YouTube Category “Scantily Clad Women Playing Piano”

I (re)started playing piano ten months ago as a hobby.  My mother made me take lessons as a kid, which I hated, then half a century later I tried it again and was like “Wow, I really enjoy this, why didn’t I do this sooner?”  My second thought is “How good can I get before I die?” 

My main interest is classical, so right now I am working on – count ‘em – four Chopin pieces.  Some YouTuber I was watching early in my hobby said “Every serious piano student has a special relationship with Chopin”, which I thought “yeah, whatever”, then three months later I was going OCD on Chopin.

My main piano teacher is Mr. YouTube, which carries just an amazing array of teachers.  Whatever your style, musical interest, or main learning method, there is someone out there making videos for you (usually with a come-on to subscribe for custom content or remote lessons).  What I really like is pulling ideas and techniques from multiple people: this guy had a great comment that made my mind “click” on chord inversions, that gal has an interesting technique for fingering, etc.  And when I get stuck on something simple (two handed fingering for the non-standard B-flat scale), there is always a video with the answer.   I think a lot of my quick progress is having this wide an access to teachers and techniques instead of just old, tired Mrs. Lassiter when I was seven.

Since YouTube is feeding me piano lessons and techniques, it started feeding me similar subjects like “Scantily Clad Women Paying the Piano”.  Now, I get why these are out there.   For men, having an almost naked women playing beautiful music in the background while you relax is practically a Jungian archetype.  I just find the existence of the content amusing and wonder if the audience is music nerds who need eye candy, or people who are looking for eye candy and put up with the classical music.

For the record the performers are talented, and I give them extra marks for being able to concentrate with high drafts.

My guess is the audience is just lonely male musicians as there are plenty of other YouTube topics that throw in babes.  Case in point is there are a bunch of “Home Repair Do It Yourself” videos that instead of having Bob or Frank walk you through how to replace a water heater, it is instead a woman in a bikini.  And if a guy has to watch a YouTube video of something, why not add some eye candy?