Classical composer reacts to a lot of stuff

[MirrorMask]

While I just don't get reaction videos and how they can have such a success, I stumbled upon the channel of a classical composer that listens to many songs from different prog and metal artists: our own DT and LTE, Iron Maiden, Nightwish, Opeth, Rush, Symphony X etc...

These reactions are quite interesting, he analyzes the song structures, recognizes the keys and the patterns, offers insight on why stuff is clever etc.... as I said I just don't care for reaction videos but one day the algorithm of YouTube suggested his reaction to Iron Maiden's Empire of the Clouds and since I watched that his other videos keep popping up.

Maiden are a recurring feature of his videos, so are DT and Nightwish (Yes, there's Ghost Love Score, as soon as he hears Floor he goes "why I never heard of her? she's clearly the star"), but there's plenty of more songs from different artists he's analyzed.

For all you guys who are actually into reaction videos, this channel might be the one for you!

Oh, and he just uploaded a reaction to Octavarium if you're interested 

EDIT TO ADD THE LINK TO THE CHANNEL I FORGOT LIKE A N00B: https://www.youtube.com/user/rdouglashelvering

[TAC]

This guy popped into my feed a couple of weeks ago when he did TCOT. He can be kind of douchey but I've watched a few of his vids. Watching 8V now actually.

[NoseofNicko]

The Octavarium reaction video was so enjoyable! The song really blew his mind! I almost made a thread about it but you beat me to it.

[NoseofNicko]

Also it would help to link to his channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rdouglashelvering

[pg1067]

You're referring to Doug Helvering, I assume?

There's a bit of a discussion about him in the Yes thread.  I love his videos because his knowledge base is clearly very strong, and he hears things that I've noticed and a bunch I would never notice.  His video for Close to the Edge is awesome.

And I just saw that did a video for Octavarium, so I'm going to close my office door and check that out.

[pg1067]

Just watched the 8VM video.  That was excellent!  Even 40 minutes isn't enough time to really dive into that song!

[Trav]

I'm going to watch his Octavarium video tonight. I agree that his Close to the Edge one was awesome. I hadn't listened to that song in a while so it was a real treat.

[MirrorMask]

Also it would help to link to his channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rdouglashelvering

D'UH!! I did copy and paste the link and I just forgot when I submitted the post, shame on me 

[Lowdz]

I've been watching his videos for a while. Enjoyable and informative on the whole.
His reaction to Dragonforce was funny. He really hates double bass drum rhythms 😁

[T-ski]

I've been sucked into numerous reaction channels over the last year, I don't know why I find them enjoyable. I think it makes me feel like I'm hearing a song for the first time again.

[lonestar]

I get sucked into them as well, especially any involving Pisces by Jinjer. Those are straight up hysterical.

[Zook]

I've seen a video by this guy. He seems genuine. My problem with reaction videos is that it's very clear why there are so many. Even the most genuine and honest people are still doing it for the obvious reason of making that sweet YouTube money. Channels like Blind Wave is a group of guys watching stuff, and it feels like you're there with them having a good time. Angry Joe reacting to movie trailers doesn't bother me either, nor does Lost in Vegas, although I stopped watching them.  To stay on topic, when it comes to the gaggle of "vocal coach/*insert profession here* reacts" videos, I prefer Elizabeth Zharoff. She's legit and it doesn't hurt that she's easy on the eyes, but most of them are. She doesn't have her cleavage out to increase her views (not that I'm complaining, but come on now, it's more transparent than a ghost), she's very respectable, and like I said, a legit opera singer. She has also interviewed some musicians including just recently Devin Townsend. I haven't given him much of a chance, but he's a really cool dude.

The Charismatic Voice is her channel.

It's sad that this guy is one of the better ones, but he isn't a woman so he has only a fraction of the views.

[425]

To stay on topic, when it comes to the gaggle of "vocal coach/*insert profession here* reacts" videos, I prefer Elizabeth Zharoff. She's legit and it doesn't hurt that she's easy on the eyes, but most of them are. She doesn't have her cleavage out to increase her views (not that I'm complaining, but come on now, it's more transparent than a ghost), she's very respectable, and like I said, a legit opera singer. She has also interviewed some musicians including just recently Devin Townsend. I haven't given him much of a chance, but he's a really cool dude.

The Charismatic Voice is her channel.

I really like her, too. She gives insights that I find interesting, and comes across as authentic and, as you said, respectable.

I hadn't seen that she had an interview with Devin Townsend; that sounds interesting. She had a series of interactions with Arjen Lucassen some months back: He helped her lift a copyright block on an Ayreon reaction video and she followed up by reacting to a song of his choice, which was The Day That the World Breaks Down.

I keep meaning to check out Doug Helvering. It seems like he's doing something really substantive and insightful. That's what I'm interested in, not just people's exaggerated reactions of surprise and excitement (which I think is where the "reaction" genre started off, with things like "hip hop fan reacts to...").

[Peter Mc]

I found his reaction to DragonForce to be great even though I actually like them.  It's nice to hear pure honesty and him just saying that it's not for him. 

I often wonder when I hear his analysis whether the artist actually deliberately did what he's saying they did or they just thought "this sounds cool, let's try this"

[cfmoran13]

THE DAILY DOUG!  Been enjoying his stuff for a while now.  And, he's a fellow New Jerseyan.  He's even watching Yngwie now!  When his 8VM episode popped up on my feed, I was shocked.  He'd done one or two DT episodes already.  I wasn't expecting this one to pop up.  I figured he'd hit ACoS before this.  I just haven't had the 30 minutes to sit down and watch it yet.  I think his Maiden reactions were the first ones I found a while ago.  The only thing that annoys me about these reaction videos is that they all seem to pick the same exact songs and clips to "react" to.  At least his tend to be a little more varied.

I've checked out The Charismatic Voice, too.  She's alright.  As has been mentioned, she definitely knows her stuff.  The one thing that annoys me is this one look she gets on her face when she finds something that really surprises her.  Her jaw drops and she makes this dumbfounded expression that looks like it should hurt.

[MirrorMask]

If you want the opinion of a composer, I'd daresay that Octavarium is more interesting to analyze than A Change of Seasons. Sure, also ACOS is an utter and timeless masterpiece, but it's "just" a prog metal epic. Octavarium is full of nuggetz and recurring themes, both musical and lyrical, and there's more stuff to chew for a composer. I remember him saying it at the end, something like "to have such a great payoff, you have to build up before". A Change of Seasons is godly awesome and I love it, but there's not there the equivalent of the Medicate me refrain that enters after 5 minutes of ambience, and then is reprised at the end with the most bombastic, grandiose and eargasmic ending solo you can think of.

[TAC]

So today he did One from the original S&M DVD. He did admit he'd seen/heard it when it came out, so I don't know what the point of doing a reaction video to something you've heard before is.


As for the song, I'm not a fan of bands doing these things with an orchestra. One is so fucking powerful on its own, and all the orchestra did was drown the band out.

[425]

To be fair, "when it came out" is 22 years ago at this point. If he literally saw the DVD once when it came out and hadn't seen it since, it's not exactly treading familiar ground. At that point I'd really say it depends whether the point of watching his videos is to hear his analytic thoughts on the fly or to see him be surprised by things he's hearing for the first time. In his case it seems that the point is more the former.

[TAC]

I left a comment.

I get that he's never heard Iron Maiden or Dream Theater, but I cannot believe he's never heard Rush or Yes.

[HOF]

I left a comment.

I get that he's never heard Iron Maiden or Dream Theater, but I cannot believe he's never heard Rush or Yes.

In his Dance of Eternity video he admitted he has a friend who is a huge DT fan and they would listen to DT on road trips across country, so he wasn't even new to DT.

[TAC]

I left a comment.

I get that he's never heard Iron Maiden or Dream Theater, but I cannot believe he's never heard Rush or Yes.

In his Dance of Eternity video he admitted he has a friend who is a huge DT fan and they would listen to DT on road trips across country, so he wasn't even new to DT.

Oh man, that's disappointing.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

To honest there's lots of classic bands that i've heard of and listen to but I think there's a diffrence between actively listen to and casually listen to. The way he analyzes a song is much more indepth than I ever do anyway of songs i've heard a million times.
So in that sense it dosen't really matter.

[ZirconBlue]

To be fair, "when it came out" is 22 years ago at this point. If he literally saw the DVD once when it came out and hadn't seen it since, it's not exactly treading familiar ground. At that point I'd really say it depends whether the point of watching his videos is to hear his analytic thoughts on the fly or to see him be surprised by things he's hearing for the first time. In his case it seems that the point is more the former.

Since his thing is musical analysis, rather than "look at how surprised I am", I have no problem with him having heard it before.  It might even be beneficial as he can give a deeper analysis.  As long as he honest about it and doesn't pretend it's a first-time reaction like some of these other famous reaction video guys, I don't see the issue.

[HOF]

To honest there's lots of classic bands that i've heard of and listen to but I think there's a diffrence between actively listen to and casually listen to. The way he analyzes a song is much more indepth than I ever do anyway of songs i've heard a million times.
So in that sense it dosen't really matter.

To be fair, "when it came out" is 22 years ago at this point. If he literally saw the DVD once when it came out and hadn't seen it since, it's not exactly treading familiar ground. At that point I'd really say it depends whether the point of watching his videos is to hear his analytic thoughts on the fly or to see him be surprised by things he's hearing for the first time. In his case it seems that the point is more the former.

Since his thing is musical analysis, rather than "look at how surprised I am", I have no problem with him having heard it before.  It might even be beneficial as he can give a deeper analysis.  As long as he honest about it and doesn't pretend it's a first-time reaction like some of these other famous reaction video guys, I don't see the issue.

Right, I agree with both of these. He did say up front that he was familiar with DT, so he's not lying about it. I guess just keep in mind a lot of this stuff he's probably coming to with some familiarity, which is fine as long as he's open about it.

[RodrigoAltaf]

Imagine if he did a reaction video of Six Degrees...that would last three hours!!!!

[bosk1]

I left a comment.

I get that he's never heard Iron Maiden or Dream Theater, but I cannot believe he's never heard Rush or Yes.

In his Dance of Eternity video he admitted he has a friend who is a huge DT fan and they would listen to DT on road trips across country, so he wasn't even new to DT.

Oh man, that's disappointing.

  Why?

[TAC]

Why? Because the videos are titled "Classical Composer REACTS to _________"

If they were titled "Classical Composer BREAKS DOWN _________", that might be more apt.

The whole point of reaction videos is actually seeing ....the reaction. Isn't that why they're so popular, isn't that the draw?


His "reactions" to The Count Of Tuscany and Octavarium seemed authentic, and that's what is interesting to me. I'd hate to think it was all an act.

[bosk1]

"Reaction" and "first time reaction" aren't necessarily the same thing.  Not sure why you are conflating the two.

[TAC]

Maybe it's a me problem then. I thought the whole point of reaction videos was indeed them being a first time reaction.
Again, they're reaction videos, not break down videos, at least that's how there're being presented.

I'm not trying to bust the guy's balls. It just seems a little less genuine. For me anyway.

[bosk1]

Maybe it's a me problem then. I thought the whole point of reaction videos was indeed them being a first time reaction.
Again, they're reaction videos, not break down videos, at least that's how there're being presented.

Not necessarily.

I'm not trying to bust the guy's balls. It just seems a little less genuine. For me anyway.

It would only be less genuine if he tried to pass it off as a first time reaction.  He is always very clear (from what I have seen) and upfront about having heard a song or artist beforehand and never tries to pass off something as a first reaction when it isn't.  There are LOTS of fakers out there who do try to pass off their videos as "first time reactions" when they clearly aren't.  A lot of them will straight up say right into the camera that they have never heard the artist/song and have done no research when it is pretty clear once you starting watching that they know a lot about the song and have heard it (reactions to Pisces are sort of notorious for this).  A couple of my favorite channels, Tank the Tech and Chase Carneson, did a couple of videos with lengthy discussions calling out those types of videos and other unsavory aspects of the "reaction video" scene.  They are long, but if you have time to kill and listen to it while doing something else, they are INCREDIBLY informative and entertaining.

Tank:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2Oc7_Xf388&t=1128s

Chase:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwvx4TBVfjw

They are both great.  But, again, they are long.  And be forewarned--Chase's video takes awhile to ramp out and get past a lot of introductory chatter before getting to anything meaty.  But when he does, it's gold.  Tank's video is much more structured.

[pg1067]

It would only be less genuine if he tried to pass it off as a first time reaction.  He is always very clear (from what I have seen) and upfront about having heard a song or artist beforehand and never tries to pass off something as a first reaction when it isn't.

This, for sure.  There's at least one where he says before the songs starts that he did a couple spot checks - just to see if he had heard it before (he had but wasn't terribly familiar with it).  I think there's also a difference between having heard it on a road trip at age 20 (or whatever) and sitting down and focusing on music theory elements after having gotten an advanced music degree and composed numerous pieces and taught music at the college level.

[Stadler]

I'm off-topic here - wow, how unusual! - but that's a fundamental problem with all of these types of things: YouTube, Twitter, reality TV.  The concept of "truth" has been warped to such degree that it's all "subject to", even with common terms that ought to have a consistent meaning, and that's part of where it all falls down for me.   

[pg1067]

Doug did a reaction video to Supper's Ready today.