I have a love/hate relationship with musical reaction videos. There are kids reacting to heavy metal (or The Beatles), vocal teachers and opera singers reacting to rock vocalists, millennials reacting to classic rock, people of different cultures reacting to American junk food, and on and on. Some of these are quite moving, for instance, a 20-something hearing Zep's "Since I've Been Loving You" for the first time, or a vocal teacher reacting to a Black Metal vocalist's cookie monster growl.
In the above two videos, Heline, a classical flutist and music teacher, listens to Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson performing "Bouree" at a 1969 concert and then she listens and reacts to a performance from 1976.
I didn't realize that Anderson had only been playing the flute for a year and had no formal training at the time of the 69 video (their first tour). Heline can appreciate his chutzpah in the first performance and the fact that he's only been playing for a year(!), but is perhaps predictably critical of his playing. She is more impressed with what she sees and hears in the 1976 performance.
Personally, I always thought his playing, vocalizing, singing were inspired. All that and stage antics (the goofy one-legged stance) were a perfect example of "the street finding its own uses for things" — using the technology in ways in which it was never intended.
Image: YouTube
