Why do Brazilians like to see foreigners react to national music? To understand!

For a while now, the internet has been witnessing an interesting phenomenon: Foreigners interested in Brazilian music productions. It is not known whether the curiosity is real or not, but it is a fact that there are tens of thousands of content about it on social networks and video platforms.

And popular “reactions” are for every taste. Country music, funk, MPB, rock, rap and many other genres played in the country are liked by foreigners.

In addition to wondering how the other person will absorb the content they watch, the audience also enjoys the exaggerated reactions, swearing, intimidation and all the other sincere emotions that occur when seeing something for the first time.

HE TecMundo He decided to investigate why foreigners’ reactions to Brazilian songs were so successful and how the main video platforms viewed this phenomenon. Check out what we discovered about the viral reactions taking over the internet below.

reaction history

Despite what it might seem, reactions are not a new trend, as there have been videos of people reacting to something since mid-2006. One of the first viral videos of its kind was the Scary Maze Game, that little game. It is innocent but reveals a great fear.

Hundreds of grandparents, mothers, fathers and children suffered from the prank, which resulted in the image of Regan MacNeil, the possessed little girl from the movie, being projected onto the screen. SpiritualistFrom 1973.

Around 2007, the Brazilian internet had the displeasure of discovering 2 Girls 1 Cup. A video of one of the most exotic fetishes in the news has become quite a plate (or a full cup) for those who want to know their friends’ reactions. While watching those unforgettable scenes.

Wikipedia tracks the evolution of the trend, remembering that reaction videos became stronger again around 2013. That year, HBO aired the third season of the series. game of Thrones and the ninth chapter, The Rains of Castamere, traumatized those who had not read the books. A song of ice and fire.

Reactions to shocking moments or major plot changes in movies and TV series have continued to grow and have even helped fuel excitement for film and television productions such as: Avengers, Darkness, Hereditary, Breaking Bad, Round 6, Mom, Mr Robot This Broken.

Gringos react

Considering that Reactions had already dominated the internet and was the main content for many content creators, it didn’t take long for foreigners to look to Brazil. With their tremendous intellectual power, Brazilians transformed their cultural productions into export products.

In addition to music, food, habits, football, movies are among the inputs that foreign creators use to attract Brazilians. And many of them have found success in reacting to the things we produce.

Dutch content creator Nienke Helthuis is an example of this. Currently with nearly 1 million followers on Instagram, 1 million followers on TikTok, and 3.2 million subscribers on YouTube, Brazil went viral the moment she discovered it.

His most viewed videos include his reactions to funk, Pabllo Vittar, Brazilian snacks, country music, and rap. At the top, which has more than 10 million views on YouTube, is the video in which the European reacts to singer Anitta’s song Vai Malandra.

Nienke’s “case”, which resulted in him learning Portuguese and traveling to Brazil several times, was so successful that it indirectly inspired other creators.

unique rhythms

Various creators reacting to Brazilian music almost always have the same reaction: surprise. This is especially true when the rhythm being enjoyed is funk.

Giant Limes are an example of this. He is a YouTuber who started creating content in December 2021 and currently has more than 180 thousand subscribers. The video in which he calls Brazilian funk “the craziest music genre” is among the most watched productions with 400 thousand views.

“I’ve never been as surprised and excited about a song in the whole year as I am now,” he says after hearing DJ Arana’s É Só um Lance Lero Lero. “This is a feeling I have and I cannot summarize. Because you listen to this song and you’re like ‘what the hell is this?’ you think. “You can’t understand,” he says.

Another creator who never tires of being surprised by our country’s cultural mix is ​​North American Clinton Manigault. The artist, better known by his pseudonym Goony Googles, has more than 320,000 subscribers on YouTube and 143,000 followers on Instagram.

In an interview with TecMundoClinton states that her favorite band in Brazil is Racionais and her favorite singer is Péricles. An avowed fan of hip-hop, she praises not only the sound of Brazilian rap but also its symbolism.

“I really like the connection that Brazilian hip-hop has with the past. I find it fascinating that Samba and other genres are the driving force of modern sound and aesthetics. Moreover [gosto] “It’s an indication of modern MCs’ connection to hip-hop’s past,” he argues.

“I am not a foreigner reaction”

Goony Googles, who has been living in Brazil for about a month and visiting the cities of São Paulo and Goiás, says that he started his YouTube journey with a personal project to react to movies he had never seen before. After a certain point, he decided to go into feature films in other countries, and from that point on, it was inevitable that he would reach this point. God’s city.

He jokes that he found the video of the Brazilians and from then on the public began to demand more and more reactions.

“Brazilians have become the main viewers of my channel. But I said that my channel is not a ‘Gringo Reacts channel’. So I kept reacting to other content. But in the end, I managed to reach nearly 10 thousand subscribers and I wanted to congratulate and thank Brazil. I never thought this would happen, so I said, ‘Well, since you’re requesting songs, I’ll react to some of them.’ And that changed my life.”

I finally arrived in Brazil!! via https://t.co/ju43Yi7eRX @YouTube pic.twitter.com/ypLVwVcbDL

— Goony G Jackson (@GoonyGoogles) January 15, 2024

The first song Clinton reacted to was Diary of a Prisoner. “Racionais pays tribute [os antepassados] in their actions and music. They continue to fight for justice and support black power. “I discovered Brazil at an interesting time for black people and black people in general,” he argues.

He emphasizes that reacting to all of this made him identify more and more with what he saw, because he felt a certain sense of closeness. The stranger even emphasizes how musical identity is mixed with racial identity in the hip-hop example; this leads to a certain similarity in music in the United States.

North American says that songs bearing the traces of black culture also define how much society is valued, and argues that this is essential for the black population to combat problems such as racism.

Why do Brazilians love watching reactions to national songs?

Content producer Clinton Manigault says that when listening to Brazilian music, he sees experiences in the lyrics that he recognizes. In other words, from the perspective of the person responding, a direct connection can be made to what is seen. But on the other hand, why do Brazilians like to see someone they don’t know react to content they already know so much about?

There are various hypotheses that attempt to answer this question, and the connection is a scientific answer to the question. Web site ArsTechnica In 2016, he produced a report that tried to explain how science views the success of the responses.

“When you see someone reacting strongly to something, it’s much easier to empathize with them because you know exactly what they’re feeling,” said Andrea Weinstein, a clinical psychologist whom she consults. ArsTechnica. “We immediately feel connected to them because we say, ‘Yes, I would have that reaction, too,'” the expert added.

@followhwstar #kpop #girlgroupstan #kpopgg #kpoper #anacastela #reagindonotiktok #kpopbrasileiro #tiktokmefezassistir #coreanas #coreiabrasil????????? ? original sound

Coming to the social phenomenon, the reactions to the content we know are successful because of vanity. “It is very gratifying to see people from other cultures appreciate Brazilian music and bring it international recognition. “This keeps us very engaged, proud and increases our self-esteem as Brazilians,” says Maíra Carvalho, director of operations for TikTok Brazil. TecMundo.

Bruno Telloli, YouTube Brazil’s Culture and Trends manager, speaks TecMundo Nowadays all kinds of reactions are successful because everyone likes to see how someone else feels when they come into contact with a video, song, movie and other things.

“The reactions from foreigners are so successful because naturally the Brazilian user defends the Brazilian. There is also the identity factor. “It is nice to see that people who are not part of our culture or not directly related to our culture enjoy and enjoy our cultural products, listen to, discover and interpret Brazilian music with a worldview different from ours,” he emphasized.

Are the reactions organic production?

The explosion of social networks and therefore content creators has given rise to entirely new sectors of the creative industry. Content creators and influencers are a powerhouse today, with hundreds of them creating a massive production base for the internet.

In this scenario with giants producing content, how can we guarantee that this entire industry is organic and will not be subject to interference and incentives from big artists and video platforms? YouTube and TikTok ensure that there is no incentive or direction to create content on topic A or B.

“As the YouTube Culture and Trends team, we identify a lot of content that has the potential to trend, and of course any trends that are already trending, but we don’t take any proactive action to encourage creators to do so. We don’t invest in the type of content that’s currently trending, that’s currently trending.” do it. This is a movement that happens naturally when something starts to become prominent in popular culture,” assured YouTube Brazil’s Culture and Trends manager.

@goonygoogles Reaction – Racionais MCs – Eu Sou 157 (Full YouTube video in link in bio) #racionaismcs #musicabrasileira #brasil #eusou157 #rapnacional #goonygoogles #brazil #saopaulo #sãopaulo #brasileiro #gringo #react #youtube #youtubereaction #hiphopbrasil ? original audio – GoonyGoogles

He stated that the reactions are so natural that they appear immediately after the release of a new song or video clip.

“Trends, hashtags, behaviors, filters (on photos), etc. It can take many forms, such as: And it all comes about completely organically. It’s very difficult to take something and try to make it go viral,” says TikTok Brazil’s operations director.

He explains that doing this viral study would be very complicated because people’s interests change so quickly that there is no way to predict what will be successful tomorrow. “The reactions of virals depend on various factors, such as context. It’s like a long conversation that if you miss it, it will be difficult to catch up and understand later,” he compares.