#The serenely gorgeous music from all of Journey but especially the piece right at the end when you're making your final ascent

[veiledfox]

} There really is something to good music making things memorable

[happymetalgirl]

March 2020

Wow, March seems like such a bygone era, time doesn’t mean anything anymore with so much turned upside down (especially in the music industry) in the throes of the pandemic going on right now. One of those things was me losing my punctuality with this blog. While I haven’t been on top of my writing, I have certainly been listening as much as ever, with plenty to talk about this month, so better late than never I suppose. Here are the albums I listened to during March.

Code Orange - Underneath

I just wrote about the Pittsburgh metalcore juggernauts’ highly anticipated fourth full-length, but I’ll summarize again what led me say that Underneath is a good album, but not as good as the breakthrough album whose high bar this album was always going to have a hard time clearing. The band go all in on the industrial elements that accented Forever on Underneath, as well as push their luck on the more melodic, alternative metal-oriented hardcore tracks, which came with some growing pains, the latter more than the former. And I really think that they probably are just growing pains with the band getting more comfortable with this expansion of their sound, which (contrary to what the many zealous 10/10 reviews are saying) I think the band will get significantly better with if they keep this trajectory going into their next album.

8/10

Body Count - Carnivore

I really have tried to focus on the positive aspects of Body Count’s music, the fearless, topical, confrontational lyricism and the capacity the band has to generate a good hardcore breakdown, but the band really do seem to be unable to get out of this one-dimensional rut they’re stuck in, with Carnivore simply a few shovels deeper in. The band’s appeal tires very quickly with Ice-T’s recycling of lyrical themes and his band’s repetitions of generic hardcore tropes. They come through with a few moments of intensity, a sick breakdown or two, but the positive, hopeful moments are too few and far between. I would think that with not a whole lot of competition and a hip hop icon behind the microphone that Body Count would have the capacity to do more for rap metalcore, but they seem stuck in a cycle I do respect the stances Body Count takes against injustice, and I want them to be a more prominent, important voice in metal, but they have some climbing to do to get there.

4/10

My Dying Bride - The Ghost of Orion

The grand masters of gothic death-doom don’t ever really steer too far off course, rather they sometimes just take their foot off the gas, as they do on The Ghost of Orion. It has all the elements of any beautifully melancholic My Dying Bride album; the slow and burgeoning guitars, the downtrodden vocal melodies juxtaposed with bursts of growled anguish, and the melodrama of vibrato-laden strings; but it’s all arranged and conjured without much tangible passion or pain. That’s by the standard of the band’s pretty solid discography though, so with that considered, it’s by no means a terrible death-doom album, it just won’t be converting anybody or getting anyone more excited about My Dying Bride and death-doom.

6/10

Warp Chamber - Implements of Excruciation

Brutal death metal can often seem pretty one-dimensional, and it often is, but in the hands of a band who really has the ambition to make more of it than just some guttural rumblings from all the instruments involved, the genre can really take on a wholy new monstrous form, its horrific, deathly instrumentation heightened by the melody and the compositional nuance that a competent band can bring to it, and that is exactly what Warp Chamber do on their debut album here. Full of cavernous growls and ceaseless low-register battery, it can seem, at face value like just a regular brutal death metal album, but when the band starts breaking out the winding tangents and manic solos that, again, just heighten the chaos and compliment the brutality. It’s more than just regular-ass death metal, and I’m glad to have heard this debut. I hope Warp Chamber has more in store.

8/10

Loathe - I Let It in and It Took Everything

Do you love Deftones? Maybe you do. I do. But I don’t think either of us love Deftones as much as Loathe loves Deftones. I’m goofing right now, but Loathe really do channel their Deftones fandom real hard when they’re not in full hardcore mode or getting eccentric with the segues on this album. And it does offer a great combination of styles, with angular, low-tuned modern metalcore noise riffage juxtaposed pretty strongly against the gauzy shoegaze that immediately hearkens to that facet of Deftones’ music. The band struggle to get the flow just right on certain songs and across the album in general, with some pretty inconsistent songwriting, but it’s definitely outweighed by its still somehow immersive quality and the strength of the individual pieces going into it.

7/10

Earth Rot - Black Tides of Obscurity

The Australian band brings forth some more of the tried and true modern death metal a la Bloodbath, Carnation, and modern Cannibal Corpse, but with enough eerie, blackened oddity throughout the songs to keep the journey from being too homogenous. It’s these moments that both give extra life to the bludgeoning, but at-times basic, modern death metal the band is conjuring and kind of disrupt the flow of that muscly death metal. At times I do wish the band would chose to focus one or the other more exclusively, but if this pushes Earth Rot further into this kind of stylistically ambitious death metal, I appreciate the stepping stone this album acts as.

7/10

Myrkur - Folksange

After riding a pretty strong wave of critical adoration for her contribution to the growing wave of atmospheric black metal that culminated in the respectably sonically unique Mareridt in 2017, Myrkur’s Amelie Bruun has taken a step back to refocus or recalibrate artistically. As the title suggests, Folksange finds its creator rewarding herself for her contributions to black metal with a return to her love of Scandinavian folk music, and you can tell she loves it on this entirely folk-music-based project devoid of any black metal elements. I may not have been as head-over-heels as a lot of critics were about her black metal albums, but I certainly appreciated her folk-inspired ambient take on the genre, especially the unique sonic pallet of Mareridt. I liked those albums quite a bit, yet it is clear that the sound on Folksange is her forte, which makes sense if Scandinavian folk has been a longer-standing passion than black metal for Bruun. The instrumentation is absolutely beautiful and Bruun’s angelic voice fits so perfectly with it, but Folksange is more than just superficially aesthetically gorgeous. The songs (old and original) are written and arranged with such a natural knack for the style that makes it such a serenely enveloping experience that stands as Myrkur’s best work yet. I highly recommend it.

8/10

Old Man Gloom - Seminar IX: Darkness of Being

The famed supergroup’s first of two releases planned for this year after the loss of Caleb Scofield sees them dabbling around in an experimental array of genres that all the members have some sort of significant experience and specialty with. From post-metal of the sludgy, Isis-esque variety to the more noisily esoteric, Sumac-esque variety, to distinctly post-hardcore-influenced stylistic diversions, the band’s wide-reaching sound takes all sorts of twists and turns along their most recent experiment with the members’ varying pedigrees and influences guiding the music on quite the unusual nomadic trek. From the repetitive chord progression of the opening track to the album’s noisy finishing tracks (one of which features what sounds like rocks tumbling down a shaft of some sort for an extensive period of time), the band let their adventurers’ instincts guide them as they wander through their own experiment through the interplay of their members’ various styles. It’s weird, and not super polished, but it’s certainly fixating.

7/10

Candlemass - The Pendulum

After further cementing their relatively unchallenged status as the kings of epic doom metal with The Door to Doom about a year ago, Candlemass have offered up a quick little demo-focused EP with one new fleshed-out song, the title track, which takes them to the faster, more Dio-era-inspires side of their sound with the grand, soaring operatic vocals on the chorus and the relatively fast (by doom standards) guitar rhythms on the verses (think “Paranoid” or “Children of the Grave’). I love the very Dio-esque delivery of the word “fools” at the end too, very fitting. The demo track “Snakes of Goliath” slows it back down to Ozzy-era Sabbath worship in typical Candlemass fashion, the riffs and arrangement pretty respectable for a supposed demo track. The other full-length demo, “Porcelain Skull”, by contrast, does feel much less compositionally fleshed out and more like an actual demo piece. The other three demo tracks are just little instrumental studio doodles that don’t really add anything to the EP. If this EP could be interpreted as any kind of power move, it’s that Candlemass at demo level have just such a sharp compositional intuition for grand Sabbath doom metal and can pretty much nail it in their sleep.

demo-level 7/10

Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion

I was definitely looking forward to this album big-time after the gloriously unashamed weirdness of 2017’s Savage Sinusoid filled a massive void I felt was needed in my metal bank. By contrast, Spirituality and Distortion is such a reserved project it feels either shy or cowardly from the usually hyper-eccentric band. The greater absence of the vocals of Laurent Lunoir on the album highlight also just how much character he brought to Savage Sinusoid through his zany performances. Without his vocal wildness across the album, the attention on Spirituality and Distortion is then directed to the significantly timid production and electronic finagling that doesn’t measure up to that of Savage Sinusoid.

6/10

In This Moment - Mother

*Sigh* In This Moment is one of those bands who I think really do show a lot of potential but just can’s seem to reach it. They get a lot of unnecessary shit for Maria Brink’s sexy stage presence and generally theatrical aesthetic and live show, but they do have the capacity to produce emotive alt metal ballads like “Whore” and bangers like “Big Bad Wolf” that give some insight into what heights they could potentially reach if they were much more consistent. I was hoping that Mother would be a solid rejuvenation/comeback after the benign disappointment of 2017′s Ritual, and while it’s certainly different, it’s not better. Mother really tries to take on this big, enveloping sound, and biblical, post-apocalyptic feel, and it can sort of carry it for a little bit and be temporarily immersive until the band needs to go full force. When it’s just some fancy eerie atmosphere and Maria Brink’s sultry vocal delivery, it holds up okay, but when the horribly synthetically produced arena-booming instrumentation really comes in and breaks that immersion, you remember that it really is all just trite alt rock whose lofty flair is all a facade.

4/10

Mamaleek - Come and See

Undoubtedly the most wildly experimental album to grace my ears so far this year, I was not expecting such a forceful avant-garde project from Mamaleek so relatively soon after Out of Time, but damn I’m glad I got it! The anonymous brotherly duo have always taken black metal on quite the far-off journey whenever they bring it along on one, ever making it their mission to create something one-of-a-kind with their work, and Come and See has to be their most enthralling album yet. Ramming together the transfixing manic anguish of their blackened experimental noise with the angular dynamism of jazz and even some blues rock in a musical particle collider, Mamaleek have made a truly one-of-a-kind album, and that’s even by their standards. I’ve mentioned before that I tend to like my jazz pretty rowdy and aggressive (like my metal), and the chaos that Mamaleek already generates with their brand of black metal is perfect to trim with and infuse with the angular dissonance of traditional jazz at its more energetically extreme. While the array of chaotic sounds may make Come and See their most intangibly black metal album, the ethos of that root genre pierces through by way of the harshly shrieked vocals just as much as the new jazz elements do. I really might just have to do a full-length review on this one because there is so much going on here that is worth admiring and I can’t stop loving it.

9/10

Phalanx - Golden Horde

This album came out a few months ago and has been making some pretty significant waves on Bandcamp, and for good reason. The relatively young band on their second release ever do showcase a pretty good knack for groove and death metal brutality, balancing slow, thick, tasty groove and blasting death metal without falling into metalcore breakdown clichés or death metal clichés. The three-pronged vocal attack the band touts isn’t quite as dazzling as they might think it is (with the abundance of talented vocalists capable of shapeshifting through a variety of metal vocal techniques), but I do think it would be cool to hear them use that approach with all three vocalists acting more simultaneously to more effectively convey the chaos of the war-related lyrical themes they focus on. Nevertheless, this quarter-hour taster is a great starter for them and definitely worth checking out. Hopefully it’s a foreshadowing of the blossoming of a bright new act for death metal.

7/10

Regarde Les Hommes Tomber - Ascension

I’ve been seeing a lot of praise being thrown this album’s way, and I honestly can’t disagree too much with that it is a pretty damn good album. It is very reminiscent of the Numenorean album Adore that I praised so highly last year. Like Adore, Ascension is an atmospheric black metal album that could easily hook your typical dude who hates Deafheaven and blackgaze and makes a really big deal about it. The band’does well on Ascension to avoid the reliance on generic post-rock guitar reverb ambiance that turns so many people off from blackgaze, working together a lot of unique sonic twists that don’t usually find their way into ambient black metal and channeling direct, cutting, yet humanly vibrant instrumentation that’s backed by raw cries of agony very similar to what Numenorean was doing last year. Perhaps this is the new way forward for atmospheric black metal and blackgaze. If so, Regarde Les Hommes Tomber are doing well to lead the way.

8/10

Deadspace - A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars

I already offered my praises to this album at length with my long-form post dedicated to it, but I’ll give it another shout for its brilliant, bittersweet sending off of the seemingly tireless Australian band. Deadspace give their oppressive/depressive sound the added magnitude and glory offered by choir and orchestral elements with more tact than most bands that use those elements regularly. I really am surprised that the band have decided to split up at such a high point in their artistry and I wish there could be more from them, but I have to respect their decision to end it here, and A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars is a great note to end on.

9/10

[charlotteroseessex-blog]

ASMR

Say what?

ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) is a revolutionary phenomenon set to take over YouTube. The sensory responses are caused when sensations are endured throughout the entire body from an auditory or visual encounter. In recent years, the obsession with experiencing these feelings have become more publicised through uploaded videos and content available online, constituting a global trend that now even celebrities are attempting to produce. 

Despite the initial introduction of ASMR in 2007; on an online health page displaying inquisitions about a suspicious tingling, the surge of popularity has only recently peaked in 2017. Since then, the boom of ASMR videos have become almost uncontrollable with people uploading progressively strange content, like crunching on raw carrots and cracking knuckles - all for the viewers satisfaction. Each to their own, right? Some of you may be wondering, “where can I watch ASMR videos? I’m really intrigued to see if I have the symptoms!” Well look no further curious one! YouTube is filled to the brim with budding ASMR wannabe vloggers who would kill for the extra view on their whispering video. Yes, I said whispering video.

Is ASMR contagious, do I need a doctor?

Not everyone experiences ASMR, the triggers are unique and a much smaller percentage of people are susceptible to the sensations than you may think. Whether you’re ASMR curious or not, I may have got you thinking, “how do I know if I’m prone to ASMR?” Well, if you’ve ever embarked on a process of internal relaxation, triggered by a tingling sensation overcoming your entire body, whilst also in a transitory state, then I can confirm your encounter with ASMR. 

Usually, ASMR occurs in the presence of a really calming voice, like a teacher or doctor, when their tone of speech is so smooth and idyllic it causes you to undergo tingling sensations - which commonly begin on your scalp or at the back of your neck. It sounds weirder than it actually is, I swear. From this point, an ‘ASMR takeover’ will absorb you when a wave of calmness washes over your entire body and the only noise of clarity is that inducing your ASMR experience. So no, it’s not a disease or contagion you need to be scared of, nor are you likely to develop ASMR the more videos you watch. It’s simply just an experience of "low-grade euphoria" characterized by "a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling”, it’s actually something to be desired if you ask me.

The concept of ASMR, especially the content on YouTube, relies heavily on the multimodal influences on the viewing pleasure of the audience and whether or not the aesthetics are calm and relaxing enough to absorb viewers entirely during their experience. The power of the visual aspects must allow for those watching to be completely and utterly in a trance with the words and actions of the ASMR creator, rather than be distracted by the art piece on the wall behind them, or curious of the individual walking past the nearby window. ASMR videos pull explicitly on the connection between sight and sound, as the multimodal elements help influence this with spoken language and imagery administered in the content.

Let’s have a listen.

The reliance placed upon the intricacies of execution is dependent upon, not only the avoidance of visual distractions and assurance of visual pleasure, but also the provision of vocalised audios and sounds (like the bristles on a hair brush or cutting paper). The audios present guidance from the narrator which is accompanied by the sounds featured in creating a desirable ASMR experience. Audio elements are vital for the true sensations of ASMR to fully absorb the mind, body and soul. Think of something that when you listen to it, you emerge into a state of complete tranquillity and find yourself in absolute serenity created purely by listening to this one unique sound. Just like how some of us are at our most peaceful when listening to a calming story, meditative music or a soothing voice like Morgan Freeman or David Attenborough, others may turn to ASMR because to them, listening to someone whisper or chew through a microphone creates the same euphoric sensation.

Having outlined the importance in sound, I think its also worth investigating the recent evolution in visual aspects assisting these audios. Due to the increase in popularity of ASMR and its recent domination of the content featured on YouTube, it’s growing adoration can be held accountable for the demand in visualisation becoming a modern feature of ASMR. The multimodal elements of aesthetics portray emphasis on the importance of beautification and attraction towards making an AMSR video stand out amongst the thousands of others - just like how a magazine will try to catch your eye, YouTubers hope to grab your attention in a similar way.

So let’s take a look.

Much like how you would expect to see beautiful models wearing gorgeous clothes in a high brand fashion magazine, ASMR videos experience the same pressures as their audiences expect to apprehend pleasurable viewing experiences. Not only are the visual aspects of the background important to producing a successful ASMR video, but the demeanour of the individual creating the experience is equally as influential. Now, don’t get it twisted, ASMR is not shallow. I’m not suggesting that only really good looking people are allowed to make these videos - anyone can do it - however what I am implying is that the YouTubers overall appearance and presentation has a dramatic impact on the viewers desire to watch or keep watching. Take a look at the thumbnails below of each ASMR video uploaded to YouTube and try to consider which one you would rather watch:

The first icon features a warmth to the video with the simplicity of only neutral colours involved. Here the YouTuber has created an immediate relaxation in the visionary experience, as the mellow tones exhume an assurance of calm. The absence of distracting and dominating colours, allows for the creator to ensure full engagement between their performance and the viewers gaze. Without having even played the video yet, the viewing expectations remain high based on the levels of intricacy, as the consideration of external factors create a placidity for the viewer. Once pressing play to immerse into the video and embark on the journey of ASMR, the temporal and sequential logic of the YouTubers speech (if executed successfully) ensures flow and rhythm to her words. This precision of a carefully constructed narrative evokes a logic to the speech and assures a linear processing from the listener due to their engagement with the video. The partnership of visual and auditory elements collaborate in producing a tranquil and effective video, assured by the absence of distractions which allows the relaxation to fully transpire. Polysemous is prevalent in this first video as she immediately engages the audience and in doing so, maintains consistent interest as the clip progresses. 

The second icon portrays a diminished professionalism and is thought to be one of the worst ASMRs ever published on YouTube (as officiated by them, not me). Immediately, the viewing pleasure of the icon conflicts with the first, as the reduction in aesthetics from the poorly lit room presents a blinding whiteness of her face which makes her features almost impossible to interpret. This is already a distracting element as I find myself wondering what her real features are like… both random and irrelevant to the video. The background is also very cluttered which encourages the eye to wonder and focus on aspects other than the YouTubers logic of speech. The visual distractions obstruct the relationship between the viewer and the speaker and the audiences engagement with paying attention and listening is broken down. The disruption of sequential logic suggests a failure to the linearity of speech initially intended to create a calming effect and achieve an ASMR experience - this video fails.

ASMR and health.

In identifying the artificially provoked sensations of ASMR videos, through deliberately searching online, there have been many health benefits discovered in recent years when assessing its calming effects on the public. Through the mechanism of relaxing audios and visuals, it is suggested that the sensations endured when perceiving an ASMR video can be presented as a coping mechanism for stressful situations (especially for those suffering with mental health issues) due to it’s soothing side-effects. ASMR also claims to have beneficial influences on your sleeping pattern, suggesting that listening to a video before bed will help you not only to drift off, but remain in a mellow mind set throughout your nights sleep. Just like many of us will turn to music or movies before bed to tire our eyes, others resort to watching an ASMR video to seek a more advanced calming strategy. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

Going public.

In order to understand the publics current awareness of ASMR and whether or not it is as popular as sources claim, I carried out a survey on a small group of people. My questions attempted to gage an insight into the usage of ASMR videos and whether people rely on, or are open to trying, the YouTube trend. In retrospect, my initial expectations of the results conflicted with my findings by the virtue of my naivety about the vast awareness, curiosity and openness from my sample groups previous experience to watching ASMR videos. The surge in popularity of ASMR online content explains the 100% confirmation in their familiarity with the genre, which then resulted in only 58.33% of the group admitting they had experienced sensory response symptoms. These results were to be expected, as not everyone is likely to obtain the same sensitivity towards artificial sounds and digital visual engagement.

In developing my interest into the current reliance on ASMR, and other meditative strategies when coping with mental health, I provided a 1-100 scale so the respondents could mark their current level of anxiousness. This was important to the survey as I wanted to use this personal insight to understand whether ASMR was calming for everyone, or just those prone to experiencing the sensations. As the results show, the average level of anxiety was 36% which provided a small passage of improvement for the results after watching the ASMR video.

Having analysed the initial levels of anxiety, I was interested in researching current reliable calming strategies when coping with stressful situations. In the results displayed below, it is clear that the most popular strategy was listening to music (41.67%) with the least being ASMR and other therapeutic videos (8.33%). The results suggest that ASMR hasn’t yet reached its highest level of potential in receiving exposure towards its desired audiences. With music being the most popular choice, it explains that accessibility and transportation is vital when appealing to the general public. As ASMR relies profusely on the multimodal functions of visualisation, the act of watching videos can be considered quite embarrassing if demonstrated in public. Imagine being on a bus sat next to a middle aged man and on his phone displays an ASMR video with someone pretending to give him a haircut - yes these videos do exist. The importance of polysemous being present in an ASMR experience is the main element which creates the immediate affect of tranquillity, so ASMR has to be intently observed for the best endurance. It would be strange though, right? So you can’t blame people for resorting to subtlety, a hidden phone in your pocket connected to earphones beats openly watching people whisper or heavily breath into a mic.

Proceeding on from this topic of calming mechanisms, I wanted to introduce the concept of ASMR and the feelings evoked from participant observations. I asked for the participants to watch a small portion of the video provided and then express the feelings raised. Undeniably, my expectations was that the video would provoke sensations of calm or even induce ASMR symptoms. However, as previously stated, ASMR is not for everyone and so 58.33% felt uncomfortable watching the video. From the results, the demonstration of distressed behaviour reflects the breakdown of the logic of speech. Through the rejection displayed by the listener, the temporal and sequential speech of the YouTuber prevents the formation of a linear processing, consequently destroying the likelihood of an effective experience. (Here is the link to the video participants watched: https://youtu.be/fZnptZ2wI88 )

Having now observed the video, participants quickly conflicted their notions of feeling uneasy by outlining what they felt were the most relaxing features. In this question, participants were allowed to respond with more than one answer, this was done to conceive the most impactful relationship included in ASMR video features. With only 2 participants conveying their answer as ‘None’, 66.67% regarded the ‘Whispering’ as most relaxing, closely followed by the considerations of ‘Visual imagery of soft colours’ scoring at 33.33%. The partnership of the senses, sight and sound, support the successful execution of semiotic modes being vital for an impactful ASMR video. The visual and spoken logics of multimodality presents a strengthening to the YouTubers creation of meaning in the content they post, which is justified by the whispering and imagery concluded as the most effective features.

After providing the participants with current ASMR content, I thought that to revisit the question of anxiousness would provide an affective development regarding their feelings towards the experience. Although having observed the negation towards ASMR, I anticipated that the results would portray an increase rather than an envisioned decrease. Since the first insight into the participants levels of anxiety, compared to after the observation of ASMR, the results showed an 8% increase from 36% to 42% feeling anxious. I can assume from these results that the cause of increase is due to those immune to ASMR rating very highly, compared to those reporting a decrease in anxiety with half the participants ranking from 20 or below.

By carrying out this survey I was able to gage an insight into the realistic perceptions of the public towards ASMR, as well as to understand why people are less likely to rely on it as a coping mechanism. Despite only 41.67% claiming that they would now resort to ASMR videos as a calming strategy; with an even smaller percentage accepting the option as a method of inducing sleep or reducing stress (33.33%), the overall factorship of ASMR presents alternative calming strategies made easily accessible for everyday people. Throughout the duration of this survey, the awareness raised for the effectiveness of ASMR has allowed for a very small proportion to experience and reflect on meditative approaches suitable for stressful or struggling times. It has also suggested that multimodality plays a vital role in producing affective content, as well as the fact that until we all stop caring about the opinions of others (especially in public), ASMR might slowly but surely be as dependent as listening to music.

RAPPIN’ it up.

My indulge into the world of ASMR might put you off ever diving into the world of YouTubes sensory dark corners, but despite what you may think it’s actually really quite normal. Loads of us are prone to the tingling sensory reactions, whether you wanna admit it or not. Cardi B is a loud and proud ASMR advocate. Yes, the biggest female rapper that there ever was openly admits her reliance on ASMR. She even goes so far to claim her nightly dependence in order to sleep and supposedly obsesses over newly released ASMR content. Cardi even gave it a go herself by creating a video whilst whispering answers for a magazine interview. Multitasking at its finest. 

And don’t think she’s the only celeb to dip her toe into the weird and wonderful world of sensory gratification either...

It seems that in correlation with the growing popularity of ASMR, celebs from all backgrounds are jumping on the bandwagon. Will this surge in celebrity intervention normalise the desire for whisper videos? Putting a well known face on the front of a video entitled ‘Emily Ratajkowski Explores ASMR with Whispers, Leather, and a Lint Roller’ imposes an indexicality by elements of luxury and superiority surrounding the audience that indulge in these videos. 

So why encourage ASMR as a hobby doted on by icons? Does the concept of Emily Ratajkowski whispering on camera make the idea of ASMR a more desirable watch? If so, does this suggest the sexualisation of an ASMR experience is provoked by the intimacy of multimodal features?

ASMR: Okurrr

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Sources: 

If you find yourself wanting to experience ASMR beyond Cardi B’s interpretation, the links to the featured videos are here below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zltEvQK03Hs 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLV5dXtHT-Q 

https://www.youtube.com/user/wmagazinedotcom