Why do reaction videos become popular when foreigners listen to Chinese music?

As reaction videos become more popular, people can see the differences between different aesthetics and the innovation brought about by cultural integration. How can we maintain freshness for a long time?

If foreigners record their reactions when watching videos or listening to music, will people be interested in watching it?

The countless reaction videos on Bilibili make this question self-evident. People are watching, and a lot of them.

As early as a few years ago, a series of foreign UP hosts such as @郭杰瑞 and @不是柯福德 became popular on Bilibili with their reaction videos.

Simply put, a reaction video refers to a video produced by the creator recording his or her own reaction to a video and editing the material.

After several years of development, this type of video has not only not declined, but has also grown into many derivative branches. Among them, @JoeCreator is a representative UP host. He mainly reacts to Chinese music, with life vlogs and instrument performances as highlights, and has gained millions of fans. In addition, UP hosts who mainly use this type of video have outstanding opportunities and frequencies for commercial realization based on the wide attention of fans.

1. It is a reaction video and also a music review

@JoeCreator was originally a YouTuber on Youtube, and later became a music UP host on Bilibili. He has been updating his videos on Bilibili since October 2021, including a collaborative video with another UP host @不是柯森德.

After @JoeCreator just released his second video, this video titled "British people play suona for the first time" became a "hot item". As of now, this video has received 2.288 million views.

Image source: Station B

Later, @JoeCreator tried other videos related to music production, but the number of views was always disappointing. Until November 2021, @JoeCreator started to shoot a video with @不是柯福德, evaluating Chinese musician Li Jian from a foreigner's perspective. The video was smoothly produced and full of topics, and became a hit.

With this video as an anchor, @JoeCreator continued to cooperate with @不是柯福德 and collaborated on multiple videos. Among them, several videos reacting to Jay Chou's music had a playback volume of more than 4 million. The account also formed a fixed style and the number of fans increased rapidly.

Image source: Station B

Analyzing @JoeCreator's videos with high playback volume, we can find that as long as the comment is about a musician with a large fan base, the playback volume will not be too low. Arranged from high to low in terms of playback volume, we can see that well-known domestic musicians such as Jay Chou, JJ Lin, Guo Ding, and GALA have become the traffic code for each video.

It is worth noting that as a foreigner, the contrast of reacting to Chinese music is not the only reason for @JoeCreator's popularity. @JoeCreator's greatest feature is his understanding of music and his professionalism in playing musical instruments. Due to his superb pitch and music understanding ability, @JoeCreator is also nicknamed "human pitch machine" by netizens.

In addition to reaction videos, @JoeCreator also posts videos of himself playing instruments, vlogging, etc. After listening to some songs, @JoeCreator can often quickly transcribe the music and show off his instrumental playing skills.

Image source: Station B

Not only that, @JoeCreator also actively learns and practices many Chinese classical musical instruments. According to incomplete statistics, @JoeCreator's videos have featured more than a dozen instruments, including guitar, suona, cello, guzheng, trumpet, erhu, etc. Netizens left comments under his videos: "High-quality musician", "This is really professional", "Six-fingered Qin Demon Level 1"...

Through his understanding of music and study of Chinese culture, @JoeCreator caught a content trend by reacting to Chinese music and became a UP host with millions of followers.

2. Why do you like to watch foreigners’ reaction videos?

Since reaction videos can cover a wide range of topics, the creators who have made such videos on Bilibili come from almost all fields. The materials and themes of reaction videos are even more all-encompassing, including the fun "Don't laugh" challenge and "Heart-beating" challenge, foreigner reactions that explore cultural differences, reactions that complain about or recommend variety shows/films and TV series... all kinds of UP hosts.

There are endless videos of foreign professional musicians reacting to Chinese music and dramas on Bilibili. In addition to @JoeCreator, @拉美小姐姐Waleska, @JKAI杰凯, @Madi麦润林…

For example, @拉美小姐姐Waleska is also a UP host on Bilibili. So far, she has 522,000 followers. The content format of her account is similar to that of @JoeCreator, but the characters on the account are a brother and a sister. With her infectious real-time reactions and professional music interpretation, this account has also gained followers at a very fast rate.

Image source: Station B

Observing the content, we can find that musicians such as Phoenix Legend, Han Hong, and Zhou Shen have become their "traffic codes", with many videos having over one million views. Among them, the comments on the music content show the UP's profound musical skills and firmly grasp the attention of fans.

In the latest few videos, @拉美小姐姐Waleska also reacted to the Chinese movies "Kung Fu" and "Secret", which also received amazing responses and attracted many netizens to "urge for more online".

Image source: Station B

From @拉美小姐Waleska to @JoeCreator, why do people love watching reaction videos?

If you look closely, the sense of companionship is one reason. When you have just finished watching a drama or listening to a song, there is an UP host who can share with you at the same time, think what you think, and say what you say, which to a certain extent makes up for the emotional needs of the audience.

In addition, reaction videos visualize the act of "recommending". When you recommend a new TV series to your real friends, it is difficult to monitor their reactions in real time, but reaction videos show this behavior, which satisfies people's desire to share to a certain extent.

For the audience, foreign UP host reaction videos add some fun to the collision between different cultural differences. For example, in @JKAI杰凯’s videos, there are often debates about Eastern and Western singing styles. In the exchanges of barrage and video comments, people can see the differences between different aesthetics and the innovation brought about by cultural integration.

It is not difficult to find that various types of reaction video content have gradually matured, so what about their commercialization capabilities?

By observing the accounts on Bilibili that mainly use reaction videos as their content, it is not difficult to find that their main commercialization method is to undertake advertising, and their advertising sponsorship brands span multiple fields such as e-commerce platforms, games, and food.

In general, whether because of their professionalism, companionship, or fun, reaction videos are becoming increasingly popular, and their commercialization capabilities are also very prominent.

3. Final Thoughts

Judging from past reaction videos, what kind of content can be evergreen?

To answer this question, we need to look at the history of reaction videos. In fact, reaction videos are imported and first appeared on Youtube. Among them, @Fine Brothers is considered an early promoter of reaction videos. The FBE channel on YouTube has more than 20 million subscribers. The most popular series on the channel is the reaction series, in which they invite people to discuss movies, TV shows, music, games or social topics.

After the reaction videos were introduced to China, there also appeared a wave of foreigners reacting to Chinese TV shows, celebrities, movies and other related videos, which attracted a wave of attention. However, in the later period, such accounts often fall into the dilemma of content homogeneity, and the audience also becomes tired of their stereotyped praise.

But after that, professional musicians like @JoeCreator began to appear and were seen by the audience. Compared with monotonous praise, such videos can be evaluated from a relatively neutral perspective, and the creators' comments are more accurate.

Unlike in the past, viewers of this type of professional musicians are more understanding and accepting of negative comments about their favorite singers and different singing styles. This understanding also gives UP hosts a relatively relaxed creative space, allowing them to express their opinions and produce videos from a professional perspective.

In general, music, as a form, can express the meaning of a song more accurately than a drama, transcending nationality and culture, and achieving a common emotion among all those who have heard the song.

When the music plays, whether it is the UP host or the audience, they often transcend time and space, blurring the skin color and the crowd, and they are just a group of people listening to the music.

Author: Guangye , WeChat public account: KOL User Manual (ID: KOL-TOPKLOUT)