I've been watching "First Reaction" videos on Youtube, mostly about the Beatles.

These can be fun, but they are also really frustrating. There's a contradiction at the heart of these videos. 

1.) The listener has never heard the Beatles songs.

2.) How smart or discriminating can a person be who has never heard the Beatles songs?

So these listeners tend to be either minorities or young, usually both. Either that or they are hiding their knowledge of the Beatles.

So the more ignorant they seem, the more genuine they seem, but also the most frustrating.

The less ignorant they seem, the less genuine they seem, like, really--you've never heard "Yesterday?"

Because of that, they tend not to bring much context to these songs. They tend to blend them with later music, not understanding that the Beatles were more or less the precursors, even the progenitors of much of what they listen to. I mean, I like seeing their surprise and enjoyment, but it is painful when they don't seem to know a damn thing about the Beatles.

Also--almost 100% of these reactions are positive. Not just positive, but actually celebratory about the Beatles, which makes me slightly suspicious. Because all these "First Reactors" are trying to make money. I suspect that they have learned that people who have money--or perhaps baby boomers--are likely to like Golden Oldies, you know?  

So I usually can only watch these videos until the person either says something incredibly stupid or comes across a little too ingenuous. 

Darn. Because it can be fun to watch people discover music. But I think they probably need to be under the age of 12.