Why Can't YouTubers Make Good Music? 

Joji broke the cycle

The mention of Wilbur here is certainly interesting timing

You forgot kwite exists “balls touchin when we fuckin that’s connect 4”

Something i think worth mentioning is that most of the RU-vidrs that actually made good music when they were active on youtube, were already active musicians. Joji, Neil Cicierega, Dan Avidan, they were all making music before youtubing was any major part of their lives.

ngl skipping over PewDiePie's tracks and Markiplier's and Jacksepticeye's meme songs about games was a very large piece of youtube history being thrown out

Finding out pink guy and JoJi are the same person is like experiencing every single trap from every home alone movie all at the exact same time.

Bro didn't just skip over the Fallen Kingdom quadrilogy.

im noticing a lack of people mentioning james marriott in this comments section. actual fire.

Fun fact: A few years ago there was a dutch youtuber who decided to go do music for a living and he is now going to the eurovision as the representative for the netherlands. His name is Joost Klein

people forget neil cicirega is a youtuber and when they dont he will come back like the avatar

Bill Wurtz: *Am I A Joke To You?*

every captain sparkles song after fallen kindom wasint a parody, they were all made from the ground up and acually got pretty welll made at some points

I used to like wilburs music back in 2020, but now i realize its just an autobiography and not a character, which really makes it clear why he made so many red flag filled songs. the shelby situation just makes "your sister was right" sound like a song made to apologize 4-5 years prior.

Fun fact: in Eastern Europe, if a RU-vidr ends up creating music, there is a 70% chance of it being rap and 30% chance of it being some 2014 YTP Pop.

LIVING TOMBSTONE SWEEP 🗣️

Dixon Cider is unironic musical perfection. That bridge still gets stuck in my head to this day lmao.

Glad to see Poppy get a mention, recently went to one of her gigs and she topped my Spotify listens in 2023 and she's currently touring with Avenged Sevenfold but I entirely understand why she isn't a global phenomenon, she seems to just be having fun with it experimenting with different genres and I'm here for it.

Quadeca legit has the #1 album on AOTY for 2024… and he wasn’t even mentioned once in this 😭😭

Quadeca sweep

Quadeca transcended

Vinny aint the only Vinesauce member who makes music, Joel has a straight up metal band called scythelord, and he also sometimes makes entire comedy albums about skeletons and bootleg robocop toys

Troye Sivan has successfully made the transition. Most people have no idea he used to be a youtuber.

Jake Paul sweep

Red Vox became my favorite band before I even had any idea that it’s Vinny’s band, and I think that really shows how the quality of their music is the focal point of the band, not the fact that people in it are on the internet

I like Danny Gonzalez' music, but I think his style of comedy and wit works well in the songs and comes across as not taking itself seriously.

This guy is Dreams and Matpats love child.

Softwilly and The Group have all made amazing music

We weren't all "stuck inside" during COVID. Some of us had to go out there every day and actually work.

Schmoyoho and Jackcepticeye's song 'All the Way' will forever be my favorite youtuber-made song

Neil Cicierega sweep

Dream making a music video about his deceased friend, while trying to make it about his mental health was the most vile moment in his career.

Man it’s rlly simple. Making music is something you train and get better at with experience and feedback. All musicians go through a beginner phase where they write pure ass before improving and finding their own creative voices (or figuring out the formula to finesse the most money). When that finally happens, they start getting the opportunities to get popular and make the rounds. Non musician famous people like youtubers or actors who decide to make music circumvent that process entirely. They already have audiences, so their first releases instantly become high profile regardless of quality. They don’t need to get into the groove of honing their craft so that it becomes successful because it already is by nature of being attached to their brand. This is really evident with someone like dream. That mask song scans like one of the first things you’d write if you were just starting to make alternative pop, it might even be a first draft for all we know. It being shit wouldn’t be an issue for any other beginner artist though because being crap at art is a necessary first step towards becoming not crap at art, but dream is already popular, so his half baked first attempts get blasted across the whole world. The whole thing is just embarrassing to see every time it happens. I’m already deeply ashamed by the demos I made when I was starting out and no one even heard those, so I can only imagine what it must feel like some 2 or 3 years down the road for these RU-vidrs to look back at these songs.

Counterpoint: The Stupendium

Fully expected a little Lovejoy discussion during the Wilbur section

I like NakeyJakey’s music

Nahhhh Bromance goes hard as fuck. I will still sometimes go back and show people that video because it’s simply iconic.

Softwilly is genuinely a creative artist that has a few solid bangers. The whole concept of multiple content creators collabing to make music in tandem with actual artists is cool.

SiIvaGunner sweep

Tobuscus clears all of these with his diamond sword song

I got this recommended from a Danny Gonzalez music video…

Surprised Danny Gonzalez never came up, honestly. He's a pretty decently sized channel. Makes comedy songs based on video topics he covers, and they're pretty good. I unironically listen to "I'm Gonna Kill Santa Claus" on loop every christmas season. Definitely the first that comes to mind for me when I think RU-vidr who make good music.

But.. QUAD DID

Love the red vox mention :) I feel for the reason their music is actually good is because Vinny is quite passionate about making music, he made stuff from even his way earlier youtube days under the name Davys Gray. Shows that he didn’t do it to get that bag, he just wanted to pursue it. Also it’s not only Vinny that was passionate about it, another band member Joe had a band before Red Vox called Happy Anarchy. The fact that they had so many people passionate about music definitely helped them I’d say. Anyway sorry for getting historic, I just love Red Vox

Honestly, most of the RU-vid "songs" I liked as a kid were Minecraft Song Parodies. Did I think they were good? I thought they were fun to listen to but that is it. I do still think they are good but I think it's just my memories of nostalgia speaking more than the thoughts of a critic. It really does feel like the question with RU-vidrs as Musicians would be: "Is their music good because they are talented in music or because it rides on a different kind of fame?" With the latter question, I'm thinking the logic of you looked for the song because it was about a video game you like, as is the case with Minecraft Song Parodies. I only learned about Living Tombstone because he made songs about Five Nights at Freddy's or DAGames when he made songs about Bendy and the Ink Machine. Yeah, most of the RU-vidr Songs I like are video game themed, hence why they also include artists such as ChalkEaters or EgoRaptor with his Starbomb Albums. If the problem isn't that RU-vidrs don't have talent, then the problem is a subject of what they want to make music about. If the topic they're using is what they truly want, then good on them and there's nothing wrong with that. They just don't seem like an answer you can use for the question in this video. Other RU-vidrs that I listen to that fall under this category include Schmoyoho, AmaLee (even though she's mostly a VTuber and VA but still, she mainly does English covers for Anime Theme Songs), and Bo Burnham. With that said, I might consider Geno Samuel as a good example of a good RU-vid Musician. It's just that he isn't well known. Either that, or the first thing that is more likely to come to mind when you think of him is a certain documentary that I won't name.

I think something you omitted from the video is the fact that Penguinz0, arguably the biggest and most popular commentary youtuber, ALSO makes music. Most of it is pretty experimental, sure, but he's pretty serious about it and some of it genuinely bangs. I still have 2019 Guy stuck in my head nonstop to this day, despite not listening to it since 2020. There are plenty of youtubers who make serious music both ironically and unironically, it's just that we tend to focus on the bad stuff.

24:09 this aged bad the second it came out 💀

" lemme tell you something... it's not enough to know what notes to play, you gotta know WHY they need to be played".... George Carlin..

i completely forgot about the diss track era.. oh my god. there was so much slop pumped out back then. glad its not a thing anymore

TinyMeatGang hiding in the corner with a creepy grin.

Toxic Gossip Train goes hard frfr 🔥

Vocaloid producers shivering in their timbers rn

Red Vox mention made me happy. I think Red Vox's success is because Vinny had genuine inspiration. The type of music he makes is modeled a lot after what he grew up listening to and he had genuine passion for it.

Never forget Post Malone was apart of team crafted back in the day

I swear Gabbie made a vine that was like her singing in the bathroom and a guy was like Guy: “Did anyone ever tell you you can sing?” Gabbie: “Yeah, actually.” Guy: “Those guys are not your friends.”

Absolutely awesome video man, this type of content on RU-vid history is so organic. Reminds me of talking to family about all the crazy stuff that happens on the platform. Only nitpick I could have is that we kinda skimmed over the point when distracks were kinda subverted like w/ content cop or Pewdiepie v T-Series. Also ai covers w/ RU-vidrs and schlatt’s my way cover is noteworthy

it's funny because one of my favourite musicians are dodie and Conan Gray, and at that time I discovered them as youtubers, but then I listened to their covers and original songs and grew to appreciate them as artists! now i make my own music and think how much they influenced me - while youtube has a bad rep of music in general, i wouldn't be making music if it weren't for youtube lmao

Wilbur Soot’s music actually really helped me through some hard times in my life, as cringy and chronically-online that sounds. This recent shit has really affected me, and knowing that a musician who somewhat saved my life is such a horrific person really hurts. 💔 Edit: to clarify when I’m talking about “Wilbur’s music” I mean his solo stuff, like Your City Gave Me Asthma, not his parody stuff!

James Marriott has some of the best and impactful music out there rn imo. Shit hits me deep because it’s so evidently real in how he writes the songs

I mean, just because it's a joke song, doesn't mean it's bad. It's all about the vibe, whether a joke or not. Music is for creativity and fun. Plus to be fair, the hunger games song by BajanCanadian was 100% better than Decisions by Borgore. And Find the Pieces, Take Back the Night, and Dragonhearted were literally original songs.

It's worth noting that most of the exceptions to the rule in terms of RU-vid creators making bad music are.. well, music channels. One of my favorite musicians is DM Dokuro, and his entire channel is almost nothing but music.

say what you will about minecraft parodies, but the Fallen Kingdom quadrilogy is exquisite and even the slightly cringier ones like Skelly Heart are still my childhood and I will forever have a special place in my heart for them.

Regarding Wilbur Soot, he would also create a band called Lovejoy that took a more Britpop/Artic Monkeys sound that would garner him a lot more mainstream acclaim. He even ended up being able to perform at Glastonbury as I recall. The lyrics are much more biting, but there is definitely still that sadness within them.

the earliest example i know of a youtuber who was actually successful making music is troye sivan. he was part of that early 2010s vlog squad with youtubers like zoella and tyler oakley, but was so successful with music that most people don’t even know he did youtube. i was super into his first album in like 2015, and i didn’t find out he was a vlogger until a couple years after.

Opening line is actually so funny cuz my favourite band is Red Vox and two of their four members are streamers, Vinesauce Vinny and Jabroni Mike. They’re genuinely so good and I’m obsessed. I also want to bring up Shiey and Jakey, both of which do rap! Shiey’s videos are urban exploring, going into abandoned places and showing them off. Jakey does video essay type videos about whatever topics please him and I love both their videos and music! I never see people talk about Red Vox, Shiey or Jakey so I want to shout them out, here! YO WAIT RED VOX MENTION LETS GOOOO

Wilbur Soot had one of the best youtuber to musician transitions I’ve ever seen. Sucks that he was a bad person. I’m gonna pirate his music tho because yk I still like it

Red Vox is one of my personal favorites, made by Vinesauce’s Vinny. His music just seems to get better with each album and they all have a distinct sound and tone from album to album. Also can’t forget the musical genius of the Gentle Men

I think an important distinction to note here is this: RU-vidrs who decide to make some music, and RU-vidr musicians who's career *is* to make music Of course there's exceptions. Some people even transition from one to another, some do both b/c they're actually musically talented but make entertainment as their main focus. (RU-vidr Shiey is my favorite example of this. Oh and Bill Wurtz too, especially him.)

DanTDM's spacedog is an amazing work of art

Stuck with Red Vox's discography since 2016 with 'What Could Go Wrong' and its great seeing them mature in their production. Imo their best song is 'Stranded' and best album is 'Another Light' if you're wondering where to start.

It's funny to hear that youtube had 1.5 million users in the late 2007. Back then when a video had a million views, it felt like everyone I knew also saw it. Now a make up tutorial or a cooking video can get 30+ million views and most of us will never see it or hear anyone ever mention it. Times have truly changed.

Man this isn't the type of video i would normally watch, but it is extremely intriguing, and really well. Good job will look out for the similar approaches to subjects.

Watching this because of autoplay, thought it was a channel with 500k+ subs and this video was huge.Keep it up man, you'll go far

First thing I think of regarding youtubers as musicians is stuff like TryHardNinja and The Living Tombstone. I don't remember if they were legit youtubers before focusing on their music, but I do know that their music primarily came from youtube, and it was legitimately great! I still have a couple of their songs on my playlists to this day!

Can't believe this guy didn't mention Your Favorite Martian once.

This is very interesting to me as RU-vid Germany usually follows the trends of English RU-vid, but in this case it seems like they were actually ahead of the curve. In 2015 a German group of RU-vidrs formed a band and made real music they went on tour and even after the band broke up the members started a semi-serious music career on their own which means they have their own music channels with lots of views for each video (at least by German standards) and don't really upload to their actual main channels anymore

Just gonna throw in some really great musicians that got their start on RU-vid and/or are still releasing music on RU-vid. Lindsey Sterling, Living Tombstone, Aviators, Star Bomb, Midnight, Essenger, Scandroid, Adrian Von Zeigler, Marcus Warner, Jyc Row, Alex Moukala, Osirois, Samuel Kim, Chad Lawson, Miracleofsound, Timecop 1983... Just to name a few.

Not seeing any comments about him talking shit about Bromance, that was a bop and always will be

Aviators, Miracle of Sound, Adrian Von Ziegler, Joji, Living Tombstone, and basically all the brony youtubers who made music.

bro aint no way he called bromance "Not good" That shit was banger

There seems to be a lot of really good music from RU-vidrs that people wanted me to talk about. Maybe a video about the BEST RU-vidr music in the future?

Great video!! The thing is a lot of these youtubers aren't fully dedicated to music and don't have it as their main focus. Maybe they do music on the side or tried making music a couple times. But when you think of them, music usually isn't the first thing you think about them. I know a lot of music youtubers (including me) whose entire niche is just music. Not gaming, not vlogs, not comedy, etc. And when your channel is only about music, you are bound to make better songs because that is your priority and your passion, not some joke or side task. Anyway, it's just something interesting to think about 😄

Alpharads "Ace Of Hearts" band is pretty good imo

RU-vidrs typically make music for content, maybe to try something new, maybe for money/ views. But the point is they don't typically do it for the passion and you can hear it in their music, there's no real emotion most of the time, no real passion and that's why their music isn't usually the best.

i would like to mention VanossGaming, a silly Gmode gaming channel who made music so good i thought it was someone else

Danny Gonzalas’s let me go still bops hard

big baller b sweep

Bro forgot Dan Bull💀

Im shocked you didnt mention Troye Sivan. He started out as a youtuber and became an extremely famous singer. His first songs were cover music and self made ep's. He is arguably more famous than Joji.

Epic rap battles were the best fr

Wilbur Soot's music sounds like something I can sink my teeth into

You made me realize, I'M FUCKING OLDER THAN RU-vid. And for that, all i can say is, 'how dare you.'

Great opinion, excellently made, history is spot on and goes through the narrative hoops of explaining current distaste in RU-vid music, even assures to the audience that good RU-vidr music obviously exists (even if you stink it with a clickbait title), however it is invalid for one indisputable reason, Neil Cicierega.

The reason youtubers seem to not be very good at music is simply because there is a lot of bad music that normally doesn't get any attention. It is a very selective way of looking at average music quality when there has already been a pre selection process by the algorithm and what have you before we even get to see the music we deem good or bad. There are many exceptions but in general this is the case. If you have someone that already has a platform and uses this platform to promote their music chances are they will fall into the part of the pre selection that previously would not have seen the light of day at all. This is not really inherently good nor is it really bad. It just is. It can lead to interesting styles and music that normally would not have had any attention. But what it usually ends up being is just some undercooked pop tunes or emotionally bankrupt emo songs. I don't like to attribute skill to talent but if you do want to give it that name I would say that talent isn't rare, there are 8 billion people on earth and out of those there are sure to be more fantastic musicians than the market can ever consume.

Moistcritical is in a good band called The Gentle Men, also Alpharad’s Ace Of Hearts is pretty decent!

Just because someone is talented at one thing doesn't mean they'll be talented at another. Sometimes their hubris convinces them otherwise.

This is an interesting topic for multiple reasons. One of those is that there is a very key distinction to be made in discussing RU-vidrs who make music. There are RU-vidrs who make music, and it's usually bad, however, there are RU-vid based musicians, and many of them are incredibly talented and creative.

There is this guy called Yun Li who is a Brazilian youtuber, and his latest albums are really nice. I think it's one of the best examples of this

i aint even gonna hold you i got a corpse song in my playlist and i've barely even seen his videos

Girlfriend Reviews is a great singer, Jacksflims makes catchy songs, and I love the way Drew Gooden plays guitar

Neil Ciecierega or Lemon Demon's so goated tho underrated ASF.