Continuing my series of discovering and cataloging Youtube genres, I've discovered Pool Cleaning Videos and they're somewhat compelling but not compelling enough, for reasons I'll explain.
There are at least two types of pool cleaning videos. In the first type, the pool is empty and they're cleaning the cement. These are fine, these are pleasing but you'll note they don't differ in any meaningful way from the Pressure Wash genre so I will omit talking about them. See below for an example.
Categories: "Things Going from Disorder to Order", "Cleaning", "Pressure Washing", "Oddly Satisfying."
The other type of pool cleaning video - the main one for the topic of this discussion - is a pool cleaning where the pool is full of water. You'll find my favorite example below.
Categories: "Things Going from Disorder to Order", "Cleaning", "Bright Colors", "Oddly Satisfying."
There are two aspects of this example I need to point out. First, you'll see the pouring of chemicals, the churning of the water and the color of the pool changing from dark dirt to a crystalline blue. It's an amazing phenomenon and one that I'd never seen before. This process is the main feature that all videos in this genre have in common. But as much as I find the color change satisfying, it's also too slow and usually involves "checking back in" periodically so you don't really get the satisfaction of watching it change before your eyes. This is the main disappointment of the genre - the pretty color change that I want to watch mostly happens off-screen.
The second aspect of this video to discuss is pretty rare and the reason this one rises above the rest... The part where they run some sort of pool vacuum and you watch the pool bottom getting cleaned in neat strips - the part starting around 11:00 - that's superb. That's the best. More of that please, because I haven't seen other videos that feature it.
So in summary, I find the Pool Cleaning Genre to be compelling but not as satisfying as other similar genres.
I've posted a number of youtube genres over the years under the heading of "oddly satisfying" but this one has to be the most pointless. Not just a marble race, but a virtual marble race. There are a million of these and they all have millions of views.
Please, no wagering.
I'm wondering if the same race is run multiple times, if the result is exactly the same each time.
This youtube video, entitled "Cobblestones unloading relaxing and healing." is my exemplar for this genre.
It is no doubt relaxing but is it also healing?
There are loads of these. The genre could be called "Falling Rocks," "Falling Stones," "Sifting Sands" or maybe something like "Unloading Stones from Barge." None of these is really a homerun. Maybe "Conveyor Belt Unloading" is another possibility but the weakness of that one is that the conveyor belt isn't the star of the show, it's the rocks.
It also seems that they mostly come from China and there's a lot of re-posting/stealing content. It ticks the "Oddly Satisfying" box and I don't know of any others - other than that you should watch it on mute while listening to something else. I find it mesmerizing.
Above is "Orlando Florida Early Morning Interstate 4 Commute."
This is immediately a new and distinct youtube genre. No events, no dialogue, no editing, just driving on a road - and different stretches of road and different times call for different videos. It technically can include dashcam videos but let's face it, "dashcam videos" is already a separate genre.
I can confirm that the genre spans multiple channels and multiple videos though it's only an up-and-coming genre and difficult to search. Most of the ones I can find are Florida for some reason.
While this isn't my thing, I have heard it said that people with ADHD often enjoy driving because it calms them or slows them down. If nothing else, that's a benefit.
And, again, not my thing, but I clicked on this because the time attracted me. I really like city lights against a night sky. The sunrise isn't bad either.
Here's a new genre of youtube videos that is also (arguably) a musical genre: songs/videos that are very specific situations.
For instance, have you heard "It’s 1993 and you’re in a hotel pool (Vaporwave Mix)?" That's the video above. I like this song because I remember being in a hotel pool in 1993. But don't confuse this one with "It’s 1994 and you’re in a hotel pool." Those are two different years and time waits for no man.
Now, one of the rules I have about declaring a new youtube genre is that the videos have to come from more than one channel. I was thinking that confirming such a thing is nearly impossible because how do you search for this as a category?
That being said, the "summer 1989" video above is from a different channel than the rest. That's technically sufficient. I've also tried searching for "vaporwave" and there are a few other channels so I'll say it's legit.