Just in the last few months, it seems like everyone who is doing content creation on youtube (etc.) is holding a tiny mic up, in the frame of the camera.
I get that mics are needed, but a good desk mic or a headset or whatever else you might imagine is just as good acoustically, and far less distracting. And they were all in use up until a few months ago.
Is this just a fashion trend?
YT and TT are platforms that breed weird quirk uniformity. They all grab your attention with the same phrases (“you’ll never believe …”, “what about [insert something outrageous]? Let me explain …” etc.) For a while, everybody had the same Ikea shelves behind them crammed with shit. Then I think we moved on to neon signs. It used to be fashionable to show off your expensive big microphone, probably much to the delight of its manufacturer. And that’s why I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the manufacturer paid some influencers to hold the tiny mike prominently in the shot like they would hold a dog poop bag filled with poop from a stranger’s dog. And then it was copied.
They often still have the expensive microphone, but use an unplugged tiny microphone just for the aesthetics.
I don’t know if this is true but the absurdity is hilarious to me so I’m choosing to believe you.
I have seen a few you tubers jokingly show that it was disconnected. Because yes, at some point even that became a meme. But I couldn’t find an example off the top of my head.
So make a new business of selling empty tiny mics… No wires, no circuits… But 20% cheaper
It may work out…
I think you’re on to something here. I have had noticed that in some channels I’ve watched where it seems like their room is way too perfect? Probably not the right word, but it’s off-setting to see how their environment is orchestrated. Like it’s the in-thing to do, so that is their way, a way of conformity. Then when that in-thing is no longer that thing, out with that environment into something else that’s trendy.
I would hate myself a lot if I was making videos and had to orbit my life around what a manufacturer, marketer, advertiser .etc wants to see me project.
Keeping a single corner of a room tidy isn’t that hard, and these are professionals, frequently making some very good money to keep that corner of a room neat and tidy. it isn’t any more of an accident, seeing something in the camera frame, than, say, all the times you see an MS laptop and it’s logo, or an apple laptop with that logo. or all the coke bottles and cans in movies and tv shows.
If you see a logo, it’s because someone paid them to show it.
From what I gather it is to look more authentic and in the moment, unprepared.
I’m amazed at how many people found rogan authentic. Is it the same sort of podcasters playing off people’s intuitions, like the fact checker used to?
It started with the Rode Go mics which for $200 you get 2 mics and a receiver with some crazy good noise rejection and gain control. 40 hr battery life and easy to work with. There’s now several copies from dji and the like that are even cheaper.
YouTubers didn’t mind the blocky look as it let them get great quantity sound in not ideal locations, without messing with traditional lapel mics(boxy clips, cables and tape). The closer you can get to the mic the more background noise you can deal with.
It then became a trend. Just as Rode have come out with a new version that’s 1/3rd the size
Nebula mirror: https://nebula.tv/videos/tomnicholas-why-youtubers-hold-microphones-now
I wanted to link to this video myself but you beat me to it
The original tiny-mic legend, Nat’s What I Reckon reviewing the overpriced-boatshow.
He grabs anything kicking around, for a mic-holder. (Find the one where he uses a sprig of rosemary as the mic-holder)
The YouTube microphone situation is crazy…
