This is the first Dream content I've ever consumed, and I've been left so confused about what he actually does.
"E-girls Are Ruining My Life" by Corpse Husband: Scratch that. This is actually the funniest thing I've ever listened to. I don't actually know if this song is meant to be taken seriously or not, but I think it is, which is hilarious.
"I'm Gonna Kill Santa Claus" by Danny Gonzalez: Camp. Actually pretty well-written and well-produced. Very dumb and also great.
"Literally my Life" by mylifeaseva: I did not remember that Brent Rivera was in this video. I can't believe I thought this was what being in high school would be like. Still a little bit fun. Mostly very cringe.
Just a week or two ago, when I decided to write this article, YouTuber music was something I remembered fondly – like all the media we consumed when were 10, it was so wrapped in nostalgia that I thought of it as some pristine replica of a better time: the "golden era of YouTube", "when YouTube was good", etc. Upon revisiting it, I've concluded that most of it was, in fact, bad. As was all of YouTube at that point. It was good because we enjoyed it, because we discovered it at a time when our brains were malleable lumps of wet clay and we hadn't yet internalized any sense of taste, not because the quality was actually any higher than it is now.
Of the small percentage of YouTuber music that doesn't actively suck, the best is that which is enhanced, but not defined, by the platform it's on, made by people who seem to have genuine passion for music-making regardless of trends or criticism: YouTubers like Rhett & Link and the newer Danny Gonzalez – who have built careers off of comedy and commentary but consistently integrate original music into their content – give the impression that had they not found their way to a platform on YouTube, they would still be making music anyway. Even Troye Sivan, now an A-list singer, was a YouTube vlogger while simultaneously launching a music career, both ventures naturally informing one another.
After spending a week straight listening to nothing but YouTuber music, I feel like a changed person. Have I been changed for the better? No, definitely not. Honestly, I'm not sure why I even chose to put myself through this.
In conclusion, YouTuber music is bad, except for sometimes when it's good. It's usually pretty easy to tell who's doing it because they genuinely like it, and who's doing it for the money. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. I am not better than Generation Alpha. I need to go listen to some AJR to decompress.