But the fact that “nothing happens at all” is the point of the Ambience videos.
“Others turn on an Ambience video before going to bed to feel a sense of company and comfort.“Īt first, according to Klausen, it may be irritating to stare for minutes at a screen where nothing seems to be happening. “Some people use the videos as an audiovisual backdrop while they are working, writing or concentrating on a task,” says Klausen. Recently, it has therefore also been used in the porn industry.Īmbience videos also fulfill this purpose, for example when it comes to creating a feeling of company or comfort, but they should also be able to relax the viewer / listener: he enjoys the scenery, lets himself drift, his thoughts wander, he feels carefree. The so-called autonomous sensory meridian response experience generates certain stimulating and exciting reactions in the listener, such as goosebumps or a tingling sensation on the skin. As if he had made himself comfortable in a dimly lit library or as if he were sitting in a small jazz café in Paris by candlelight during a rainstorm.Īlthough the term ASMR is often used in connection with the ambience videos, both genres can be used quite differently. “They are related to ASMR videos, which combine soundscapes with visual animations to create a certain relaxing atmosphere.“ The videos are often created in such a way that it seems that the viewer/listener is immersed in a very specific scene. “Ambience videos are a genre of YouTube videos,” says media scientist Helle Breth Klausen from Aarhus University in Denmark. Some people can do this just by their imagination, others need support and inspiration to escape into alternative worlds. By combining auditory and visual impressions, it is thus possible to enter a world that is significantly different from the everyday environment.
“Sex and the City” fans will remember the Sound Machine in an unforgettable memory, without the frog sounds of which the hypersensitive Jack Berger could not find his way to sleep.Īmbience videos want to achieve a little more. Just think of all the digital fireplace stills, which in the course of an incomprehensible hype were supposed to make the living room more cozy, but in the end became only a testimony of bad taste. These supposedly authentic soundscapes are not completely new. In order to interact with or display content from YouTube and other social networks, we need your consent. If you want to take a break from the same everyday life, you can beam yourself into fireplace rooms, cafés, bookstores, wintry snow landscapes, quaint garden houses.Īt this point you will find content from YouTube One could also say animated still images with corresponding background noise. On the YouTube platform, so-called ambience videos are very popular right now. The scenery can be enjoyed in peace, for a short moment the viewer gets lost in the surroundings.Īnd he didn’t even have to violate pandemic-related requirements for this, but simply opened his laptop.
Much more will not happen this afternoon in a beach café somewhere in the world. Cutlery rattling, whirring and steaming hissing of the coffee machine, soft jazz sounds, the sea rustles in the background.