So I used to start watch beatbox when Roxorloops was showcasing with Zede during Zede's come up. Yes, prehistoric times. I remember the start of KRNFX, Reeps One, Slizzer, Blady Kris, Skiller, Zede, Tom Thumb, ... I've seen the come up of NaPom, Kenny Urban, D Low, Show Go, and many other great ones today. I even remember Felix Zenger and Beardyman starting. I used to love checking out beatbox. But when I was hit with "life" in 2017 I stopped caring much about anything content related. I had to focus on my new born daughter, my job, maintaining the family etc. Life just happened, and I think when life happens we realize we don't enjoy the things we used to do anymore or atleast not as much as we used to. Sometimes it's not the content that changed, sometimes it's us that changed due to life. And sometimes when we feel the way you're expressing here, we need to take a step back so we can allow ourselves to actually miss it. I found the love for beatboxing again through UKposts. Community of Beatbox is fantastic in my opinion. I have ties with the Western music industry, some people in the South Korean music industry and let me tell you not one of those communities is as connnected as beatbox. There are downside of course, but this community is fantastic in my opinion. We just need people to lead the way for the following. People like D Low, Madox, Inkie, etc. People like you too, Justin. You're a G. On another note I do understand the market becoming oversaturated and this is also due to the flood of reaction channels, which I know I am a part of. I'm just trying to figure out which way I can use this to help out the community that is so welcoming to me and others. This is a great video, man. It opens up the door for communication and that is how we can solve issues within a community. Hit me up if you want to chat or do a podcast or something. AR

I feel the same.. i don’t really keep up with stuff anymore. One other thing i noticed is: when i came across the scene for the first time, there were many „characters“ to discover.. and everyone had his own „special trick“ - The inward bass guy, the liproll guy, the dude who‘s super clean, the tkK guy.. it was obviously more complex than that, but it felt like a beautiful spread of variety, almost like a shonen anime where every character has different abilities. Nowadays the expectations are sooo high and many people try to tick as many boxes as possible. I‘m super impressed by all the upcoming beatboxers, who can do basically EVERYTHING.. but they also miss a lot of character compared to the pre-2019 era in my opinion.

Bee Low told us in 2015 also, that the golden era of beatboxing is over. You know what happened the years after.

I would also say that Covid was also a huge player in this sudden change in our feeling towards beatbox. For 2 years we were all stuck at home. No events and we also weren't hearing much from beatbox besides some small online battles and maybe Kickback. However, those 2 years of being stuck at home didn't stop everyone from improving. In fact, everyone improved a lot in those 2 years... we just didn't know! Thats why 2020 and 2021 felt like such a huge change when GBB Wildcards took place. It felt like everyone improved so much, TOO MUCH! But the reality was, everyone just improved like they always did... we were just not able to see them improve this time like we used to because there were no battles and we were all stuck at home. Due to this, it felt like beatboxing was entering its Golden Era. Not only that, beatbox videos started the gain way more views because everyone was stuck at home being on UKposts everyday. Now Covid has subsided, and there are battles happening often again. So instead of seeing everyone massive improvement after a year or 2, we see it every few weeks or months. So the improvement doesn't shock us as much as it did in 2020 and 2021. And since everyone isn't stuck at home anymore, not many people are stuck on social media all the time. Which is why beatbox videos in general are also getting lesser views compared to 2020 and 2021.

Multiple things as someone who's been watching bbx for many many years: - It's not new anymore for us, the time where every sounds sounded magical is over - Beatbox styles are way less diverse. Beatboxers are following too many trends so new routines, while being technically impressives are not very supprising - Swissbeatbox doesn't feel like a passion project anymore - The scene is quite negative for some reason - Money, beatboxers want to professionnalize which create tension - An incredible part of battles dissapeared: Freestyling. It used to be so good listening to full freestyle in battles. Routines are amazing but they also are predictable. - Mixing/Mastering is lacking compared to older stuff: it always feels under or overmixed so it's either not hype or not natural.

Beatboxing might not have been what it used to, it certainly isn’t the same for me. But if you can get enjoyment out of it, enjoy it! Don’t let the negativity of the comments and community get to you if you still like what you’re watching. Don’t let anyone take away from what you love

A theory that explains all of this (atleast for me) is the responsibility theory. When we were younger we used to have lesser worries and issues in life thus we loved that part of life (and everything that was in that part of life eg. that bbx era) since we love that part of life the most, we also end up loving that era of bbx the most now that we're older compared to then and having more responsibilities and issues (school, college, jobs, work, family etc) we're missing the previous era of our life, which also includes the previous era of bbxing. its not the nostalgic era of beatbox that we're lusting after, its the life we had with little to no responsibilities and issues, which makes us lust after and miss the previous era of bbx aswell. conclusion is that we dont miss the level of bbx or era itself, we miss how our life was back then thats how it is for me and how i view it and hopefully i was able to explain my point.

I wish beatbox didn’t have any negativity at all

Great and inspiring video bro! ❤

I’m newer than a lot of others commenting coming in early 2021 before Kickback and I feel like there was a big shift, though it’s hard to pinpoint beyond stuff like drama that happened. I prefer tag team and crew type stuff and I don’t know if it’s just seeing older videos more compressed together but it felt like there were a lot more random collabs of different beatboxers free styling together. We still get a few good ones from time to time, but it feels like it’s a much rarer event. Maybe it’s just beatboxers are busier, and now I only follow a few that successfully put out new content. There’s a lot of exciting potential though and I hope we see more projects between different beatboxers in the future. Really nice and thoughtful video!

I agree with you. I've been around to witness the people you mentioned, haha, and I have to say that your point expectation and evolution of the artform is what I have been thinking too. Now it's not about "Oh wow, beatboxing! so cool, so new, so unfamiliar etc." now it matters more what you actually do WITH the beatboxing. Skills and technical patterns are still impressive to us, but now the meta is to make music. I love this development, but some people feel like it splits the community based on preference and style and whatever. But it doesn't have to. I think so much is around the corner, in Austria at least we're really trying to built the community and awareness up, so I am very excited for the future of beatboxing, It has the potential to be as big as Hip Hop and Rock were during their peak years. Hip Hop obviously still enjoying its top status haha, and beatboxing will be one of those mediums/artforms that people will listen to just like they do normal musicians. And I personally, can't wait :D

I got interested in beatboxing in late 2019 thanks to Taddl and I did watch Sxin and Chezame almost from their beginning (i am german). And what made me exited about beatboxing was seeing other people beeing exited about beatboxing. When Taddl shows his community beatbox stuff he is noticably authenticly exited about what he is showing. And in thearly days of Sxin and Chezame it was very similar. It was literally two people sitting down and talking about beatboxing, sharing insights and honestly showing their passion and having fun and nothing else. But I feel like most youtube beatbox channels are not about that anymore but about creating one reaction video after another with the most crazy faces and overdramatic reactions possible with mostly no new insight compared to the original video. And even though I understand that being able to earn money with beatboxing (or beatboxcontent) is important since some people spend a lot of time and energy for it and cannot afford to work another job at the same time, I feel like the more people try to earn money with beatboxing and try to be more professional they lose authenticity and everything becomes less personal. And that is a huge loss in my opinion since the authenticity and the feeling of the community being a family was what made me and I guess many others wanna be part of this community in the first place.

I am totally new to beatboxing (for 2 months). As a newbie, almost every sound feels like a big discovery. And with every different video from different beatboxers, I still discover new sounds. I know there will be a limit in making different sounds, but it also gets me hyped to get to this point and, through that, understand the artistry aspect more. This makes me more exited for the next episode of beatboxing content! What I definitely don't want to forget to mention is that so far, I feel that the community is still very welcoming. Even towards me, who only started at the age of 31. Thank you!

I think something that is impacting the community is the change in the FIRST experiences people are having with beatboxing. There was a time when people were introduced to beatboxing from Rahzel, (for me it was him) I would imitate Rahzel on my own, and then after a while I started researching beatboxing online in the very beginning of UKposts in the early 2010s. Back then it was not as competition focused. It was more like ‘hey look at this unusual thing I love, is anyone else doing this?’ This was an era of discovery (just like you talked about in the video), but also it was an era where we were excited for each other. We all felt a little embarrassed about our hobby, and even the best beatboxers at the time were a little cringey to be honest! So we were very focused on building each other up. Do you remember that legendary interview Reeps One did? Where he talked about how he was beatboxing out in public and realized after a time that he was ‘enjoying listening to it’? That was such an epiphany for us as a community! We were just barely starting to catch the attention of non-beatboxers. In a way, I think the fact that the skill is so high, makes beatbox an art form that more and more people can enjoy, so this naturally will ‘dilute’ the intensity of the community. We were such a small community before 2015. 2015-2020 was the slow rise, and gbb21 (in my opinion) was the explosion where even my friends that didn’t care about beatbox before were sending me videos about it! I think the community feels more negative because people are being introduced to beatbox as mostly a competitive thing. It’s not about building up each other anymore because many of the audience can’t beatbox anywhere close to the level of the people in the videos. So they are mostly just judging from a distance without really knowing the hard work or the embarrassment that comes along with becoming that great. And I think the artists can feel it. The good news is that this brought money into the scene which allowed some creators to dedicate more time to their craft, improving the level even higher, but with money also came some drama, and frustration about who wins what, and why, etc. the money also perpetuates the over-saturation of content. Ok I have been writing a while and I forgot my overall point but I hope people resonate with some of these feelings I remember about the history of beatbox. This was an important video and I would like to hear more beatbox artists talk about it!

I feel the same... I'm glad someone is tackling a topic like this

i do really like watching all of the old, past videos of beatboxing. all of the old good battles and shoutout videos, and now in this year beatbox feels dry for some reason?

Love this video.. i aggree with your thought... i used to watch a lot of beatbox video but after 2021 i feel like something change and for some reason i have less time to watch new beatbox content..

Well done sharing this knowledge with a community who needs it. This knowledge covers such a large range of creatives. This art will soon find itself dealing with monetary hurdles. It will be up to those who built it to continue the pattern or move on without the rest of us.

I could write multiple paragraphs on the subject but I think that as long as we’re optimistic about the future, we won’t be disappointed… I’m not saying that we need to set our expectations incredibly high (because that’s worse than being cynical imo) but just optimistic. I’m confident that our best days as beatboxers are still to come. Much love

Your point about beatbox being more like music and people having "genre" preference is what changed for me. I realized I like routines that are trying to be a song more than routines that are showing new techniques or pushing technical boundaries. Listening to studio versions in BBU of people like Den and Hiss, and then of course show-go and people like Bigman, then more recently Jairo and Taras Stanin's new videos, I just realize I want good music, structure, and clean audio. The new, crazy sounds don't excite me unless they're combined in a very musical way these days, and live videos don't hit as hard as they used to for me.

man I feel the same. But there’s none to blame, some might blame sbx but in reality they too just showcased other talents too (if we don’t dig deeper). The community has grown to the parts where it is not respected that much. I know beatboxing is cool still, but the people who are like us all that stopped caring about the community for past few years really mean something. It’s not that we do not like this art, in fact we love more than any other art. Beatbox is MUSIC. the competition was healthier till like 2021 after that, toxicity has increased and the creators and producers of this art stopped thinking about creativity. I think we should all be just the spectators of the change. This might be the renaissance we all have been waiting from the starting of this art. *Every Kid as well as adult around the world would know what beatboxing is* this would feel great as an og supporter. But we respect art, which we fear many audiences won’t… This is what is making me think it is over. Lets see! cheers bro!!

I came into the community from people using codfish's don't bring me down in Minecraft Parkour videos Then I found the main same song and couldn't leave it from then And then decided to watch every beatbox video in existence Learnt it , learnt it's history and now it feels so good to be a part of it in someway Also it sort of helped me to distract myself when I'm feeling down I love this art form , and I think it will never leave me now and neither will I

As far as discovery goes I personally think we are still discovering new sounds very frequently. There is kaji with his crazy bass in the remix battle, there is ale with his weird gargle sound, there is astron with that insane whistle which just seems to come out of nowhere, and there is dilip which just competed in gbb with his insane zippers and weird sounds. Now there is definitely a lot of negativity in comments especially on the sbx channel but that can be fixed by just removing comments cause ngl the people who comment negative stuff are just tired and spoiled. We don't need that to be the top of comment sections of the amazing performers and beatboxers who pour their souls into beatboxing. I'm looking forward to the videos that you are cooking up and I'm excited for the future of beatbox, with gbb seeming to be back and live for every year to come and also all the other battles too! ❤

Very well explained video Justin . The change in the beatbox community is inevitable and sometimes it is not as how it was expected to be. The golden era of beatbox in the past is gone but what still remains is the love for *BEATBOX* and thank you for making this video 🙏🏻🙌🏻❣️ Let's meet whenever there is an opportunity . Much love from India 🇮🇳 🤜🏻🤛🏻✨ .

The first beatbox video I've ever seen was the Hikakin and Daichi beatbox game, I was barely (single digit number) years old back then, and I found it really funny and entertaining. I didn't even understand a thing about it at first, I was just watching and laughing along with them and the fails. Me and my brother used to watch them and then my brother always got impressed by their tongue click stuff (I don't know how to call it) and I started getting interested as well through my brother's influence. And then I discovered my first beatbox battle on stage, it was the Alem vs KRNFX and we were obsessed by Alem's technicality and KRNFX's muscis and covers and everything. As I grew up, I realized how impressive it was for an actual human to produce this much sounds just with their voice. And I honestly find beatbox really amazing 'til this day. I got to discover numerous new artists and a huge variety of originality and new sounds and surprises etc... But there came the dark side of it, or maybe what I consider "bad", like hate, failure, robbery, maybe I got the wrong point, but it surely did affect my point of view of the beatboxing community, my personal experience as a random enjoyer. And nowadays, when I see a new shoutout beatbox video, I still enjoy them don't get me wrong, but I feel like getting easily bored, since I've developped some tastes about music genre. Maybe I should say that I've seen too much of the same stuff, more than how much I've seen original things, as the community still grows and new people appear. I mean, it's hard to be original now that beatbox is actually pretty popular in 2024. Maybe it was a bit messed up, but I tried expressing how I really felt about the 2024 beatboxing scenes. And I hope no one took what I said wrong, I'm just bad at expressing myself 😶

My first exposure to beatbox battles was 2018 when codfish joined, since I came from his channel. I also felt 2021 was the last good year for the scene, which tbf might also just be my bias to being a colaps fan. If colaps ever comes out of retirement, I'm dropping everything to watch his battles any day of the week

i feel exactly same. i always feel like "something which made me love bbx" was missing after gbb21... somehow gbb came to my city. i know its crazy things happen and i shud b really happy cuz gbb was my dream i still love bbx, but i miss 2019 and b4

i feel the same way too... i dont know why but after bbu, i feel it's hard to find other beatbox vid or content that can makes me satisfied like i used to watch the older vids... And yeah gbb21 was the last gbb that I like... compared to gbb23, there's only a couple wildcards that I enjoyed (even with 2 round system) and the same goes to elims and battles... tbh I just wait for the QF battle of dilip vs napom and that's it for solo, now I just wait for the u18 to be upload... ngl I'm more excited to see the battle of u18 category than the solo😅

These kind of mature contents is what scene needs rn.. Gg Justin

Exactly, what it's one of the important things is narrative with each beatboxers. Modern Beatboxers shoud be differentiated from others.

You are right, beatbox has changed a lot. I was introduced to beatbox many years ago, and watched the occasional video. In 2021, I discovered my true love of beatbox. I think your comparison of discovery vs artistry is spot on. But I think the discovery still exists. Maybe it won't be with whatever new sounds someone has discovered, but I think it is equally important and exciting to see new combinations, ideas, and levels of musicality. Similar to regular music there are endless combinations, including having so many new faces marking their artistic stamp on beatbox. Do not fear old heads, the future for beatbox is bright. I have a feeling that the closer beatboxing resembles music, the more eyes and ears will be on beatbox.

Literally the same as me. I watched a ton of beatbox videos in the beginning of 2020, and nowdays i dont watch any at all. They dont feel the same as back in the days.

I started watching beatbox videos, as many people did, from GBB 2018. I found Bataco vs Codfish first and my interest grew and spiralled into me learning some of these sounds and becoming a decent beatboxer myself. However, about two years ago, my interest in the community and the art form subsided when I realised that it would be very difficult to be part of the community because my skill level was nowhere near anyone else's, no matter how much practise I did, and I realised that I didn't have time to watch all of the battles and content that I wanted to. I stopped watching these videos and it impacted my life at first, but I later realised it was probably a good thing because there wasn't as much to keep up with. I still beatbox sometimes but music production is the centre of my life now and I aim to keep it that way. I wouldn't be where I am now without beatbox tho, so I thank the community for that. It's been fun!

I agree with you. I mean everybody have a different opinion and thinkings about stuffs but that shouldn't affect bad on people. Some poeple don't like changes and miss old things like watching Codfish on big tournaments, seeing a lot of other famous beatboxers, I mean every one of them are excellent. People get used to it and of course it's hard to get used to new things but why don't we try to make it a good change. I don't know about this (and sorry if I'm wrong) but maybe a lot of people think that today is impossible to find a new unique sound to mark themself as unique beatboxers and thats why they want older beatboxers to continue with battling and other things of course. Let give a chance to new talented beatboxers, they will bring up new hype for sure, we just need to explore more, not less. It doesn't matter (to me) if you sound similar like other beatboxer because maybe that style motivate you to beatbox and you see yourself like that, or maybe try to find a new style on that "copied" style🤷. If we can't bring back the old days, let's make a new era. And don't let money to become main or only reason for beatbox, I think some people are also talking about that. There also TylaDubya's video about beatbox content - reaction videos, check that also. And I don't blame Swissbeatbox for bad things that happened, not everything is perfect, and they are trying their best to make it beautiful (I'm saying this because I hear some people blame them.). Those are my thoughts and again, if I said something wrong I'm sorry, just want people to think positive❤️.

this is excellent and true. may community always bloom where love is cultivated and honored and where sweet beats pulse Life into what has become lifeless.

I was introduced into the beatbox scene back in early 2018 by my friend, when I used to binge watch Dharni, his videos, his battles (especially the one with Alexinho), watched Neil in Asia's Got Talent, and got addicted to beatboxing, that I started learning it myself. Fast Forward to 2019, watched all GBB 2017, 2018, and especially 2019 videos, because they were so dope, with D-Low, Tomazacre, Elisii, and how can I forget MB14 vs B-Art, I felt that it was the peak of beatboxing, which is when Covid hit. During lockdown. beatboxing gained a hell lot of traction, new sounds, new videos, online competitions being held, and the rise of Chezame and Sxin. Oh god, it became an everyday routine to watch these guys goof around, and even give meaningful insights to the videos. Their videos were hell lotta interesting. Things started to change a bit around GBB 2021, even before the Tomazacre controversy, things seemed off, people not as excited as they were for 2019, the views dipped, people complaining about little things just for the sake of it. During and after 2022, things changed even more, after Chezame and Sxin changed up their video styles and content. Then finally when they split up and all these controversies and negativity accumulating, it simply doesn't just feel the same it used to feel 3 years ago.

I don't think this is beatbox related, I have the exact same thing with the hobby's I enjoyed in my teens. You can only do the same thing for so long before it gets stale and you want to move on to something else, it happens. But for people who enjoyed beatbox later than the OG's it still seems equally exciting, you always see a lot of praise for the amazing community among reactors, comments, etc. Still a lot of views and excitement for all these videos about beatbox, so I don't think anything changed. I just think some people are starting to get bored now they are getting older, and other people are taking their place. Completely normal.

I 100% get this. I do believe beatboxing has changed a lot . A ton of reasons for it imo . a lot of drama in the scene regarding a few well known beatboxers. A lot of division and clash of opinions among beatboxer groups . A decrease in overall beatbox quality in a way that now its all about complex unenjoyable soul-less crazy sounds and beats . No new real innovation as you said . A lot of old mainstream bbx channels died down like Soclosetotoast and mkcoy tv . Sxin and chezame broke up . Drama regarding Swissbeatbox , etc. Saturation of bbx content with same old recycled material . A ton of reasoms why I think beatbox has changed . I miss the old days 🗿

I started beatboxing at the end of 2022 and I saw all the Taddl reactions (because of them, I discovered the scene) and I was flashed! So many completely different styles and so much to discover. Now, I beatbox with friends in a little side channel of the Beatbox Community Discord server. And I am happy, that I can do that, because there I feel the same spirit. Everyone is working on something. Everyone has a different style and we can vibe together with our different ideas and approaches. But sometimes, when I step out of my bubble, I get a bit disappointed. My favorite beatbox styles are styles, which form a song. Take the examples of Den or Hiss. These beatboxers are the future for me. I hope, that more people find these styles. I think, there are 3 main styles, that you can have. First Tec, then Power/bass and Music. So a perfect style would be one, that has all of that in a good balance. You see? Den has all of that in a pretty good balance, but he focuses also one of that (music). And I think, that it something that makes us unique. Some people could have the same soundset, but they could sound completely different. I mean look at the difference between Codfish and Taddl. They are so different, but Taddl is more in the direction of power and Music and Codfish is more Tec and Music. I think, that this principle makes every beatboxer unique.

Im watching since gbb16 and i think gbb19 was the peak. I think the downfall started with the wunknown incident and the reaction of sbx on it, the tomazakre incident (also the reaction of sbx was wrong) after that and its obvious that gbb21 was the last hit for the old era. For me one of the little causes was the subjective criteria of the judges on the battles, due to the diversity and the artistic tern that u mentioned. I think that dulled the judgment of the battles. Also one of the reasons was the decentralization that caused by the rise of many channels

I blame sbx on everything honestly if u took actions faster it would’ve been the same hype. I’m not saying what u did is wrong but u should’ve expected the ppl to be snowflakes

I only really got into the beatbox community around 2020, so I'm fairly new, but I would say that the golden age of beatboxing was between 2016 and 2019. I still absolutely love the new stuff, but the older vids just have the vibes

Thank you for doing this. I’ve noticed the low views and wondered what community insiders think about it. Some thoughts: 1. I started following in the days of Joel Turner and Roxorloops, and remember thinking “who are these new school little punks” when Alem and BMG came along lol. Now they are the elder statesman of the community and the pre 2009 stuff seems all but forgotten. My (maybe faulty) memory though is that the tone of online comments, intra-community beefs, and over the top battle antics was WAY worse and more negative back in the day. I feel like pre 2016 era beatbox had a lot more toxicity than post 2016 era beatbox. Curious if those more involved in the scene agree? 2. How closely I follow the scene is directly related to how busy my season of life is. I didn’t have that much going on in the 2021 gbb sxinzame reaction era and basically watched everything everyday. I even cleared my schedule (which didn’t have much on it lol) to watch gbb 2021 live all three days. But for gbb 2023 I didn’t watch any of the wildcards and honestly forgot that is was happening at all, because my life was busier. 3. The drama of 2021 did snap me out of my daily beatbox UKposts obsession a bit. Suddenly I didn’t know if I was actually supporting terrible people, and there were so many conflicting allegations I didn’t know what to think, so I pulled back a bit and stopped watching every new thing. 4. It seems like some beatbox community folks think that our art form is on some kind of slow and steady path to eventually taking its place in mainstream music. I think this hope is misguided. Beatboxing is not a genre like hip hop, it’s a way of making music for a subculture of enthusiasts like acapella groups, marching bands/jazz bands. No one in the acapella choral world or marching band world says “once we have enough exposure we will be permanent mainstream fixtures/festival headliners.” But music community subcultures like this do have temporary “mainstream moments” though. Remember when Pitch Perfect, Glee, and pentatonix were all happening at the same time? Acapella had a true “mainstream moment”, for a bit and then it faded, which it always will. For those of us old enough to remember beatboxing actually already had a “mainstream pop moment” in the early 2000’s when it was featured on a lot of top 40 Timbaland and Justin Timberlake songs. Will we get another temporary mainstream breakthrough moment? You never know. But I think the great task for beatboxing is to become a self sustaining subculture. Acapella groups and jazz bands have enough interest that those communities can sustain themselves. They are greatly aided by being part of many kids school experiences though. Could becoming part of the high school music landscape be an important way for our community of enthusiasts to be a self sustaining subculture? Love Y’all, Esh

We will see what will hapen. Can't just surrender. Keep it up and enjoj❤

I can't agree with you more, man do I miss that Era

I do feel the golden age is over, all the best beatboxers in the world dont battle anymore, the legends arent as present in the community and i think with GBB its changed alot, some for the better and some worse, i think 2019 was such a peak year and then when 2021 happened it was huge. Since then though, and with covid and everything nearly coming to a hault all together it was hard not losing interest, i found myself going back to the old videos and old shout outs that reslly stuck out to me and got me into everything and even now when i do it its nostalgic. The "moments" that we all feel from past videos or performances, showcases, and battles. The ones that really stuck out and changed the course of beatbox forever. Those "moments" just dont seem to happen like it used to. Its hard to explain but i know sinxe we are all in the beatboxing community in some way we can all understand this in a way as well.

First i was watching Improver's uberdriver beatbox videos. I had no idea that there was a beatbox community. Then i saw dlow reacting to some battles and i learned that this is more professional than i thought. After some days UKposts recommended me a video from Anthony Ray reacting to some beatbox. I really liked his reaction and started watching every one of his videos and its original artists. I'm very proud of him that he gave me the opportunity to learn about what people can do with their mouths and to support them. And yes, somehow i feel beatbox has changed, it is more professional, these young beatboxers can do some sick stuff that older couldn't imagine. Also nowadays artists like Tara Stanin, Show go etc create their own tracks, a thing that wasn't even famous back then (except some tracks like Codfish' greenday cover) which is definetely fascinating to hear. They remind us that beatbox isn't just sounds coming out from the mouth, it's music...

Yea i feel the same. Ive gotten into the bbx-scene around 2018-2019. Watched everything that came out from so many channels. Its not just that it changed with drama etc.. for me its mainly the style also kinda changed. The 2018-2019 "era" was a diffrent style. Atleast to me. Im a musician myself. Ive loved beatbox vor the Groove, flow, timing and general musicality. A lot nowadays feels like its spamming crazy sounds. It seems to me like this "practice 1 sound for 5000hours" has went away to "5000sounds for 1 hour". I could be biased and wrong but for me it feels like this. Ofc not all of it. I still love stuff that comes out. And of course it comes down to personal preference/ interest. As said its just for me that way idk. Dont hate me and excuse my bad english please Much love BBxInt

This plays a big role in why i left the scene. Especially with what happened in 2021. There's no originality anymore (Even the MTS video is a Paris Reed rip off). I don't put out anything really anymore because I would see people rip me off and pretend they didnt. There's trend or two in the beatbox scene that I started with some performances at the old Beatbox House parties and one particular American beatboxer straight ripped my technique, did it exactly the way I did, and claim its theirs. I even confronted them to their face and they acted like I was crazy despite the real ones knowing the trends I started. And that's literally just ONE example. The community is full of self-serving people who steal from others and pass it off as their own. Many organizers constantly lie and rip off artists, over promise then under deliver to the attendees and often charge prices that they wouldn't have to charge if they didn't over-promise. And many of those organizers ENSURE that people don't get the money they promised to give them. I know BIG name beatboxers STILL waiting for money from events they were asked to judge from 2022. Event attendees can't even be sure the organizers will take appropriate safety measures for their events. It's honestly one of the saddest things i've experienced in my life as beatbox literally saved my life as a suicidal kid when I first got into the scene over 12yrs ago. Things will never be the same. And it hurts in ways I don't really know how to express. I've shed tears over this. I might return to putting out content, I might not. But if i do, I'm gonna run it like a true artist in the music industry. I will be claiming content that is mine and will likely never do another tutorial for any of my signature sounds or techniques. This is not a community, its a collection of egos raised by the battle-centered/shoutout focused culture that was created. If we focused more on artistic integrity and collaboration, the golden era would still be here. Now the only way to not have everything you do get stolen from you is to not put it out or literally make you're entire style that ONE sound or that ONE technique so that you solidify yourself in public perception but you sacrifice creativity by not being able to do anything else outside of that one box. My piece of advice for anyone that wants to make a career doing beatboxing: Build a name for yourself OUTSIDE of the community. Battling is a fun trap. But it's still a trap. Focus on building yourself as an artist/performer. And put your content out exclusively on your own pages/platforms and DO NOT do ANY shoutouts until you have a sizeable following and only do them if you are paid and get a cut of the AD revenue. The only reason any shoutout's I did in the past were done was for the love of the game and the respect I had for those channels/platforms. And it's ok to do that every now and then, but be careful who you do shoutouts for. Watch how they handle themselves. Only give free content to those that are worthy of it. If I could go back in time, I don't know if I would ever have done a single shoutout video or even competed. And btw, SwissBeatbox is not worth it. Do not give them your content. Ever. There's a reason I never gave them anything, and yes, they've asked me for a video. As a beatboxer your music is the product, and giving it away for other platforms and channels to sell off of is not a sustainable model. Don't prostitute yourself just for views and exposure that won't pay your bills. But hey, maybe im just bitter, who knows. What I do know is that I would love to see those with integrity succeed. And there are a few out there that I am immensely proud of. So move with integrity and self respect, and you'll make it farther than most. Just keep moving forward. -CTB

For me it’s the same, just different patterns and techniques which sometimes sound really crazy and sometimes needs more polishing, overall we are making our way into a really good era, it will just take some time

The best thing I would say about 2019 i got know about what beatboxing is i got so obsessed with it 10 to 12 hours in my day i use to sit watch video and manifest to be in the gbb one day but suddenly in 2021 our hype went so much down it felt like nothing is new or more exciting in this beatboxing world in 2019 we saw dlow tomaz colapse mb14 bart and codfish that time was legend but after that 2021 gbb felt more of negative feeling and in 2023 i was not even interested to watch gbb but just cause of dilip i was stick to it but as a 2019 kid my obsession for beatboxing felt worst

So, first of all, I'm not the part of this for a long time, I joined last year, but in my opinion the changes started in 2018. Until 2018, beatboxing was rather about musicality and technicality than bass and power. But from the second half of 2018 - early 2019 it started to move towards power, bass and break-through. In my opinion, there's no problem with that, meta changes all the time. But the fact that no one appreciates musical and technical routines anymore, or even a thin layer of the community, that's what makes me freaked out. (Well, my style is based on bass and power too, but I can appreciate fast Tk combos as well as if it was like 2015 when ZeDe, C-Fresh and Alem were among the bests, Ball-Zee is honorably mentioned.) Nowadays,when there's no inward bass in a track, then everyone turns around and doesn't give it a go. And about the discovery, it's so true. A lot of people I know watch only videos that were published in the past 6 months. If I ask them if they know Kenny Urban, Kaila, WaWaD, Vahtang, even Mad Twinz, they have no clue. And there's no way to make them curious about older meta and eras. We should be more open-minded and curious about the whole artform because that is the key to move towards making bearboxing a strong music style and not stuck in the undergrounds.

I think this is just the beginning. Maybe if you're a fan of the Spanish Guitar (an instrument that has the majority of its possibilities and techniques already figured out) you'll still be looking for improvement in message, and composition, which are still endless. That's why the spanish guitar, for example, is still alive and well. Maybe one day when the instrument is no longer the novelty of it, battles will change, and there's not going to be that much pressure to tick all the boxes, because they've already been ticked for you to explore which ones your style fits the most. It's great to not have the pressure to come up with, let's say, the new Beatles record because it's all been done already, you're now free to do something else and take inspiration from this source. I think a huge factor in this feeling is having a relatively small community (compared to singers for example), and that can lead to a feeling like: "We're all connected worldwide, we know all the big names and champions already". But that's the thing. Art can grow and reinvent itself in every corner of the Earth if someone is captivated enough about it, even if they're not connected to the mainstream scene, the main community we've grown to love. A friend can drop an album which may be your favorite ever, whether the big guys in music know about it or not. The instrument of human voice is still expanding, and can be paired with all the other known instruments there are. Fads and trends and hype dies. Music has a clever way of showing us it doesn't. Great video! Keep believing!

I feel the same way bro, here from 2018-19

I can relate to this sooo much

When a community starts getting as big as beatboxing is now, it’s unfortunately going to bring in some bad eggs with that growth. I agree with your view on this era of beatbox. I have also become way less interested in watching all the battle videos coming out now and I think your diagnosis was perfect. It’s because there isn’t as much of that novel feeling of hearing new sounds. I feel like I’ve become jaded even though I respect all the time it took for these individuals to practise these sounds. I think the recent content coming out from Taras Stanin and the videos created for the BBU are continuing to push the needle and show everyone what is possible with this art form.

Ez answer justin If something is oversaturated with little to no interest from the outside perspective it's going to become super repetitive adding to that the overwhelming amount of reaction videos are killing the scene and lastly casting every new idea that might bring newcomers because it's not "battley enough" such as what taras is doing

Once people started singing and beat boxing, that's when I knew beat boxing was not the same. Beat boxing was big in the late 80s. Totally different from the era

I think the development of the art form during covid is the main reason why many feel like this. Our expectations became too inflated due to the vast improvement in such a short space of time. Now we’ve come back to reality a bit as the art form is progressing more naturally so it “isn’t the same” for a lot of people, which is of course understandable. It’s almost like someone who goes from consistently eating average food with the occasional 5 star meal, to almost always eating 5 star meals. It’s eventually not gonna be as satisfying to consume for most. I got into beatbox properly in 2019, for me personally I don’t have that feeling of it not feeling the same. I think this might be because beatbox has always been more about connecting to the piece musically, rather than just watching for the findings of new sounds, although that’s not to say I don’t love being blown away by new sounds, it’s just not a priority for me personally.

i came into community around tbh i dont remember , i watch that top 10 drops 2018 and liked codfish cause of that lazer sound , although im not from the zede skiller era , as i've watched so many videos , and as of recent times beatboxing hasnt hit its peak , we're just going up and up as a example gbb2021 it was just insane , king inertia came there like a celebrity and also colaps every round was just out of this space and time , as we moved forward dlow kept the hype going with his insane tracks and one of his short "human beatbox faster than machine" this short made me realise dlow has gone in sage mode where dlow has mixed his multiple styles into one style, plus at that time i was stuck on colaps 2021 rounds rewatch and reactions , tbh i dont really care about seeing new sounds cause we got the nape at his peak doing 10 million squeak layers . for me beatbox isnt about sounds ,technique ,beats or combo, beatboxing for me always has been about the legendary different roles of beatboxer which kept the hype alive for me for example twoh the mysterious person that wants to hide from everyone , twoh did not jammed with anyone during 2021 gbb , colaps being the master of masters , when you thought zekka had strong round but then you see colaps saying "thats not me" after all of this we moved to new phase which started by "only if" we never heard beatbox on this much high quality before. then we saw beatboxers are developing on new level with the papito aka zekka beatland, at the time gbb23 was dropping wildcards , my high lights were dilip wildcards napom wildcard and helium's 2nd wildcard,through out the 80% of helium 2nd wildcard gbb23 he went crazy we all thought he might be exhausted but then you hear him saying go "go drum n bass". and finally the great end of creators sxin and chezame , the snippets they used to give , the whole backstories we'll always remember. florida came with the clutch we got to see insane stuff vino nape and specially pacmax , idk how pacmax got this much good bruh , his battle energy is insanly good , i 10000 times rewatched that florida french is french mother efer drop against napom. as we see napom removing his rust by joining all the battles before gbb2023 and when i saw napom's gbb2023elimination , i swear to god when scot jackson introduced nape and i saw napom's face , it was the best moment of my life , he didnt even started the elimination , just by looking at him enter the gbb23 stage made me feel something. this made me think we're making something beyond the beats , we're seeing all this movie characters, and also the moment napom knew the opponent he was facing did something no one could ever imagine as napom uses all of his years of battling experience and all the tricks he can pull of against dilip's 2nd round. and for dlow to judge it , it was like choosing his mom to save or the planet earth. this are the story telling moments i like about beatboxing , things coming to their place as reeps one and dlow had discussed in past , this moment has come as they predicted. looking forward for haten beatbox battle as it seemed like a next level after gbb23. as my view , i dont think beatbox has peaked , we just need to wait till there will be one beatboxer who will win world champs and gbb 5 times non stop , yes the legend will come , just like there is bruce lee , mike tyson , gorden ramsey there will be the greatest beatboxer of all time. also i think no one has reached their prime yet , beatbox is just growing, we got yet to see ellisi reaching his prime he's still young lol same with everyone , everyone is just so young , we just need to wait

I used to check every gbb(b) wildcard in the past. Now it feels different, not that excited. I do not learn new sounds nowadays, but keep beatboxing everyday, it is just with me. And yeah, definitely gbb2021 situation changed the picture, it felt wrong, when some artists asked to not upload their rounds. I do not blame them, it is just sad in general.

I agree in everything. This is the video where everyone was waiting for someone to speak what everyone feels beatbox changed... but thats okat, its just a different era

Beatbox IS rich of variety artists each style IS unique and so good,i dont feel negativity just appreciate beatboxers. The problem IS the battles make me sad cause WE cant compare all the styles ,most of professionnal beatboxers are very good .

I feel like after the 2021 ancient, everything changed I myself I don't watch beatbox videos anymore , I still love beatbox but content is not that good anymore. I remember the pure gold era in 2019-2018.. I hope time comes back .

I've been on and off with beatbox since the stuff that inspired ZeDe came out. Given what other people have said, this is now pre-prehistoric, but I remember stretches after Rahzel and RoxorLoops where beatbox was on the decline so the energy definitely comes in waves. To add a bit on discovery, I think this isn't only on the beatboxer side. As audience, I often felt a sense of discovery finding sick content during the "Golden Era." Now so much feels plastic and over-marketed like hyperactive thumbnails on meaningless videos. That said, I still do stumble onto something awesome every now and then like this random Discord battle between Zirpa and Skander where Zirpa just goes off. On entering the age of artistry, I'm not sure this is universal. As other people have mentioned, it feels like there's also a lot more young beatboxers that can do every sound. While the pros might be heading towards artistry, the amateur scene might be heading towards prodigy? But as that Incredibles villain said, "When everyone's super no one will be." I can understand how people that got involved during an era with 1 ultimate inward bass shounen manga protagonist would feel drained seeing every other tweenage beatboxer today going, "I know 5 types of inward bass!" Okay irony observed, but I feel recognizing this distinction is important since my bet would be the next "stonks" era of beatbox will come when the artistry and prodigy meet.

You a kool dude

It's evolving and it's just crazy...

I feel like it's kinda due to the battle format. It forces people to upload a ton of videos and with so many battles it just keeps it rolling. We need to make more music oriented events because now with all this "competition" and "rivalry" beatboxing is a sport... but it has the aspiration to become music if we take a step back and rethink what beatboxing has become nowadays.

Ups and downs, natural, it will absolutely still bounce back sick. Right now is a bit lower, doesn't mean it's forever. Chill :D !!!

i started wathcing beatbox since 2018, it was peak at that time

Yes, the golden era of beatbox is very much over

New players getting into the scene is almost impossible nowdays too

I also was blown away by Mr Dimple and many others. But recently it has become less the basics and more about presentation. Hard to explain.....

Alem vs skiller is where I started watching beatbox. Now I just simp for Jairo, DEN and Babeli which more pleasant to listen

- Yes, we grow old, but I was already an "old school" head in 2019 (I started seriously beatboxing in 2010), so growing old and having a job, I really don't find these to be huge factors. At least for me. I have been working and studying full-time since 2015. I don't have a family yet, though. - The audience and community have grown a lot in numbers since 2019, and I think new people have pushed the stimulus threshold higher. More beatboxers, more content; everything starts to feel more homogeneous. With more beatboxers, there is less chance to be exciting, new, fresh, shocking, etc., and to be different from the others. I think we have peaked a limit. We are reaching such weird sounds already that are "close to being impossible" or, back in the day, would have been considered unpleasing to listen to. These sounds are so rare now that they have this "wow" factor - all the beatboxers are gathering around them like hyenas, trying to learn and copy them (meta sounds) so they can grasp the feeling of sticking out of the mass. With that, they create homogeneity again, and it keeps cycling since the lip roll, inward bass era. You can find the same happening in electronic music genres or in social media too. We always reach such heights; do the craziest, the loudest, the most shocking, so that the shocking becomes boring, and it gets overwhelming, and then it has to settle down, find the roots, and start again. - I think beatboxing must be professionalized in a way because otherwise, it's going to stay in a "childhood passion" category for most people, and older beatboxers are going to just retire and disappear from the scene because they cannot make ends meet with beatboxing. Next to the battle culture, we should focus on showcases because most average people do not really care about if they are experiencing beatbox through battles or showcases in real life. We should embrace beatbox as music and take a step back and try to enjoy it, even if it's not the craziest, most complex sh*t ever. Because that tendency isn't maintainable. We should learn to enjoy not just the top-of-the-shelf stuff. I could talk about this phenomenon all day, but I tried to wrap it up, so here it is.

The last exciting thing was the BBU. It was a very well made competition(granted a little biased)

The main reason for this is a tremendous amount of new videos and shoutouts. The hype and vibe of expected beats will feel different. Work in quality, not in quantity. I'm not beat boxer. I'm not blaming anything or anyone. I'm just saying that in any aspect of life, working in quality always will be respected.

Every period of time has its benefits. Let's be present in the present 🎶

I think the way social media works has changed, both with world events since 2016 and the pandemic. It has become a lot less social. Additionally, with increasing economic pressure, more and more people have been pushed into making content for monetizing rather than just the sake of sharing their art alone. Others have identified reasons why the beatbox community has changed specifically, but these reasons have affected every type of art that also has a community element.

I am uncomfortable with the expression that the golden age of the beat box is over. Perhaps the reason is that I live in Japan. I first learned about beatboxing around 2018 when I saw a GBB video for the first time. I now have fond memories of being very shocked by the sounds I had never heard coming out of people's mouths. I have been following the beatbox scene ever since. Recently in Japan, beat boxers are appearing on TV music shows and variety shows, and the word "beatbox" often appears in the X trends. Compared to a few years ago, I am happy to see that beatboxing is becoming more popular in Japan. I am also excited to see more and more young beat boxers in their late teens. I believe that the golden age of beatboxing is just around the corner for Japan.

No…please tell me it isn’t over. I found beatbox at a time when I was bedridden, utterly decrepit due to a crippling attack from a basement rat. I learned to beatbox from you guys and my beats shook the walls of the hospital and people loved to watch my double chin quake as I spit my beat. Pleas tell me it’s not over, not yet. I’m hanging onto the memories I got from those tough times. Thank you, truly.

To me i feel like 2016 maybe 2015 to 2019 (Dlow's gbb championship win) was the golden era of beatbox, there has been a lot of people afterwards that were unique but didn't have the personality, what i mean is not only a more equal skill level but also a lower high quality skill level but also the lack of personalitys and personality because there is a lot of people but no one is unique anymore no one is special so to me i think it didn't make me interested enough to cheer for someone or see the competition, so yeah that's what i believe, also peak peak loopstation was 2019 and before, after 2019 i quite didn't like it i felt that it didn't have the same quality i mean just thinking quickly right now i can imagine some rounds of Saro, Beatness, Inkie (Inkie 2019 is incredible) NME, the guy that i forgot his name but he is from Thailand, sorry for my confusion i haven't been too focused on Beatbox a long time, alsi the french man that lost to Saro in the final he is really good. Thx if someone read all this i hope you were able to understand English is not my first language

I followed Sxin & Chezame religiously. When they stopped, I stopped discovering new things. Also was hype for GBB23 but the slow release of all the videos kills me

We all Love beatbox International ❤

I personally think that Beatboxing itself is actually in the best spot it has ever been. I am more of a loop enthusiast so my view on it might be different from a lot of other people. I think that established beatboxers in the "Beatbox Battle scene" have ascended the whole battle thing and realised that there is more to beatboxing than battles. There is way more quality Beatbox music out there, then there was in 2017 (when i started listening to beatbox), which is a good thing, but since the beatbox community is the tightest at battle-events i think the community aspect is slowly decaying and especially established Beatboxers are now fully fledged artist who just release music, except this music is made with beatbox. it is not a beatbox routine it is now a song. In other words Beatboxing is still growing and peaking imo, but battles and the beatbox community is decaying. Battles are slowly becoming an afterthought, which in my opinion is a good thing, but i will say that beatbox events are not gonna feel the same anymore as time goes on, so depending on who you are as a person Beatboxing is in a good spot for you personally or in a bad spot.

Yes ✌🏽

Simply beatbox became too big to keep it’s magic. If you take a look at GBB 2018, that didn’t take place at a venue, probably 500 people were there. At GBB 2021, there were 3000 people. I eould say we had a peak at 2018-2021. Now I don’t like where beatbox goes but this isn’t constant, it changes everytime. I feel like we are going to hit a new peak again but that will be different, like you said, now almost every bestboxer seems to have pieces and tracks not battle rounds

The new sound are getting fewer and fewer, is more about combo or arrangement .

It was certainly better pre-Covid. I stopped being into the loopstations when they could start bringing their entire studio on stage. I preferred the single unit battles.

Wtf dlow just has to battle and the bbx community is on its peak again trust😂

It is change it is change because it has to be And in 2024 - 2028 We are going to see the game changer ..And This is just beginning of beatbox world '' Up \ /down will happen, it's nature until you control it ......... THE REAL BEATBO𝕏

I like the direction that looping is going, i don't like the direction solo is going

yea i feel the same

Beatbox is not the Music Industry , where Artist get paid alot of Money, Beatbox is money Making for content creaters and people who stage competitions, The BB needs incentive, they have Jobs , some content create for extra money to survive. This as been addressed many times. Just my opinion 😊

Yo note que las cosas en el beatbox cambiaron desde que Eliminaron el nombre de Tomazacre de todos lo que es el Beatbox.. Y ahi empezaron de complacer a todas las comunidades y se perdio el sabor de lo que transmitia el beatbox desde Los Shoutouts y las competiciones

I dont know if its ever been looked at but as an outsider I feel the lack of support for artists that don't reach the top spaces is servery lacking. So many times you see artists with amazing talents struggling mentally becasue their wildcard didnt get in you have the whole community screaming keep going you should be in so they make another one only for the same thing to happen. Imagine the one thing in the whole world you llove more than anything else and you are constantly told your not good enough but no reason or direction why. This alone must drive so many people out of the community dont get me wrong the talent is so stacked someone always misses out who deserves it and it could already be happening but a few lines explaining/coaching them on how to improve would go a long way. Obviously this is a big ask when you have 1000 wildcards to judge but a top 50 would be manageable to the same reagard how difficult would it be to give the top 50 a shout out slot everyone can then showcase a routine and be posted to the main channel to get their art out their for everyone to see.

my english skills cant explain what im tring to explain correvtly but beatbox need to evolve from boots n cats to something more intersting and it struggling sometimes but need to break that walls that stop it for while but beatbox need to push forward into future with new stuff, evolve into newer school

*💯 Agreed*

I'ma keep it kinda simple with my thoughts for now, but I really think the death of dedicated forums and the rise of social media platforms has both been a plus and a negative, the biggest negative is that there is no real localised / unbias area to go to find the latest beatbox events/videos/conversations... it's so spread out and everyone is doing it for their brand or personal artistry, we have lost a hub for beatboxing and I feel that's something that should and needs to exist again for us all to be able to come together as a community, not under this brand or that brand or for this platform or that platform... we need our own global platform devoid of branding.

The gold era of beatbox died when Tomazacre was forzed to go out from the community without probes about that theme