Random Internet Person
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2019
Todd Nathanson is Todd In The Shadows, a music critic that makes videos on YouTube talking about pop songs.
Todd got started in 2009 making reviews about the hottest songs on the Billboard charts at the time. And at the end of the year, Todd would also countdown the worst and best songs of the year (in his opinion). And after a few of these, he ended up getting a call to join the big boys: That Guy With The Glasses/Channel Awesome.
(Todd calls this the worst song he’s reviewed, and it was before CA).
Going faceless was a stylistic choice Because Todd didn’t want the videos to meddle in his personal life, and the faceless aspect would also be incorporated into crossovers and the anniversary specials. But after the videos took off, the shadows now stay as a stylistic choice/gimmick.
In addition to his pop song reviews, Todd also has two additional shows that some argue are bigger and better than his main song reviews: One Hit Wonderland, “where we take a look at bands and artists known for only one song”, in an attempt to figure out if they deserve to be known for more, and Trainwreckords, where Todd analyzes albums that derailed if not straight up killed the careers of big name artists.
(The most viewed of the respective shows)
CA would be a fruitful time for Todd, appearing in the films Surburban Knights and To Boldly Flee, and becoming part of Lindsay Ellis’ web circle Chez Apocalypse (even dating her for a while), and Todd would stay on the site until 2018, when he left during the height of the #ChangeTheChannel saga.
Since then, Todd continues to Do his thing on YouTube, with his year end lists being the only ones to crack a million.
(Todd’s most popular video at 1.8 million views)
As it stands though, Todd is one of the biggest names on YouTube when it comes to talking music. He also has a podcast called Song vs. Song where he and his co host Lina Morgan debate similar songs in a discussion to determine which song stays if one has to be erased from history forever.
All in all, a pretty decent run if you ask me. And it doesn’t look like it’s stopping anytime soon.
(Also, I made a thread on this guy long ago, but I deleted it because I wasn’t sure if it fit here or in the lolcow section. And if you frequent the Lindsay Ellis thread, he comes up a lot, but the sense is he only briefly has cow qualities, and OHW and TW can wipe the slate clean, so…here we are talking about the hooded Icarus. If you have some stuff that could be put into the OP, it’d be much appreciated.)
Useful links:
Todd’s Twitter
Todd’s Patreon
Song vs Song Twitter
Song vs Song Patreon
Song vs Song on Spotify
Todd got started in 2009 making reviews about the hottest songs on the Billboard charts at the time. And at the end of the year, Todd would also countdown the worst and best songs of the year (in his opinion). And after a few of these, he ended up getting a call to join the big boys: That Guy With The Glasses/Channel Awesome.
Going faceless was a stylistic choice Because Todd didn’t want the videos to meddle in his personal life, and the faceless aspect would also be incorporated into crossovers and the anniversary specials. But after the videos took off, the shadows now stay as a stylistic choice/gimmick.
Background
Our faceless cuck who goes by Todd in the Shadows was born Kenneth He Munson in San Diego, CA on June 3, 1984. His mom is a Vietnamese woman who immigrated under less than legal conditions and his dad is a basic American white guy with Irish heritage. They moved to Virginia Beach, VA to work for the IRS and because the feds really don’t like doxing on federal employees even if retired and Null has enough problems, that’s all that will be said about the parents Munson. While Todd had a running joke for years about his ambiguous ethnic heritage of “brown”, he also brought up the fact that his uncle was killed in a Communist labor camp, which pointed rather clearly to Vietnamese ancestry. He has one younger brother, Victor, who goes by @WafflesInc on Twitter and has his own podcast of zero note or interest called the Joestar Allstars. Victor is married to furry/changeling artist Acacia Munson, found on Twitter at @AliceColorized, @AliceRouged and @AcaciaMunson. She also had a furaffinity account at @aliceinco which may have been nuked. Why mention it? Because it’s funny. They have one son.
Todd went to Princess Anne high school in Virginia Beach, VA and attended Lynchberg University. His undergraduate studies were journalism and music theory and his graduate program was in teaching. He worked as a substitute teacher for a while but hated it, tried writing for a local newspaper and had a blog (scrubbed from the internet, he claims) and eventually started making comedic videos about music around 2009. This was because he wanted to scratch his attention whore itch but used a gimmick of covering his face in shadow for plausible deniability. Using his eight years of piano lessons, he played pop songs and did typical for the time angry reviewer shtick. Todd has said that he grew up only listening to country music and only started listening to pop as a teenager when his car could only get the local pop station.
This was successful enough to get attention from TGWTG and he joined the site as an independent producer in 2010. On the set of Suburban Knights in 2011, Todd met Lindsay Ellis aka the Nostalgia Chick and they started a long distance relationship which lasted until 2014. At some point during this, he moved from Virginia to NYC while Lindsay was attending NYU.
Our faceless cuck who goes by Todd in the Shadows was born Kenneth He Munson in San Diego, CA on June 3, 1984. His mom is a Vietnamese woman who immigrated under less than legal conditions and his dad is a basic American white guy with Irish heritage. They moved to Virginia Beach, VA to work for the IRS and because the feds really don’t like doxing on federal employees even if retired and Null has enough problems, that’s all that will be said about the parents Munson. While Todd had a running joke for years about his ambiguous ethnic heritage of “brown”, he also brought up the fact that his uncle was killed in a Communist labor camp, which pointed rather clearly to Vietnamese ancestry. He has one younger brother, Victor, who goes by @WafflesInc on Twitter and has his own podcast of zero note or interest called the Joestar Allstars. Victor is married to furry/changeling artist Acacia Munson, found on Twitter at @AliceColorized, @AliceRouged and @AcaciaMunson. She also had a furaffinity account at @aliceinco which may have been nuked. Why mention it? Because it’s funny. They have one son.
Todd went to Princess Anne high school in Virginia Beach, VA and attended Lynchberg University. His undergraduate studies were journalism and music theory and his graduate program was in teaching. He worked as a substitute teacher for a while but hated it, tried writing for a local newspaper and had a blog (scrubbed from the internet, he claims) and eventually started making comedic videos about music around 2009. This was because he wanted to scratch his attention whore itch but used a gimmick of covering his face in shadow for plausible deniability. Using his eight years of piano lessons, he played pop songs and did typical for the time angry reviewer shtick. Todd has said that he grew up only listening to country music and only started listening to pop as a teenager when his car could only get the local pop station.
This was successful enough to get attention from TGWTG and he joined the site as an independent producer in 2010. On the set of Suburban Knights in 2011, Todd met Lindsay Ellis aka the Nostalgia Chick and they started a long distance relationship which lasted until 2014. At some point during this, he moved from Virginia to NYC while Lindsay was attending NYU.
In addition to his pop song reviews, Todd also has two additional shows that some argue are bigger and better than his main song reviews: One Hit Wonderland, “where we take a look at bands and artists known for only one song”, in an attempt to figure out if they deserve to be known for more, and Trainwreckords, where Todd analyzes albums that derailed if not straight up killed the careers of big name artists.
CA would be a fruitful time for Todd, appearing in the films Surburban Knights and To Boldly Flee, and becoming part of Lindsay Ellis’ web circle Chez Apocalypse (even dating her for a while), and Todd would stay on the site until 2018, when he left during the height of the #ChangeTheChannel saga.
Since then, Todd continues to Do his thing on YouTube, with his year end lists being the only ones to crack a million.
As it stands though, Todd is one of the biggest names on YouTube when it comes to talking music. He also has a podcast called Song vs. Song where he and his co host Lina Morgan debate similar songs in a discussion to determine which song stays if one has to be erased from history forever.
All in all, a pretty decent run if you ask me. And it doesn’t look like it’s stopping anytime soon.
(Also, I made a thread on this guy long ago, but I deleted it because I wasn’t sure if it fit here or in the lolcow section. And if you frequent the Lindsay Ellis thread, he comes up a lot, but the sense is he only briefly has cow qualities, and OHW and TW can wipe the slate clean, so…here we are talking about the hooded Icarus. If you have some stuff that could be put into the OP, it’d be much appreciated.)
Useful links:
Todd’s Twitter
Todd’s Patreon
Song vs Song Twitter
Song vs Song Patreon
Song vs Song on Spotify
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