Unless you have been living under an internet rock (or that you simply have better things to do than that, which if you do, I can assure you that you’re not missing on anything), I’m sure that you have heard or have at least seen one of those videos pop up on your youtube homepage: the drama channels. And you may be thinking of the gossiping TV news channels such as ClevverTV or HollywoodLife but it’s way more complex than that.
At least I can give credit to these TV channels to create their own content and to have a certain input in whichever gossip they take a take on but the drama channels we’re talking about have names that have a gradient of similar names ”shook”, ”beef”, ”exposed” and from that, just take any synonyms of those words and you’ve got yourself one.
I would have a hard time pinpointing their purpose or their eventual goal but they have been trending for over a year and have personally been a constant category of videos on my youtube homepage. They consist of compiling clips of celebrities (mostly youtube stars) under bad circumstances and basically, using their words, ‘exposing them’, with of course the infamous clickbait titles such as ”james charles lying to ellen degeneres for 1 minute straight’‘, ”jeffree star making shane dawson feel poor” and an infinity of similar titles and thumbnails that just make you want to know more about the subject.
Photo via TeaWap
At first, I found the concept of compiling a bunch of Youtuber’s clips entertaining and funny (for some) and it all fell under the ‘meme’ category. But seeing the number of views it generated (At least a million for a lot of them), numerous channels have popped up and just have been copying and pasting the same videos through different accounts. To understand this new category of content that has blown up, I decided to interview one of the most prominent channels of this genre: ”honest”
So I know that your channel is about unpopular opinions and pop culture and therefore not about the gossiping I just mentioned, but I just wanted to have an inside input on the matter:
How would you describe the ”Tea spilling/drama channels” in a few words and what do you think their main purpose and goal is?
Honest: Few words: alluring, entertainment, and I think the purpose is just people enjoying things they can relate to or entertaining people it’s almost the same as a podcast in my eyes.
Do you think that it’s a permanent trend?
H: It depends on how you ride the trend. This trend has been around for ages but it’s a newer trend on youtube specifically but I think people love it so it may be a permanent trend.
Do you think that plagiarism is widely promoted through this kind of videos?
H: No, I don’t think plagiarism is promoted. However, people do copy you a lot especially if it does numbers but that’s with anything
Your channel is based on your point of view on things and what you call ”Unpopular opinions”, do you think it differs from the common drama videos that we usually see?
H: My channel is not only based on ”unpopular opinions”. I’ve talked about colorism, double standards, and I’ve also defended many people and I also make videos detailing celebrities’ careers. […] It’s just my genuine reaction. I think my own spin on them differs but I’m not that out of the loop that it’s just the most unique thing although I have helped popularize and created some trends amongst channels like mine.
Photo via Peter Monn
Do you think this kind of videos can be beneficial to the people displayed in the videos or should it be stopped?
H: Yes, I think they are beneficial. It’s just another form of entertainment. It also depends on what the person does that lands them in the video. Either way, it’s giving them some type of attention. It also depends on how the creator of the video addresses the person and what they’ve done. They definitely shouldn’t be stopped though. We’re giving people what they want. I just hate that’s there’s such a negative undertone surrounding it but I get it. It’s all fair play.
Check out Honest‘s youtube channel
Photo via YouTube
