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While stuck at home, streaming, reading, and otherwise interacting with media is a common way to pass the time. However, for those looking for a different way to engage with the media they take in, the world of YouTube essayists may be the perfect blend of entertainment and education.
YouTube essayists make analytical videos of different subjects, with a large portion of them being focussed on pop culture, fandom, and new media in general. Though they often deal with academic subjects, YouTube essays are for a general audience, so generally, anyone can watch and understand. The essays can range from formal and academic to much more causal setups that feel like fandom discussion. Here are five video essayists that break down some of the patterns, history, and trends in pop culture.
Lindsay Ellis, YouTube Essayist For Fandom & Feminism
Lindsay Ellis is a video essayist who blends academic, pop culture, and dry humor into her essays. She has been involved with YouTube and video essays for over a decade, but her current channel and style began in 2013. These days, Ellis analyses films with a special focus on feminism and both the social surroundings that influenced the work and its own social impact. Aside from her own channel, Ellis continues to blend fandom and academia by appearing several times on PBS’s digital series “It’s Lit” to talk about literature and fan fiction, doing podcasts, as well as writing science fiction novels.
Her format caters to anyone interested in film analysis, regardless of knowledge level. Having pursued degrees in cinema studies, she breaks down analytical terms and theories in easy to understand ways. These informative essays explain concepts for a general audience, such as the male gaze and the three-act structure. Ellis often makes essays about subjects she is not only knowledgeable about, but enjoys as a fan. This gives her essays a personal, passionate feeling when watching. Disney, The Transformers, musicals, and The Lord Of The Rings are among some of the deep dives she goes into.
Ellis also goes into consumer culture, and gives fascinating historical context to both industry and fandom. Additionally, her work often explores from a feminist perspective, and breaks down a lot of tropes and portrayals. Her extensive research provides each video with detailed historical and cultural context. Aside from video essays, her “Loose Canon” videos look at different interpretations of a single character, such as The Phantom Of The Opera. Ellis’ dry wit and self aware humor keeps every essay from feeling like schoolwork. Instead, her essays create an enjoyably informative and candid space.
Pop Culture Detective & Dissecting Pop Culture Patterns
Pop Culture Detective’s videos dive into fiction tropes with detailed examples of how widespread some trends are in media. The Pop Culture Detective Agency was created by Jonathan McIntosh, a writer, producer, and critic. The channel is a Patreon-funded web series that began in 2016 to “examine the intersections of masculinity, politics, and entertainment.” McIntosh’s previous work includes co-writing on Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, a YouTube series focussed on video game gender and tropes. McIntosh’s years of analyzing and breaking down gendered tropes pays off in the long-form essays and deep dives that make up Pop Culture Detective.
This YouTube essayist has more of an academic look at what media reflects in society. Subjects include nostalgia, masculinity, and commonly overlooked but problematic tropes. The essay looks into how deep patterns in the media go and the significance of media portrayals. The essays highlight that media relates to one another through tropes, and that no trope is without consequence. Pop Culture Detective educates the viewers about common tropes in media, and how the writing and framing of those tropes perpetrate issues in society. While this channel is not as full as other YouTube essayists’, Pop Culture Detective’s videos are quality over quantity. These videos are well edited, researched, and often quite long and detailed.
Dive Deep Into Vampires With Maven Of The Eventide
Many YouTube essayists cover a wide range of genres and media. Even when focussed on specific niches, most YouTubers will analyze a broad collection of media. However, Maven Of The Eventide changes things up by focussing on the portrayal of vampires in different parts of pop culture. Vampires are such a pop culture phenomena that The Maven’s reviews and essays span many different genres and mediums. She does vampire video game play throughs, reviews movies and books, and looks at different vampire tropes and characters.
The Maven, also known as Elisa Hansen, is a self-declared “vampire scholar” and “recovering musical theatre major who enjoys graveyards, haunted mansions, gothic fashion, decorative skulls, black tea, and red wine.” She has been a video essayist since 2011. She often collaborated with Lindsay Ellis and continues to analyze vampire and gothic themes. She also channels her love of vampires and the genre into her novel writing.
The Maven is an essayist who takes on a persona, dressing the vampy part and narrating her reviews in a very dramatic, posh manner of speaking. Her videos are full of campy comedy that indulges in the over-dramatic aesthetic of vampire media. By sticking to vampires but spanning many pop culture incarnations, The Maven examines the social and cultural implications of vampires in different media. Her channel is a wonderful place to see how one specific aspect of pop culture is reinterpreted across genres and mediums.
Trash Theory Is A YouTube Essayist For Those Seeking Music Analysis
Music has just as much of a pop culture and fandom presence as television and movies. Because of this, Trash Theory is a YouTube essayist for anyone interested in the stories and history of popular music. From one hit wonders to entire genres, Trash Theory explores the complex world of music. Trash Theory features a wide range of music genres from different eras, everything from indie to punk to pop. However, Trash Theory has stated that he wants to focus on music he genuinely likes, feeling as though his writing would come off inauthentic otherwise. Trash Theory’s enthusiasm is evident in the music he researches heavily and features in his documentary-style essays.
Though music history and analysis can be a detailed world, viewers do not need any musical know-how for Trash Theory’s videos. The essays are for a general audience interested in music, and focus more on history and cultural impact. Additionally, Trash Theory looks at many genres and how music relates and builds off of itself. Trash Theory highlights the significance of music, and teaches history of modern music in an easy to understand, but incredibly detailed way.
LGBTQ Representation With Matt Baume’s Culture Cruise
Matt Baume‘s Culture Cruise looks at portrayals of LGBTQ characters in television and movies. Baume himself has created many LGBTQ-focussed projects, including a drag queen DnD, podcasts about entertainment’s impact on queer viewers, and books and articles about LGBTQ history and experiences. For his video essay projects, Baume seeks to do a “deep dive” into queer representation in pop culture.
Culture Cruise seems to focus heavily on the 80s and 90s, and examining cultural shifts in media depictions of the LGBTQ community. The essayist explores the impact of media, tropes, and queer representation. Baume also gives context to each show, the era it exists in, and the queer culture in and out of each piece of media. As a YouTube essayist, his videos are light and fun, but also extremely frank. Baume’s videos are well researched in LGBTQ history and in film and television analysis. This channel is an informative place to learn about Western queer representation and history. It is also a place to learn about older media and to see how it handled queer characters in decades past versus present day.
Stay At Home And Explore Media With YouTube Essayists
YouTube essayists show the importance of actively watching and analyzing shows, whether it be for critiquing or for fun. Essays provide a space for fandom discussions and debates as well. Like anything with fandom, there can be a lot of discussions that comes with deep dives into a series.
Some essays look only at history, while others get into political or representational topics that can affect the way fandom interacts with a piece of media. But overall, whether one wants to be involved in debates and analyses, or just wants to learn about the makings and impact of their favorite show, YouTube essays provide a wide selection of content. With current events making it difficult for some to focus or engage, YouTube essays are a passive, often casual blend of learning and entertainment.