Blogger Reacts to Putri Ariani

Before my recent trip to Japan, I became obsessed with a YouTube video featuring a Japanese dance group called Avantgardey, auditioning on America’s Got Talent. I enjoyed their quirky choreography (which includes pulling funny faces), and watched the video repeatedly, thinking that it would be a good way to immerse myself in the “Japanese soul” before my trip.

It was, in retrospect, pretty mild, as obsessions go. I checked out some of their other performances and hummed the backing track from their routine for a couple of days. Little did I know that I would soon experience a much deeper obsession.

We all know that the YouTube algorithm, for better or worse, figures out what you like, and keeps giving you more. I started seeing more AGT content in my feed, including this:

The singer Putri Ariani comes from Indonesia, where she won her country’s version of Got Talent when she was only eight years old. The first time I watched her America’s Got Talent audition, I recognized that she was an accomplished singer, but I didn’t think about it much.

I think what brought me back the next day was Simon Cowell’s reaction: “My… GOD!” It was funny to me to see the normally unflappable man be so thoroughly flapped, and I thought, “Let’s see that again.” This first rewatch was the first time I cried.

There’s something about Putri’s voice that transmits emotion. Her technique is so dynamic that we subconsciously anticipate each line to see what vocal variations she’ll throw at us next. She plays the audience as much as she plays the keys of the piano.

Coincidentally, I caught a cold around this time, and let myself rest for a couple days. With not much to do in bed, I let the algorithm keep feeding me content. At first, it was other AGT auditions… but none of them touched me the same way that Putri’s did. I kept revisiting her audition video to get the same feeling. When I walked around the house sniffling, my wife thought it was due to my illness, but it was really because I was crying every time I watched it.

The algorithm seemed to know what I was going through, and pivoted to recommendating videos in the “Reacts” genre. In a typical “Reacts” video, we see a webcam shot of a YouTube personality (the “reactor” for lack of a better term), as they watch another video, and share their thoughts along the way.^{1 2}

Putri’s audition went viral, and dozens (hundreds?) of “Reacts” videos sprung up. Some of the reactors don’t say much, letting their facial expressions do the talking. Others are vocal coaches or music professionals, and they offer insight into the vocal techniques that Putri demonstrates.³ I probably spent hours watching these videos in a groggy, medicated state.

Of course, if I hadn’t been sick, and was actually busy with stuff, I might not have fallen into this particular rabbit hole. I’m trying to understand what exactly hooked me in. I’ve liked many musicians before, but I’ve never immersed myself in a single performance non-stop for two days straight.

Some definitions of addiction are explained in terms of the chemical dopamine. I hear it often in the context of games and gamification: whether an app is designed to be fun, or to turn an unpleasant chore into a game, it doles out mini-rewards in the form of bells, points, or visual animations. These rewards give the user a “dopamine hit,” a feeling of pleasure that keeps them coming back for more.

I’ve been hooked on enough video games to know what this means. When you win a match, or complete a mission, or solve a puzzle, you get this feeling of “just one more.” And when you lose, you want to try again, to redeem yourself. Either way, you’re chasing that next injection of pleasure into your brain. I’ve watched the classic film Trainspotting many times (probably too often and at too young an age), and while I don’t want to make light of the real and brutal consequences of heroin addiction, I can identify with how the drive to “score,” whether it comes in the form of a literal injection of drugs, or from a virtual interaction on a screen, can black out nearly everything else.

Putri’s audition moved me, and I found myself wanting to experience that feeling over and over again. But I knew that if I just kept rewatching it, I would eventually tire of it. The algorithm, however, figured out another way to hook me. Reaction videos add another layer of variation, preventing the original video from becoming stale.

As I became more and more familiar with Putri’s performance, I came to know which sections would evoke the reactors’ reactions. When she hits a big note, or a particularly expressive phrase—my favourite being the way she sings “sad, sad situation” in her cover of Elton John’s “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word”—I anticipate the response from the reactor. They might put a hand to their mouth or heart, or shake their head in disbelief, or go “Oh!” They might even get teary-eyed. And when they do, I get that little emotional release, that little dopamine hit. It’s like I’m vicariously having the experience of watching the audition for the first time.

From First Time Hearing Putri Ariani | “GOLDEN BUZZER Simon Cowell” | AGT 2023 REACTION

In total, I must have watched dozens of reaction videos. On the day that I embarked on my trip, I found myself jumping onto the airport wi-fi to see if any new ones had appeared in the YouTube feed. Travelling is a great way to detox from being overly online, but after my long days of sightseeing, I still spent a few minutes in the hotel room to get my Putri fix. The two songs that she performed in the audition must have set a record for the length of time that a piece of music has been stuck in my head. It’s been more than a month.

Putri Ariani will perform live on AGT next week on September 5. I can’t wait, and I wish her the best of luck.