Thread of your niche YouTube interests.

As an adjunct to the 'youtubers whomst are not terrible' thread, let us share the channels that act as a microcosmic portal to some specific subject that you find yourself drawn toward, perhaps even without knowing exactly why.

I like watching old computer teardown/repair videos which led me to a channel run by a pinball/arcade game recon company owner in Southampton PA, who is oddly engaging, it's a mixture of slice-of-life stuff and a platform for selling the repairs.

The guy wanders around this cavernous industrial workshop full of knackered cabinets, spewing technical trivia about how the amplifier inside an original 'Mr Do' cabinet works while enduring near-constant smack from his shlubby employees, weirdly addictive.

http://www.youtube.com/user/tntamusements/featured

For a short while I got really into watching videos of this guy drag racing a tesla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARzujfRiQ3c

i know nothing about piano but i've been listening to this guy on my headphones while i fall asleep and in that deep hypnagogic state, it's trippy as hell. that voice! like a friendly wizard guiding you through some strange new age netherworld. brighter... darker... mixolydian... dorian...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiEoJjWlGMY

Retail archaeology- dead malls, mall exploration

https://youtu.be/5bwz7H3TIzU

i'm fascinated by this kid who just weighs household objects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9ac8f9S80U

he also reviews household objects and has a separate channel that's devoted to everything about the portland lightrail system:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnxqn7H81xamHwCdlK4W5Fg

Related to calstars, I watch a lot of urban exploration videos, particularly abandoned homes and schools. TikiTrex, The Proper People, and Rick and Bekah are my three favorite channels in that category. I also love fact list channels, e.g. List 25, 101 Facts, and Top Tenz. I'm subscribed to a lot of ASMRtists, e.g. ASMR Angel, River ASMR, WhispersRed ASMR, Rosy ASMR, Ephemeral Rift, etc. I also kinda classify Dr. Sandra Lee as ASMR, though unintentional, and seeing her "pimple popping" (really it's much more than that) is a uniquely cathartic experience. I also love watching videos people have uploaded of old commercial/interstitial breaks, e.g. MicroJow and Obsolete Video Services. And now you know why pretty much the only thing I watch these days is YouTube videos.

retail archeology is great, thanks for sharing that!

Dan Bell's channel does a good mix of dead malls (with added vaporwave), spooky urban exploration and totally disgusting blue-light examinations of filthy motel rooms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6yA7r6WfJo

XXP - I *love* ephemeral rift, so much fun.

dang, i love these dead space videos. totally my jam.

if I’m having trouble falling asleep or need to relax... I like to watch this fellow’s videos of expensive steak being cooked in Japanese restaurants, very soothing

https://youtu.be/UjAZKizxvq4

organfairy - half of their videos are synth DIY things, the other half are obscure Euro pop hits played on various organs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzpc4FWIqZo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MgLhuA9lv8

Hainbach, a musician from Berlin who (among other things) specializes in sourcing crazy old items of test equipment to make weird electronic music with, he stands out because he has this lovely, sleepy manner and comes across as friendly and knowledgeable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFHlP3EVf9Y

Hainbach's channel is great. He's got a new VST plug-in worth checking out:
https://cdm.link/2020/06/fundamental-vintage-tube-oscillator-studio-from-soniclab-and-hainbach/

Gold and silver age abandoned exploration = Exploring abandoned mines
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYKZObv8VH_Z2xXpftQXw3w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcuFdN1ZVtM

Circle Line Art School teaches you all about perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWoGXlc-L7E

Dan Bell's channel does a good mix of dead malls (with added vaporwave), spooky urban exploration and totally disgusting blue-light examinations of filthy motel rooms.

I've subscribed to him purely because of his "Another Dirty Room" series! The talent he's got for that series is unbeatable. Rick Serra is hilarious and Brennen Evangelista would have totally been a celebrity crush of mine if I were a teenager today.

XXP - I *love* ephemeral rift, so much fun.

He truly is! I actually got into him because he and ASMR Angel are almost besties in the ASMR community and I lovelovelove Charlotte's channel (and it was the one that got me into the BBC show "Would I Lie to You?" because she was a guest on one of their episodes), and I love how creative he is. Speaking of WILTY? I'm also subscribed to the fan channel "WILTY? Nope!", which is how I used to keep up with the show before subscribing to Britbox and where I see a lot of show highlights. I'm also subscribed to the official The Last Leg channel and am trying to figure out a way of watching that show since Britbox doesn't seem to be carrying any of their newer episodes, and am also subscribed to the official Russell Howard channel and love how they upload new episodes of "The Russell Howard Hour", which I'm still saying is where John Krasinksi stole the idea for his whole "Good News" thing.

Let's see: I'm also subscribed to the Lost in the Pond channel because he talks a lot about the differences he's noticed between his native Britain and his adopted country, the U.S.; a couple of friends' channels because they're friends; intomore purely because of their "Old Gays" series (they are such precious older men!); Matt Baume because he's an important civil/human rights channel; and Criminally Listed and Dark5 for their darker content. There are some additional channels I subscribe to but we won't go into that here, LOL.

Don’t tease us Dee

old computer teardown/repair videos which led me to a channel run by a pinball/arcade game recon company owner in Southampton PA

Very much lurk around similar corners, including that particular account.

Mostly quite niche, but also, engagingly presented as is, nuts justhow many views this really quite technical discussion of how Sega Saturn disc encryption was broken has.

https://youtu.be/jOyfZex7B3E

Circumvented, rather.

I guess this is where I bring up John Green being a Fortnite pacifist (and messing up rather badly when not informed by kids)

Every one of the videos I've clicked on from this thread has given me an Epoch Times ad. Not blaming the thread, but I'm gonna go out of my way to avoid YouTube until that shit goes away.

I really enjoyed the Saga Saturn video while understanding nearly nothing about it, funny.

Kirsten Dickson, a lady who travels around the world filming mostly (but not always) off-grid, small/minimalist or slow life folks in unusual and interesting living circumstances.

I usually don't care for such channels but there's absolutely no spin or dressing-up, she just films, asks the occasional question and lets the subject speak for itself.

Not all of them are zingers, of course, it depends on your tolerance but she'll find an incredible individual like this and knock out 40 mins of amazing hack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qcsWajivnI

wow, that guy is amazing

I have so many of these. There’s Mural Joe who does, murals. About 12 different prop and model makers. A few vegetable gardeners. Miniature makers. Theatre and film design/behind the scenes. Several faux finishers. Digital painters. Often go down the home/diy rabbit hole.

But my secret, most satisfying indulgence is auto detailing videos. I love the product comparisons and the polishing and the scratch fixes. The before and after s. I’ve even watched 30 minute videos by this one guy on how to repair cracked leather. Meanwhile while my own car has perfect seats, but I just wanted to know how.

Everyone's favourite video game historian Kim Justice for no apparent reason drops a Cardiacs album title into the narration on this latest mini doc on Codemasters. Niche interests coincide.

https://youtu.be/TsCQ2KMBheM

Anyone else following this guy 'building' (restoring / converting a Fairlight MXR)? Still ongoing and it's been a journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jNZZ_pqEDY

Which has just now lead me on to Quantel Paintbox / Picturebox restorations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pbok5ycDnU

*building a Fairlight CMI

Open AI Jukebox renditions of Beach Boys, Beatles, Daft Punk

Videos of abandoned American shopping malls

Fairlight video looks intriguing

Odd Tinkering - a channel that's half games console restorations, half restoration of old tools/lighters/desk fans. No voiceover, no background music.

Lock picking, I mean, why the hell would I give even the slightest shit about a guy unpicking locks?

It's like I don't even know my own mind - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCm9K6rby98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSuaUok-wTY

Thank you snowball, you’ve got me completely hooked on Odd Tinkering now! Amazing stuff, well filmed, and kinda hilarious little touches throughout!

I think I mentioned it on the other thread but really enjoy the Techmoan channel. As someone with a bit of an interest in hifi and history of sound reproduction it's catnip to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rObG3GddYGk

yeah Techmoan is great. There's something about channels that feature stuff I would have seen in a late 70s / early 80s Dixons / Currys catalogue. Techmoan goes into a lot of detail and without the nostalgia which is good because it turns out that a lot of these hi-fi gadgets from the past were crap.

Even more niche is Tech Time Traveller, concentrating on hobbyist computers of the 70s and home computers of the early 80s. Surprisingly the guy is in his late 40s - basically my age. I'd assumed he'd been at least an older teenager in the mid 70s as he comes across as very knowledgable about the hobbyist scene of that time.

people playing RPGs and/or wargames.

Live streams of Sotheby's contemporary art auctions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZceMlPw_2o

found this on Twitter originally, but these "car vs. giant bulge" videos are oddly soothing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeIbmocfrk0

not only that, but my 7 year old son absolutely loves them

Lol that’s pretty funny
Reminds me of the races in GTA online. But more realistic

That is so strangely funny.

"Cars vs. Giant Pit" is great too.

I mentioned this a while back on the severance thread.

Kane Pixels, a teenage guy who is in the middle of making an analog horror series based on the 'Backrooms' meme, appears to do everything himself, and god damn if it isn't really well done and super watchable. Oh and creepy as f.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4dGpz6cnHo

Woah. House of Leaves + Primer + some dark twisted version of Borges library. I'm profoundly in.

I love watching this guy solve impossible sudokus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKf9aUIxdb4

Love that Sudoku guy, great content

very soothed by this no-narration street food account

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEyskuDemx0

obsessed with this lovecraftian alt history story told through creepy 3 minute videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUCvy8pKYXA

Big fan of "person with 4K camera and good audio walking around somewhere" channels. Two of my faves are Nippon Wandering TV and Pro Walk Tours

Tokyo Shinjuku, Night Walk In The Cold Autumn Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_363NRzyXBI

Cairo, Egypt Evening Walk - Khan el-Khalili Market at Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY3kolw6mNI

(watch full screen with headphones)

OK here are some of my YT subs. Some of it is _really_ niche, some of it not so "niche" but folks here may not know about these channels.

Free The Kinescopes! (6.66 subscribers at present) has, well, uploads of old kinescopes. You want to see old episodes of Johns Hopkins Science Review or Studio One? This is the channel!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCiT9CboW4R

Cereal Time! A man of Cape Verdean heritage talks about different cereals. I particularly enjoyed this video, which is a bit outside his usual format, where he talks about Royal Lunch Milk Crackers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u26wFpGI-kQ

These two great channels full of live performances of Carnatic music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCaqo36k2FI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShriramVasu

For Western classical music live music performances, I enjoy ADGO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AntonioDGO

And if you're looking for a more in-depth musicological approach to classical music, check out this channel on Early Music Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videos

Or maybe you're more into in-depth musicological analysis of video game music. There's this channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bitMusicTh

More videogame music? GST makes great themed mixes showing off various types of music on classic video game systems, along with videos highlighting classic game composers. Here's a ten minute mix of 90s acid music for the SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdtqSNw8mec

More video game videos? Here's a channel that combines video game maps with videos of speedruns to provide a zoomed-out view of old games. Hard to explain. Here's a video of a 100% run of Bionic Commando to see it in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb16BvLUuEc

Sharopolis specializes in videos highlighting games that push the technical limitations of their respective systems. Who knew Jurassic Park for the SNES was such a great technical accomplishment?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sharopolis

Techmoan and LGR are great for showing off weird hardware, but Ben Minotte's Oddity Archive has been a dependable channel covering things like the early history of UHF broadcasting:

Some completely random folks playing songs on Youtube. This lady plays songs on the banjo:

Willard Losinger plays left-wing songs in the ukulele. Here he is playing Phil Ochs' "Love Me I'm A Liberal":

Gary Peters played guitar in the short-lived early '80s avant-jazz group Stinky Winkles, and now uploads videos showing him playing pedal steel guitar:

Here's a channel that does nothing but upload different recordings of Jesus Christ Superstar:

Obsolete Video is a slightly odd channel that transfers various old video recordings, some of which they upload to YouTube. A lot of the old clips on Youtube come from OVS uploads (as you can tell from the distinctive lower right corner bug).

Accented Cinema does some really cool essays on cinema, particularly Asian cinema:

Matt Baume specializes in video essays on the history of LGBT+ network television:

Finally, Hazel does these really interesting deep dives into obscure anime. I don't even watch anime, but I love the way she puts together a video.

This is perhaps the only post I'll ever make here that doesn't directly mention trans shit. Mark your calendars.

...actually, wait. No, no, wait. I forgot about the Finntastic Mr. Fox, I love this guy's videos and he has hardly any views. Got to his channel from a recent Jessie Gender video on non-binary pirates, in which Finn guested and looked extremely hot in his pirate getup:

Well, dammit those links all broke. Fuck it, I just turned it into a blog post:

https://www.alanauch.org/wtob/2022/05/24/some-youtube-channels-i-subscribe-to/

Gates Wildlife Control is a no-kill wildlife control company in Ontario, Canada - most of their channel is removing raccoon and skunk families from inside people's houses. Lately they've been visiting an abandoned house in Ontario that's become a home for turkey vultures year after year. For the last couple of weeks they've been checking in on some baby vultures since they were born.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7VWzC48O4s

I'm surprised - perturbed - that Steve1989 hasn't been mentioned. Perturbed because I don't want to blow my hard-won Ilxor credibility. Is he too mainstream? He has been profiled in the Financial Times. I don't want to post something too obvious. The point of threads such as this is to show off. I'm not going to win points by posting links to something that's too obvious. And yet the concept of his channel is decidedly niche:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtMte4yguZw

He reviews old military meals. Despite having lots of subscribers he still has a cheap-looking set. The key things in his favour are his obvious love of the topic, his sincerity, his big manly arms, the strangely comforting sight of junk food, the "binge-watching at 3am" factor, the fact that he doesn't appear to be a massive arse etc. It's like mukbang but nice. And the odd vocabulary ("prevalent" as a compliment). Is he too obvious? Not niche enough? He prompted me to finally buy some MREs from eBay and see what they were like. I remember reading about them during the first Gulf War. It took me that long to actually sate my curiosity. In summary Steve is fr fr no cap, as the kids say nowadays.

The other thing is Regular Car Reviews, which isn't niche at all. He's a gonzo car reviewer who tries to explain the sociological impact of cars from the 1970s and 1980s. It goes over my head because he talks about US car culture, but occasionally he shouts HOT DICKS for several minutes and that's funny. HOT DICKS! It's funny because he has a degree in English but he says HOT DICKS. Imagine Stephen Fry saying HOT DICKS. My reaction would be KEKW, which is another young person thing. I have no fucking idea. The kids like it though.

What else? The bloke who restores Apollo guidance computers and old Xerox Alto machines etc. The Xerox Alto demonstration is astonishing because the machine is from 1973:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H79_kKzmFs

It has the first ever implementation of Ethernet, plus a predecessor of TCP/IP, and it has a screen resolution of 800x600, which was still good in the mid-1990s. The machine comes across as a more advanced Apple Macintosh, but from 1973. And I mean yes it probably cost $20,000 a unit at a time when $20,000 could buy a house but humour me. What would you prefer to live in? A house, or the future?

What else? Synthmania / Paulo, a synthesiser enthusiast who, uniquely, makes demo tunes that are Italodisco and techno. Instead of e.g. nondescript dark ambient / analogue glitch music, which the vast majority of Youtube synthesiser people churn out because they want to be different. He's endearing because he looks like a New York Taxi driver / Mafia don, but he's a shit-hot musician who could probably churn out a SNES game sometrack in real time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWJidyE_sTg

AudioPilz, a musician from Austria who reviews "bad gear" - uploads a new video every Friday evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efmjwEu73u0

the comment that inspired this video is amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5J8j9SG3MQ

pls to explain colours of nose

this person restores old objects and makes them look brand new. not something i'd ever have the tools, knowledge, skill, or patience to do, but very satisfying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vXIA-65QNo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L232PR3_5JA

if i had a channel like that, every single video would end with me not being able to put it back together, and loads of dog hair all over the place

Azerbaijan couple show you country farm life with zero talking, just cooking and rural living

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QW7YFfyu9c

niiiiiice, thank you. i've been watching the japanese versions of those recently - both street food and also "most expensive sushi in tokyo" kind of stuff. the no talking genre is the best

I got really into Japanese micro camper vans for awhile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGqMsPvjjh0

I've watched this video of a wood-fired bakery in the mountains of Japan several times - it's that good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOK3nS4t7_Y

Wait there are people that haven't seen that woman from Azerbaijan cooking? How did you survive the pandemic

My favorite "repair guy" is the guy from My Mechanics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLj2ASDWAeg

hazel ranks anime denny's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5OWj6EJdvU

lady emily goes into the history of the gorillaz' _plastic beach_ for 90 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozBnh3eAQUg

Yeah I loved that hazel video. When I went to Japan and asked for restaurant recommendations ppl would always ask "family restaurant?" and now I get it.

I'm a fan of Lady Emily but 90 min on Gorillaz is a pass.

Been getting into educational ASMR in the last year or 2. The French Whisperer is the cure for insomnia, his stuff knocks me out in under 10 mins without fail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toIz0E6LYnQ

This woman reads nonfiction books, often for kids, especially cartography and Nat Geo type things. Her delivery isn’t my favorite but the material is so “my thing” I love ASMR & sciencey books about animals for kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekvOyt_R1KM

Keen On Keys combines 80s/90s consumer tech with repairing stuff and music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RjDv-0NPUQ
Unfortunately they only upload a video every 2-3 months.

Simon The Magpie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80mroZ598GE

Alfonse, who uploads music made almost entirely with the kind of 'toy' Casio/Yamaha keyboards you would see gathering dust on the shelf in a charity shop. Often the videos are made entirely with just one keyboard plus effects, like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXIpU5phKI8

The Lock Picking Lawyer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSuaUok-wTY

Beardy academic invites you into his study, talks about pipes, smokes a pipe, reads you some Tolkien or CS Lewis, v soothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvFbX8k_gMc