"Reaction Videos"

I understand your interest, and I definitely don't fault you or anyone else for enjoying YouTube drumming prodigies and so on. There was a time when I admired drumming for drumming's sake, but I moved beyond that mindset years ago, and it's hard to see myself returning to it. I'm much more intrigued now by drumming that bleeds into a specific musical context, one in which the drummer doesn't stand out but rather fuses seamlessly into the overall ensemble. I often don't even know the names of the drummers I'm listening to. If the music is good, the drummer is doing his or her job, and I see the effort as a collective accomplishment rather than as a great drummer who happens to be playing with a band. In that sense, standalone drummers are at odds with my musical orientation at this point.

Rest assured that in the '80s and '90s, drummers with elite skills and blazing chops were a huge draw to me. My definition of "skills" has just changed over the years. A lot of players who never caught my attention are now catching my attention because their drumming does nothing to warrant attention, if that makes sense. The Drumming God phenomenon just doesn't do it for me anymore.

Example: If I had to choose between listening to Ringo Starr with The Beatles or Dave Weckl with one of his intensely intricate fusion bands, I'd take Ringo in a second, and I think we both know who the more "badass" drummer is between the two. Paul McCartney was once asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world. Laughing, Paul replied, "He isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles."

I don't disagree - I've always said that a good singer with a guitar can write a song that can move me or anyone to tears or action - even the absolutely best drum solo in the entire world is maybe moderately interesting to the listener with good ears - or if it's flashy like a spinning drum set or something a lot of casual listeners can get into it - and it will never move someone the way a good song can.

So I think we agree there - however, we play drums - so as a craft I like seeing what's possible and pushing myself out of 2 and 4 backbeats in 4/4 time.

I would honestly pick Ringo too - but that's because I've seen Weckl and what he has to offer. What I enjoy is seeing the new people and new sounds more than I did when I was in my heavy learning phase studying Weckl's and Gadd's and Rich, etc.

In fact I rarely these days listen to any music that's super "Drummy" just because fusion has always been more academic listening than practical listening. I guess that's the other thing I like about Instagram - one minute videos! That's about the extent of the drum fireworks I can deal with haha - but on occasion I'll find someone that I really get inspired by and I'll seek out a youtube or a Zildjian Live Session or whatever.

The only "Drumming God" I still hold to that moniker is Vinnie C. - and to your point - a lot of that is because not only does he have the ability to be a metric modulating, mind bending, chops hound - but he has the ability to play a Faith Hill track with brushes and play 1 fill in the entire song, but it's the tastiest lick ever and I would have never thought of it with a 1,000 years to work on a track.


Careful with that Beatle's quote - technically it's been attributed to John - not Paul - and was actually factually (ha) uttered by British comedian Jasper Carrott in 1983. ;-)
 
Careful with that Beatle's quote - technically it's been attributed to John - not Paul - and was actually factually (ha) uttered by British comedian Jasper Carrott in 1983. ;-)

Ha! That's not surprising. I've heard it presented a few different ways but recently encountered what appeared to be an accurate attribution to Paul. It's always safer to paraphrase in these instances. I'd better edit above to avoid libel.

Vinnie C.'s capacity to incorporate busy playing into simple compositions has always been astounding. He makes "more" sound like "less" in a way no one else can, and he always goes about it tastefully.

I saw Weckl with Chick Corea back in the early '90s and was floored. If you called Dave the best drummer on the planet, you wouldn't hear me disagree.

Most of the country I play these days is uniformly in 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4, with 6/8 appearing every now and then. I do continue to practice in odd time signatures to keep things fresh, but backbeat drumming is what I enjoy most. There's just nothing more satisfying to me than laying down a groove.
 
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I really have no other feelings towards those 'reaction videos' besides that it annoys the crap out of me. Watched a couple and i just don't get it... why is watching someone watching/listening to something so much fun? Partly that it annoys me so much is that i watched Rush - Hemispheres for example and suddenly i get tons of suggestions from YouTube to watch some dudes listen and react to it. Partly because i feel like social media is tipping towards oversharing everything you see like those "influencers". Anyway, enough of my rant ;)
I did like when 66Samus reacted to the reaction video someone made of him and took a complete piss over it haha
 
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This Thread has not been posted for a month, does this count as dead? Dunno, but I felt like throwing in my 2 cents on this one.
Reaction Videos:
I happen to like them when its genuine, I like watching people broaden their horizon in ways they would not have, had it not been for their youtube channel. One of my biggest Joys for example is watching Black people that are only into Gangsta rap kinda stuff listen to Classic Rock for the first time, or listen to "Tennessee Whiskey" by Christ Stapleton, which classified as Country. Seeing them fall in Love with Blues and Soulfull Music is something I find beautiful. Seeing a gangsta Rapper have tears in eyes saying "what have I been doing with my life?" after experiencing "simple man" by Skynyrd for the first time (yes, that happens, often).
It also has gnudged me into Groups and artist that I would never have checked out on my own, again, like Chris Stapleton. :D

Youtube/Twitch and the likes:
People like watching people that are better than themselves in a certain activity. if sitting down on the couch watching Sports isnt a bad thing, then sitting down and watching somebody play minecraft or any other game isnt either.
Also, there is a side to all this that is hard to explain, especially to outsiders. Often times, its not just random people sitting and watching something seperated from one another, there is a comunity, there is chat activity. There are a great many Youtubers and Streamers out there that have build a family around themselves that is active with each other off, and on screen. oftentimes they will be on teamspeak together, talking and chatting with people from all around the globe. I myself have people I call friends (and I dont do that lightly) that I have never met, but know more intimate details about their lifes than probably their own parents. and its from all over the World, US, Canada, Sweden, Middle East, Australia. I myself am from germany btw to give some context.
I understand that it seems like all they do is "sit infront of that damn thing, doing nothing productive", but it likely only seems that way. There is a good possibillity that you just stumbled into a conversation where somebody on the other end of the world is crying over their divorcing parents (also not a hyperbolic, it happened).

but yes, there a lot of people who do sit in front of that damn box doing nothing productive... unfortenatly, just like anything that produces endorphins, it can be addictive. but that is a hole other topic in itself :D
thanks for enduring my rambling wall of text.
 
Most reaction channels are stupid, but there are some that self-label themselves as Reaction channels but they're really an in-depth review channel from non-musicians. My favorite of these is Lost in Vegas. Again, they advertise themselves as a reaction channel, but they're pretty much reviewers. They go pretty in depth into each song they listen to, what they like about it, compare it to other similar songs by the same group or genre, etc. etc. And there's been a couple of songs they've reviewed that I never heard before even though they're from genres/bands I like or am familiar with. Victims of Changes by Judas Priest and Know Your Enemy by RatM are two prime examples. I now love those songs, but I first heard them from the Lost in Vegas review videos.
 
Most reaction ones are bad.. some i have found are decent but they are a bad rabbit hole and will eat time. One i enjoyed was a classical flutist watching Ian Anderson do his thing :)
P.S. i hadn't listened to any Tull in like 20+ years... That drummer should get way more credit, he just plays some beautiful stuff.
 

This video actually created enough reaction, that In The Air Tonight REAPPEARED on the charts.

Personally, I can watch some. . .for example--seeing people crack up because they've never seen Bill Burr before, that can be some funny stuff. But watching someone else react to a video YOU can watch, seems kinda frickin' stupid to me.
 
Most reaction ones are bad.. some i have found are decent but they are a bad rabbit hole and will eat time. One i enjoyed was a classical flutist watching Ian Anderson do his thing :)
P.S. i hadn't listened to any Tull in like 20+ years... That drummer should get way more credit, he just plays some beautiful stuff.

Which drummer? Haha. The original is Clive Bunker, who drummed on a lot of their radio classics like Aqualung and Teacher and Living in the Past, but Barriemore Barlow came in with Thick as a Brick and is an absolute powerhouse. John Bonham said he was the best British drummer there ever was. One of my favorites for sure.
 
Barlow is the one that i was thinking of.. it's like he almost never just puts down a beat it's always something special going on but it doesn't stand out or get in the way it just fits.
 
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