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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
geriatric1927: The Next YouTube Superstar?
“I am a widower living alone in the county in the middle of England UK. My life has been very varied but my love of motorcycles has remained with me all of my life (no, I don’t have piercings or tattoos).”
His name is Peter. He joined YouTube about a week ago and he loves the blues. As of this moment he’s attracted 15,804 subscribers, making him second only to 20-year-old Brookers at 16,152. Brookers has been on YouTube 10 months and has recently signed a production deal (NYTimes) with Carson Daly Productions.
His first video was a 2:07 effort entitled “first try.” First you see “geriatric gripes and grumbles” flying on the screen, white on blue; and then the grumbler, some old guy wearing a neatly pressed blue shirt with white stripes, looking straight at the camera (light coming from his left), and wearing headphones. We cut to a shot where the old guy is to the left and we can see more of the wall behind him, pictures hung helter-skelter on a wall covered with some elaborately striped floral wall paper. Old guy says nothing, but you hear the wail of a blues harp and the strum of a guitar on the sound track: “Oh you can talk aboutcher mother . . .” Now, the old guy talks.
first try
“I got addicted to YouTube. And, ah, ‘ts’a fascinating place to go to see all the wonderful videos that you young people have produced. So I thought I’d have a go at doing one myself. But as you can see, if this ever does get loaded up I need a lot of help.” We’re off and rambling, “gripes and grumbles . . . been there done that . . . hope you respond . . . renetto must come back, Bye now.” Blues up on the sound track; we’re out.
In the past week this modest little video has attracted over a million viewers and been picked up in Spiegel Online and the Huffington Post, among others. The most astonishing thing to my mind, however, is that this one introductory video has attracted 233 video responses to date, two-hundred-and-thirty-three (probably more by the time you read this). That’s ten times more than I’ve seen for any other video. Most get no video responses; it’s not unusual to see two, three, or four responses; more than ten, very rare. But over one-hundred?
Since then Peter has posted nine more videos, the most recent one (Telling It All Part 5) only two hours ago. One has attracted almost 140K viewings, three have attracted between 100K and 110K viewings, and the rest below 90K.
Telling it all part 1
“. . . a whole new world . . .”
Comments
Is it too much to ask for just a tad of analysis with these kind of posts, or some kind of description of why you think that this is artistically or culturally noteworthy? This is leading towards a kind of Crooked Timber syndrome of three different 400 word posts that each say nothing more than “look at this kewl beer commercial”.
My suggested interpretation (not having watched any of these videos): as with any new medium of Internet self-expression, there are tremendous and largely random first-mover effects. Everyone here probably saw the same thing with early blogging. In this case, some people probably thought “Oh, an old guy—unusual that they’d be doing YouTube like young, hip, with-it me” and hits lead to more hits in standard fashion. And as we’ve seen with blogging, there will eventually be a shakeout, in which the popular videographers will be some mixture of the at least semi-skilled first movers and the skilled late movers, and most of the inexplicably popular early ones will be forgotten.
If the point of this post is to point out this pseudo-cultural effect, then I’d guess that almost everyone here already knows it. If it’s that there is some reason to watch these videos other than their “astonishing” popularity, you haven’t said what that is.
Ya know, Rich, sometimes you just toss something out there to see if anyone’s paying attention, just trying to get something going. So thanks for the reply.
Some analysis. Sure, but not now. The interesting thing is the relationship between the number of views his first video got and the number of subscriptions he’s gotten. The number of views is high, but no match for whatshisname’s 30M+. The number of subscriptions is extraordinary for a one week stand.
In general there is no correlation between number of views and number of subscriptions. You can’t use one number to predict the other. Nope, didn’t do any formal statistical analysis, so that’s only an informal conclusion drawn from looking at a few cases.
So why’s Peter have so many subscribers? First mover’s probably part of it. Not at all sure that’s all.
More later.
Like you, Dr. Benzon, I am becoming a bit attached to Youtube. But I generally avoid the amateur clips; instead looking for, say, a great and little known clip of Steely Dan doing Black Friday:
Black Friday: sort of modern cyber-realism, an updating of Great Depression economic issues set to butt-rocking changes. “catch the great men as they dive from the 14th flo’”. Walt and Don produce a rather viable and jazzy form of political art, quite a bit preferable to either, say, Derrida or AC/DC.........
The appeal of this viral video collection is puzzling and I think you are right, Bill, in that it is a first mover type situation. I am also interested in why these memes spread. Perhaps in this case it’s the “grandpa” factor. Many teens and twenty somethings don’t have the opportunity to talk to an older person. Watching this gentleman speak is probably like speaking to a Martian. Or a resident of Charon or 2003 UB313 or any of the newfangled, mnemonic devise-destroying planets emerging in our solar system these days. In a chaotic world, it’s probably consoling to hear from someone who is civil and… I guess unhurried is the word I am looking for. Perhaps many have poor parents who are self absorbed and who never take time to talk to them with some sort of authority. How can one feel adolescent and rebellious when the parents are perpetual adolescents? I say this a dad known to tote a tot to the Staten Island Zoo wearing stuff my grandfather would not wear to bed. Who can a kid really look up to as an ideal? Enter “Grandpa”, VIA YouTube with a starched shirt, a scotch, and a story.
Or maybe they like the guy’s accent. Who knows? But I think it’s great that these things are posted here, Bill, and I think it is a relevant topic for The Valve. I think if you are going to have “culture studies” it is okay to look at what the culture is actually doing in a thoughtful way.
From what I’ve read, TV pilots that fail are being uploaded and getting a second life. For every 1000 air guitar videos by bored teenagers there could be a CGI animated version of Doctor Faustus or a great off-Broadway staging of Waiting for Godot. Someone could upload the next Citizen Kane. The technology certainly is there to do it and has been since 1941 when Citizen Kane was made. Orson Wells said that he felt like he was a kid playing with the world’s greatest train when he made that movie in his mid twenties. The train set is certainly bigger. Access to technology is greater and sooner or later, I hope, people will be able to create a meme really worth spreading. Imagine what a young Wells would do now.
I think you’ve hit it with the “benevolent grandpa” line, Christopher. Peter comes across as a very likeable, very sincere guy who’s had an interesting life. You read through the comments to his videos and lots of YouTubers express affection for him. Sure, there’s also more than a bit of “sod off you old bugger,” but the affection is there. He seems to fulfill a real need.
And he’s put himself right in the middle of the YouTube community thing. That renetto he referred to is a well-known YouTuber who’s become quite vocal about the real existence of and importance of a community on YouTube. Renetto’s posted a video asking people to say who they are and why; it’s gotten 263 video responses so far. So Peter’s right in there pushing the community thing, and that’s clearly important to YouTubers.
So, I don’t think the response to Peter is merely the novelty of an old-guy YouTuber. There’s more, there’s something going on about the life of this emerging community. This bears watching.
More stats: Peter’s “first try” now has 1,214,952 viewers. I believe it had 900K+ when I first watched it yesterday. Peter’s now got 17,163 subscribers, which puts him ahead of Brookers; he had 16,152 when I posted yesterday.
BTW, a friend who follows YouTube more closely than I do tells me that the largest number of video responses (currently 808) is to a video entitled “Biggest Video Response Chain Ever." It was posted by morbeck, another well-known YouTuber.
Telling it All Part 1 (see above) has received roughly 1800 comments so far. Here’s a few of them:
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">christyell</FONT> (6 days ago)
Great job, and great music, too! I’m glad you are being rewarded with your experience here with us…<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">TheRedneckRebel</FONT> (6 days ago)
Great Vid Im a Suscriber to your vids. Check out some of mine and keep up the good work.<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">backwards45</FONT> (6 days ago)
You are so sweet :)
<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT COLOR="#0000FF">uberhobo2</FONT> (6 days ago)
I agree.<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">britter7819</FONT> (5 days ago)
i agree also, you are one of very few sweet and caring people out there in this world
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">ChocolateMalt</FONT> (5 days ago)
I just find your videos so interesting. I think it’s because you remind me so much of my grandfather. He too lived during WW2 and was in the infantry for the American army. He went to Europe and was in many battles including the Battle of the Bulge.
Anyway, please keep posting more videos about your life because it’s very informative for those of us who don’t know what it was like to live back then.
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">chrishazzoo</FONT> (5 days ago)
Looks like the world is showing you some love! Here is some love from Southern California....I will look forward to each video you create!
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">RadioactiveChicken</FONT> (5 days ago)
My dad who’s in his sixties now talked of buying a computer for years but I guess found it a bit overwhelming at first.
Someone gave him an old computer to get him started and within months he was learning how to build his own computers and taking his first steps into cyber space.
Now you have trouble getting him off the pc. I think it’s the equivalent of the potting shed for the 21st century.
Keep up the good work. You’ve got a lovely relaxed presenting style which makes it a joy to watch.
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">mkamglenn</FONT> (5 days ago)
your videos make my day!!! i wish all people could be as raw and personal as you! =)</BLOCKQUOTE>
WLC: I’m more of a jazz man myself. Lots of old footage on YouTube, some Duke Ellington, Diz, Bird, Miles—some of it like 99th generation copies, so the visual’s mostly a pulsating grey smear. Some interesting concert footage of more recent vintage as well.
Peter has posted another video in which he says that the mainstream media’s all hot to interview him and he doesn’t care at all about that. All he wants to do is talk with YouTubers. What’s more, someone’s taken his YouTube identity (geriatric1927) and reserved it as a domain name without in any way consulting him. So he wants people to know he has nothing to do with that.
He’s gotten 41 video responses so far. I’ve looked at a handfull, most of them supportive. Rich031983 points out that, regardless of what you may want, once you post to the web, you’re public. You can’t control who’ll view your work or what they’ll do. 18-year old matsie expresses her admiration for Peter and tells the story of how her grandmother survived a Nazi forced-labor camp in World War II. Issyizzy expresses general admiration and appreciation, that she learns from his stories, and sorrow about the media mess.
Meanwhile, Paul Robinet (aka renetto) has issued a general call for creativity. He wants everyone to be creatively “self unemployed” like he is. He’s an inventor, entrepreneur, musician, painter, candle maker and hasn’t cleaned up the big branch that fell in the yard because his kids have built a fort in it. And besides, the branch is in his neighbor’s yard.
Peter (aka geriatric1927) decided to take leave from YouTube. He’ll still watching videos, but he’s no longer going to post. He’s got health problems, and doesn’t want to leave, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. He chose “The Great Pretender” as the music to roll under the end credits of his last video. A class act.
I decided to respond to him in kind, with a performance of “West End Blues,” as recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1928. Peter loves the blues. As do I.
This is an interesting phenomenon. One that I am experiencing first hand. As manager of an internet celebrity, in this case Brent Simon, I know what it’s like to be at the top of YouTube.
But what I find very hard to understand is how someone with no real knowledge of the internet (as it seems) can post a video without promoting it and have it reach millions of viewers. And cultivate over 15,000 subscribers. What is a subscriber - someone who cares about the content? Or someone hired to subscribe? It’s hard to actually determine what is real, legitmate content created by what we think are people just like us.
In the same way teens were brainwashed into what was popular by watching MTV (before the internet), YouTube now has the power to do the same.
With corporate big wigs out there pulling the strings, how do we know what we are seeing is not already predetermined to be popular? Is there a motive behind all this?
I take pride in knowing that my buddy Brent is a real talent. And he’s earning his way to the top. I can see that Lonelygirl15 chick getting a contract to do some tv show just like Brookers did.
This old man, however, I can’t really find out what kind of motive would be behind it becuase I haven’t seen more than one video. It may be completely honest, but how does one go about attracting nearly 20,000 loyal subscribers in such a short amount of time. It’s as if these viewers already knew about him before his videos even hit the net.
These questions need to be answered.
On Lonelygirl15, there’s some suspicion that she already has a contract and that her YouTube thing is what she’s doing on that contract. That is, some people think she’s a fictional character. I have no opinion on the matter myself.
On geriatric1927, as far as I can tell, it just happened. He didn’t try to become a celebrity, but it happened.
It’s as if these viewers already knew about him before his videos even hit the net.
I think that’s pretty close to it.
8 minutes of Fagen/Becker & Co. live a few weeks ago (8/24/06): probably more authentic (and complex) than anything ever written by Walker Percy, Brautigan, or Ginny Woolfe for that matter…
Well, the story has been leaked that Lonelygirl15 is a project of a student filmmaker and is indeed scripted entertainment.
Link: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2006/09/07/lonelygirl15.html
Yep, Jeff, the story’s leaking out all over the place. Here’s a really interesting tidbit which TheManFromUNCLE posted as a comment to LG15’s latest:
A federal trademark application, US Serial No. 78957059, for the term lonelygirl15 was filed on August 22, 2006 by Kenneth Goodfried of Encino, California. In the application he includes screenshots of an article about lonelygirl15, states that he is the sole owner of the trademark, and that he has been using the trademark in interstate commerce since May 24, 2006. [10] The first lonelygirl15 video was uploaded to youtube on that day.
You can verify that information by searching this database.
Lonelygirl15 has now passed geriatric1927 in the ratings.
Lonelygirl15 fracas makes NBC:
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That video on NBC was interesting but the commentary from the dude filming it was really annoying. God damn, he was annoying.
That dude was Paul Robinett’s renetto character, the holy fool of YouTube.