How ASMR videos went from a niche 'tingle' subculture to mainstream memes

ASMR pickles ASMR pickles
A screenshot from a viral ASMR pickle-eating video that has over 30 million views on YouTube.
Screenshot YouTube/ASMRTheChew
  • The first intentional ASMR videos started getting uploaded to YouTube about a decade ago, and the genre has since gone from an underground community of tingle-seekers to a mainstream facet of the platform.
  • Along the way, ASMR creators developed popular themes and tropes in the community, with some building steady followings off old-school ASMR content and others going viral for strange, hilarious takes on the genre.
  • Once ASMR blew up and became a household phrase, celebrities and companies started using the genre for advertisements, PR opportunities, and more. 
  • This collection encompasses the most viral ASMR moments, the standout old-school videos, and those that started or popularized some of the most prominent ASMR trends. 
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

If you've only just recently heard of ASMR thanks to the viral memes and trending topics associated with the online community, you may be surprised to learn that the first ASMR YouTube videos popped up online a decade ago.

In the ten years since, more and more people have come to identify with the phenomenon, which is short for "autonomous sensory meridian response." It's not a scientific term per say, but new research strives to understand what ASMR really does – and so far, results show it can help with mental and physical health. 

Colloquially, ASMR is a feeling best described as "brain tingles," and most people realize they have it after experiencing a relaxing or even sleep-inducing feeling thanks to certain triggers that can occur unintentionally or intentionally, in the form of audio and videos distributed online. 

One of the best places on the internet to observe the evolution of the ASMR community is the "r/asmr" subreddit, which started in February 2011. Since then, the genre has ballooned.

Gibi ASMR, one of the top ASMR channels on YouTube, described the growth of the genre to Insider as three phases: the first ASMR videos, the beginning of a fully-fledged community, and the trend upward into a popular genre. This collection isn't definitive, but it does have examples from all three phases, as well as the most viral ASMR videos and the trends that would go on to define the genre. 

The first ASMR star was Maria GentleWhispering.

The reason ASMR exists in the capacity it does today is because of Gentle Whispering ASMR, who used to go by Maria GentleWhispering. Her "Oh such a good 3D-sound ASMR video" was the most-watched ASMR video for multiple years, and served as the unofficial introduction to the genre for a generation of ASMR listeners.

She was one of the first people to do media interviews about ASMR, and helped explain the phenomenon to a new mainstream audience. 


After Gentle Whispering, Heather Feather was one of the giants of early ASMR. She developed a huge fanbase for the time, and her audio technology proficiency allowed her to push the boundaries of what ASMR could sound like with the help of professional tools. 

Heather Feather also produced lengthy ASMR tracks so that listeners could plug in and fall asleep without having to switch from video to video. She also pioneered a lot of early triggers. Her most popular video is more than 4 hours and 30 minutes long, and includes more than 120 triggers with binaural sounds – meaning different microphones recorded sounds for each ear. 

Creators experiment with different video techniques, too, like 360° video.

Cosmic Tingles ASMR is one of the first ASMR creators to experiment with 360° video – a technique that will likely become more popular as VR headsets become more common.

The idea of full immersion in ASMR is still being explored by creators. Replicating natural ASMR experiences is something a lot of different creators have pursued in different ways, including real-life ASMR pop-ups and spas. 360° video is one way creators can make the experience more life-like without being physically near the viewer.

One iconic ASMR production was "Departure," which arguably invented scripted ASMR multi-part series.

ASMRrequests has been a mainstay of the ASMR community since the beginning, and her contributions have impacted the way ASMR functions on YouTube. In 2013, she produced "Departure," a scripted, multi-part sci-fi series with a compelling narrative and original characters.

It was also one of the early attempts at showing just how far production value could go to create an immersive ASMR experience, and fans of classic ASMR point to it as a hallmark of the genre's evolution. 

Other ASMR creators have experimented with fantasy series since, like Goodnight Moon and her Babblebrook series.

Fantasy elements have a strong history in ASMR. Tropes like palm reading and fortune telling are popular, and lots of creators use props like crystals and play with the themes of magic and hypnosis. 

Goodnight Moon took the inclusion of fantasy and surrealistic elements a step further with her popular Babblebrook series, which incorporates fantastical characters like witches and mermaids. Other popular ASMR creators incorporate cosplay, fictional characters, and even horror elements. 

Before Gibi's cranial nerve exam video, first wave creators pioneered similar content.

The first cranial nerve exam ASMR video that appears to have been uploaded to YouTube was this one by ocalymaASMR, who hasn't posted anything for a few years. 

But Pigsbum53 ASMR, one of the first well-known creators in the community who is still making videos, popularized the cranial nerve trope with her addition.

For roleplay videos, however, faces are usually pretty important.

The concept of personal attention is one of the most crucial elements of an ASMR experience for many viewers. Some people can get tingles from sound alone, but the idea of being cared for or having someone pay attention to you is a core element of the phenomenon for many people in the ASMR community.

The most popular ASMR artists all have one thing in common: they do excellent roleplays. Karuna Satori ASMR has grown a devoted fanbase over the past few years, in part because of her onscreen personality. She does a lot of comforting roleplays, and as an actual mother, is pretty good at playing one for her audience. 

Initially, roleplays usually revolved around customer service roles. Doctors and nurses, teachers, retail workers, and examiners of all kinds are the most popular roleplay characters. Some people watch videos of getting a tattoo or being checked into a hotel.

Or, in Karuna Satori's case, she may play your mother. As the community has expanded, creators have gotten more and more creative. 

A more traditional example of an ASMR roleplay video is Matty Tingles' game store roleplay.

Some popular roleplay tropes include retail workers at stores, where the ASMR creator shows you what items are in stock and uses them for a variety of audio and visual triggers. 

One ASMR trigger that has proved versatile for video topics, especially recently, is chewing.

SAS-ASMR is the most subscribed-to ASMR creator on YouTube. Her videos entail a lot of eating. One thing many of the top channels have in common is the emphasis on the chewing trigger, which also makes up a lot of the most viral ASMR moments.

Part of the reason ASMR videos involving eating are so popular is because chewing is a popular trigger. But also, food videos on YouTube seemingly benefit the channel's ranking in the algorithm, especially if the food videos latch onto other trends like mukbangs, or popular viral foods.

For ASMR, honeycomb chewing videos hit that sweet spot. They also make for great ASMR, because the chewy, sticky textures make for extra noisy mouth sounds – an ASMR necessity. 


Makenna Kelly, a tween ASMR creator, first went hugely viral for a video that no longer exists on her channel of her eating honeycomb. The video has since been reuploaded by other channels, but Kelly was one of the more popular child YouTube stars caught at the center of YouTube's ongoing debacle of how to monitor content involving minors. 

Kelly has had videos demonetized and removed as the policies concerning kid-created content have shifted. Another popular YouTuber, PaymoneyWubby, also made a video criticizing Kelly's account for what he considered sexualized content involving a minor. Real ASMR isn't sexual (it's intended to relax, not excite), but the narrative encompassed wider issues with child exploitation on YouTube, too.

Today, Kelly is still uploading videos and has since worked with YouTube to protect her channel from demonetization – but ASMR creators, including adults, say YouTube is prone to demonetizing ASMR content anyways. 


A roleplay Kelly made of herself as a "Rude & Sassy First Class Flight Attendant Roleplay" became instant meme material, and had a wide reach on other social media platforms.

As ASMR became more popular and more viewers were introduced to the genre through memes that played off the weirder, more humor-prone aspects of ASMR videos, the trends exhibited in videos shifted, too. It wouldn't necessarily seem relaxing to engage with a rude employee, but mean and rude ASMR roleplays became popular throughout 2018. 


Ices TheEnchantress has made a huge splash in the ASMR community with her vibrant personality mixed with old-school video creation techniques. She also masters the art of mixing viral trends with great ASMR. Her "Worst Reviewed Makeup Artist Does Your Makeup" helped popularize another trend on top of the emerging trope that flips the script of a caring service worker. 

Most ASMR roleplays traditionally involved characters who interact with a patient or customer, like a doctor or a teacher. Over time, creators began taking those types of roles but using a personality that actually denigrates or mistreats the viewer, while still incorporating ASMR triggers. 

The "worst reviewed" concept of a YouTuber going to someone in their community who is the worst reviewed at something has taken off across genres on the platform, so it makes sense that ASMR creators would begin to use the trend as well. 

A pickle-eating ASMR video went hugely viral and was one of the 2017 moments that propelled ASMR into mainstream meme territory.

ASMRTheChew is best known for her mukbang ASMR videos, which combine the two YouTube genres that may have taken off the most in the past few years. 

A video she uploaded of herself crunching on a jar of pickles was clipped and posted to Twitter, going massively viral. Her original video now has over 30 million views. Many people were still unfamiliar with ASMR at the time, and the pickle crunching was a perfect entry for the surreal meme humor that has become more pervasive over the years. 


While her pickle-eating video racked up more views, ASMRTheChew's typing video, which also included chewing gum and eating triggers, became a mainstay meme. You've probably seen the clip of her loudly typing into the microphone floating around Twitter before.

HunniBee ASMR has also attained viral success by using food elements in her videos, along with eye-catching edible objects.



As ASMR became more mainstream and videos got more polished, some members of the community were drawn toward old school-style videos.

Bladewhisperpro 23 may not be the most mainstream ASMR creator on YouTube, but his videos made a big splash in the community in 2017, when he first started posting them.

His "Relaxing Haircut Role-play" has gotten more than 1.6 million views so far, and his videos are popular in the "r/asmr" subreddit. A lot of ASMR consumers were drawn toward the homemade, old school qualities of his videos, especially as the community was largely dominated by women making polished videos with high-quality equipment.


Many ASMR listeners prefer lower-quality, amateur-style videos, because they allow for a more authentic experience that can results in more tingles. 

There are significantly fewer men in ASMR than women, but several male creators have still gained huge followings.

One of the most popular male ASMR creators is RaffyTaphyASMR. His specialty is tapping, and his tapping videos are wildly popular. His "ASMR tapping" video has more than 17 million views, and he also does popular sound assortments. His style of aggressive, fast tapping has proved popular for lots of different ASMR creators. 

Some ASMR videos are shockingly lengthy.

Some ASMR creators have experimented with livestreamed content, like ASMR on Twitch and by using YouTube's livestreaming function. Livestreaming can be a great way to do a long stream that viewers can watch continuously, but without requiring as much editing or processing on the creator's part. 

Or, if you're MassageASMR (a mainstay of the community), you can edit together a 10-hour long video. With over 23 million views, his audience was definitely appreciative of his efforts.

Another new ASMR trend is girlfriend/boyfriend trope, with the boyfriend trope emerging in particular over the last few years.



Some ASMR videos lean into the weirder, more meme-able potential of the genre.

Even more traditional ASMR creators like to have fun with it and lean into the more surreal, meme-friendly aspects of the genre every once in a while. Maple ASMR whispering the entire script of the "Bee Movie" in 2016, at the time when the internet loved it most, is a great example. 

Like any YouTube video, titles are everything. Some creators really have fun with them.

Angelica is an ASMR creator who has been making videos since the second wave of the genre. Screenshots of her video titles, which often hinge on surrealistic roleplays with historical themes, began going viral on Twitter in 2018 and 2019, boosting her profile even more.

Some ASMR videos delight viewers with a fun twist in the narrative.

"Sketching you" videos are very popular in the ASMR community, and FredsVoice ASMR's take on the trope started out in a pretty normal fashion, but by the end of the video there was a fun twist: he revealed that he was drawing a shockingly lifelike portrait of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

A lot of ASMR creators find unique, playful ways to bring humor into their videos, even if it doesn't define the video as a whole.  

Mainstream presences on YouTube have also experimented with ASMR, resulting in viral hits.

W Magazine has a popular YouTube channel, and one of its biggest hits has been doing celebrity ASMR videos. The Cardi B video in particular really took off because the rapper has repeatedly expressed her love for ASMR. Some celebrities who try out ASMR for W Magazine just play around and try their best at an unfamiliar phenomenon, but Cardi B actually knew what she was doing.

ASMR has found its way into commercials, too – and that's only just beginning.

Nowadays, the commercialization of ASMR has extended into the Super Bowl. It's an interesting hypothesis – if people find a commercial relaxing, they'll be more interested in the product. It's unclear whether that hypothesis is true, but it certainly got people talking.

But before Michelob Ultra tried ASMR in front of millions, one of the first big companies to use ASMR to its advantage was IKEA. In 2017, IKEA uploaded a 25-minute ASMR advertisement to YouTube, which featured a college student using IKEA's dorm supplies to put her room together. 

If the comment section is any indication, ASMR listeners enjoyed the attempt. 

Read the original article on INSIDER. Copyright 2019.

Follow INSIDER on Facebook.

Follow INSIDER on Twitter.
More: Features ASMR YouTube YouTubers