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I very likely discovered the chocotiger channel in early/mid-2009. It is maintained by a friendly-looking fellow who (mostly) uploads recordings of himself playing various songs on the piano, several of which are of him playing Scott Joplin's music—in fact, I probably happened upon the channel one day when I was viewing piano performances of Joplin's ragtime compositions on YouTube. Of his Joplin videos in particular, I distinctly recall watching his performances of Maple Leaf Rag
and The Entertainer
(which are by far the channel's most popular videos), as well as his performances of Elite Syncopations
, Fig Leaf Rag
, and Pine Apple Rag
(which were my first exposures to those pieces), and being much entertained—he is quite a skilled pianist, and his renditions of the Joplin pieces are excellent and very pleasant to hear.
As I look back on this channel today, I am immediately struck by how authentic and sincere it is when compared to much of the content that has filled YouTube during these past several years. The piano videos contain no advertising or other promotional material and little to no editing; they are all self-recorded and are presented plainly and simply, and this gives them a certain charm which could be found in great abundance on old YouTube, but which, sadly, is highly lacking on the site today, when many videos have been heavily edited and polished prior to upload, and therefore often appear very artificial and insincere. By contrast, the chocotiger channel truly embodies the spirit and purpose of old YouTube: it is an honest, non-monetized channel operated by an everyday guy who uploads videos of himself doing something interesting, cool, and impressive (in this specific case, playing the piano) not for money, but simply because he wishes to share them and be seen. His videos are not desperate to collect monetized views, and he has not employed any deceitful, clickbait-like tricks to obtain more views, but instead simply presents something interesting in a modest, straightforward manner; because of this, his videos and his channel are entirely deserving of all the views they have received and the popularity they enjoy.
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This page last modified on 6 June 2021.