This is the script for the ‘infinite scroll podcast’ episode: ‘The Mainstream-ification of ASMR Content: From Whisper Community to Celebrity Gag.’
ASMR, unlike popular genres like storytime or makeup tutorials, did not originate on YouTube. Its roots can be traced back to a series of message boards on a website called SteadyHealth and different community-based groups.
In 2009, a user named okaywhatever51838 posted a message titled “WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD.” They described a feeling they had experienced throughout their life and sought explanations from other internet users.
The post read: “i get this sensation sometimes. theres no real trigger for it. it just happens randomly. its been happening since i was a kid and i’m 21 now…. i’ll just be sitting or whatever doing whatever and it happens. its like in my head and all over my body…what is it?? i’m not complaining cause i love it, but i’m just wondering what it might be… help.”
While users didn’t know what exactly the sensation was, many people, like Jennifer Allen, resonated with such questions. One user named, bean487 even wrote: “I think I know what you may be talking about…. The only way I can discribe it is like a silvery sparkle through my head and brain… almost like a sort of head orgasm, but there is nothing sexual about it.”
Soon, a second post popped up with the headline, “WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD – PART 2,” In it, users started sharing different triggers, from “Watching someone draw a picture“ to “People looking for something in their bags, hearing them rustle around in it.”
In an interview with Jamie Lauren Keiles for the New York Times magazine, Jennifer reflects on the conversation and reactions at the time: “People had been told they were on drugs or that they had lice — things like that… And then there was the factor of people calling it a ‘brain orgasm’ and it sounding like some sort of erotic fetish kind of thing.” With this, users across the internet set out to establish a name for the sensation, with Jennifer eventually coining the term that would catch on: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or ASMR.
As Keiles explains, “She started with “autonomous” because it was a feeling from within; “sensory” was self-explanatory. “Meridian” worked triple duty, suggesting peak but also orgasm and the energy pathways of traditional Chinese medicine. “Response” was just to say that it was not a constant state; it happened in reaction to a set of stimuli, like whispering, gum chewing and tapping.”
And with this, the ASMR community was officially born.
Groups slowly started popping up across social media – with Jennifer starting a Facebook group for other ASMR lovers in February 2010 and the r/asmr subreddit launching a year later. However, one early community group, predating the widespread use of the term ASMR, was the “Society of Sensationalists” on Yahoo! Groups – this was in the late 2000s, after all. According to a Vice article from 2012, the group had a “vague manifesto,” setting out to learn what exactly causes the sensation. Soon, The Unnamed Feeling blog by Andrew MacMuiris launched – a centralised space for users to seek out answers to their questions about the sensation.
Across these community groups, users started discussing why they enjoyed the phenomenon – with some noting that the soft whispers are comforting and satisfying, and others saying that it helps them get to sleep.
“ASMR is supposed to create a feeling of hyper-intimacy, creating physical sensations in the viewer that the internet doesn’t generally engender,” Amol Rajan writes for the BBC back in 2019.
Soon, users started sharing their favourite videos and some even started making them. One of the earliest examples of these videos was posted to the WhisperingLife ASMR YouTube channel, titled: “Whisper 1 – hello!” Uploaded on March 27 2009, the video featured a blank screen and a woman explaining her love for hearing people whisper. She mentioned her difficulty in finding such content online.
“I absolutely love listening to people whisper… I couldn’t really find any videos on YouTube of people whispering so I thought I would make a channel whispering… so all you whisper lovers out there can listen to me if you like…” she says in the video.
While WhisperingLife ASMR aimed to fill a gap, the digital space would soon be overflowing with whisper videos – and of course, the even more niche satisfying and tingly types ofASMRcontent that was yet to come.
The Whisper Community & Early ASMR Creators
Before ASMR expanded to include anything and everything from roleplays to slime videos, this side of the internet was known as the Whisper Community. As the name suggests, the most iconic creators specialised in whisper videos.
Now, there have been several “waves” of ASMR creators. In the early days, some intentionally used ASMR triggers like whispering and certain sounds, while others didn’t. The latter tended to make content that was relaxing to watch but not specifically ASMR.
Some of the earliest ASMRtists – even though they wouldn’t have identified themselves as such at the time – emerged around the same time as WhisperingLife ASMR, in 2009 and 2010. After trawling through the r/ASMR subreddit, among the most popular early YouTube channels were TheWhisperingVoice, WhisperCrystal, and Kiwi Whispers. These channels tended to post videos featuring aesthetic backgrounds while whispering over these images.
Ultimately, this type of content helped shape the Whisper Community and the relaxation niche on YouTube, fostering communities and culty followings around ASMR.
One popular ASMR creator who emerged during this era was LiliumCandidum27, also known as, TheOneLilium ASMR. While her current channel dates back 2012, according to Reddit users she did have an earlier channel that hosted some ASMR content alongside other content. Since then, Lillum has left YouTube, with the last video on her channel being posted 4 years ago.
After the term ASMR was coined in 2010, more creators started popping up and identifying with the label. One such example is GentleWhispering, an influencer who has solidified herself in the early ASMR hall of fame and continues to make content today. Gentle Whispering, whose real name is Maria, started posting on YouTube in February 2011, recording herself as she flicked through a journal and moved around seashells. A 2014 feature by Washington Post journalist Caitlin Gibson noted that Maria deleted the initial video after it only “logged just two views in a month.”
“A few months later, she tried again; this time, there were a few encouraging comments. She kept at it, and by the end of the year, she had 30,000 subscribers,” Gibson continues. Now, at the time of recording, Maria currently has over 2 million subscribers.
Her early videos were similar to those of her peers, featuring simple visuals and soft whispers in both Russian and English. However, she was among the first to embrace the ASMR term, using it in the title of a video in June 2011: “ASMR! Have you came out of your closet yet? +chewing gum…”
Gentle Whispering has explored various ASMR subgenres as she continues to post videos. Her content ranges from roleplaying as a hairdresser or wedding consultant to sharing beauty tips in an ASMR style. She is extremely iconic among the ASMR community, so much so that one Reddit user even described her as the “matriarch of the genre.”
The “patriarch” of ASMR also emerged during this era, with many considering MassageASMR to hold this title. MassageASMR, whose real name is Dimitri, is an ASMR creator based in Gold Coast, Australia. Unlike other ASMR creators, Dimitri started by making massage videos and then incorporated ASMR into his content. After starting his channel in December 2012, he has continued to create videos over the years, with his most recent upload being six months ago.
Alongside Gentle Whispering and MassageASMR, another popular creator from this era was VeniVidiVulpes, who started her channel in 2011. Despite not posting a video in nine years, she remains beloved as an OG ASMR creator within the community. Her content ranged from whisper videos to roleplays. With just 32 videos on her channel, she has accumulated over twenty-nine million views. Other fan favourites include ASMRrequests and Heather Feather ASMR – both started their channels in 2012, however, they have since taken a step back from YouTube.
Nevertheless, many of these creators paved the way for future ASMRtists and the genre as a whole – especially as it transformed into one of the most popular forms of content across the internet.
ASMR goes mainstream
Before ASMR went mainstream, many people were confused by its premise (and even today, some remain puzzled). Early ASMRtists frequently emphasised that ASMR was not a sexual sensation, which is why people like Jennifer advocated for a clinical term like ASMR instead of something like “brain-gasm.” During the early days, scientific research on ASMR was especially limited, and many internet users called for more studies to clarify and reduce misunderstandings about the phenomenon.
“The feeling isn’t usually sexual. Although some people are triggered by videos that appear sexual, other people I’ve talked to who experience ASMR emphasized that the tingles and feelings of relaxation have nothing to do with sex,” German Lopez writes for Vox in 2015.
This began to change in the mid-2010s when Dr Craig Richard, a physiology professor at Shenandoah University in Virginia, became familiar with the term. After hearing about ASMR on a podcast in 2013, Dr Richard started researching it. He collaborated with Jennifer Allen and Karissa Burnett, a community member, to conduct an informal survey to understand ASMR better. They received over 25,000 responses, highlighting the growing influence of this internet niche. Dr Richard also founded ASMR University, an online archive that remains a valuable resource for ASMR research.
“Still, scientific understanding has moved slowly,” Keiles adds for the New York Times magazine. “Funding for A.S.M.R. research is hard to justify, and the diverse nature of A.S.M.R. triggers can lead to “noisy” data… [Nevertheless] outcomes have suggested, in very small samples, that A.S.M.R. might have something to do with socially bonding ‘affiliative behaviors,’ known to release feel-good hormones like oxytocin.”
Around the same time Dr Richard discovered ASMR, the phenomenon was gaining traction in the digital space. Google Trends data shows that by the end of 2014, interest in ASMR had reached new heights worldwide, setting the stage for its eventual surge in popularity later that decade. This growth intensified in the following year, with Google’s internal data revealing that “ASMR grew over 200% in 2015,” as noted by Meg Miller for Fast Company.
Of course, the growth of ASMR can be attributed to several factors.
Notably, the mid-2010s marked the beginning of mainstream media coverage of ASMR. In 2015, for example, articles with ASMR-centric headlines started appearing — including: “ASMR, explained: Why millions of people are watching YouTube videos of someone whispering” from Vox, “Is There Any Money To Be Made In ASMR?“ from Forbes or even “ASMR: the new sensation that’s (literally) making people tingle” from The Guardian. But, there is also something to be said for influencers who aren’t native ASMR creators that started experimenting with the niche. When these creators dove into ASMR, they introduced the genre to new audiences and expanded its reach. When it comes to ASMR, specifically, Trisha Paytas is one such example.
So as we all know, Trisha has tried a lot of different types of content over the years – one of them being ASMR. She started making ASMR content on her main channel, blndsundoll4mj, in 2015. She uploaded her first attempt at ASMR on June 8th, a video titled “ASMR // Jewelry Collection.”
“I’ve been doing some research because so many people were telling me that I was one of their favourite ASMR artists, and I didn’t even know it,” Trisha says at the top of the video. “I thought I would do some videos for those who enjoy these kinds of videos. I know they’re a little different from my normal videos.
She shows the viewer her jewellery collection, pulling out different pieces from a bedazzled jewellery box while explaining each piece. Trisha’s first foray into ASMR was very well-received, with many ASMR enthusiasts leaving comments expressing their excitement about her new content.
“YAAAASSSSS! my favourite regular youtuber now making ASMR videos?! SO HAPPY,” one user wrote.
“omg im so happy about this! Your voice is lovely for asmr…you should definitely start exploring different triggers such as crinkling packaging, tapping surfaces, whispering, and even roleplay!” another added.
For others, this video was their introduction to the world of ASMR.
“i had no idea what asmr was and was just watching this for the jewellery collection but i started getting tingles on the top of my head and feeling really nice and when i saw the comments i was amazed at how this is actually thing??? trisha make more of this bc i had no idea what this was supposed to be and it worked on me!” another viewer shared.
Trisha went on to create a whole playlist of ASMR videos and eventually launched a dedicated ASMR channel, known as Trisha Paytas ASMR. Although she posted her first ASMR video in 2009, she only started the channel a decade later, in 2019. Since then, the channel has amassed over 103 million views and more than 570K subscribers.
Her earlier ASMR videos featured “no talking” content, where she ate everything from a head of lettuce to “creamy fettucine” — with Trisha known for her iconic mukbangs, this content didn’t feel too foreign from her other videos. While she still makes ASMR videos, she has shifted away from eating ASMR and now focuses on talking to the camera in various characters or sharing hauls and unboxings in an ASMR style. For instance, one of the most recent videos on her channel was posted on July 15, where Trisha did a Bridgerton ASMR role play.
With a mainstream creator like Trisha jumping on board, it was only a matter of time before other creators tried their hand at ASMR. However, ASMR only really began to gain traction among other creators in the late 2010s.
Through 2018 and 2019, we witnessed the likes of Tana Mongeau, Safiya Nygaard and Mia Maples give ASMR a go, with each of these videos accumulating millions of views. In Safiya’s video, she offers an interesting reason for ASMR’s entry into the mainstream, aside from more non-ASMR creators trying out the genre.
“Now, one of my theories as to why ASMR has become more mainstream recently is the huge popularity of oddly satisfying videos, like slime mixing, kinetic sand cutting, and just generally squishing stuff. Although these videos are not all necessarily ASMR, they are kind of like gateway ASMR,” Safiya says in her video.
The term “oddly satisfying” originated on Reddit, used to describe an inexplicably pleasing quality in certain videos or images. “Defining the oddly satisfying is akin to throwing a scrunched up ball of paper and getting it smack bang in the trash can the first time round. And then watching it as a compilation, over and over and over again,” Sabrina Faramarzi writes for WIRED.
Although the term has been around for a while, these videos started picking up steam around 2018, especially as slime videos became super popular (according to Google, slime was, in fact, the biggest DIY trend of 2017). Faramarzi ultimately makes a similar point to Safiya, noting that “oddly satisfying” content is related to ASMR, especially considering how these videos have helped viewers relax.
“But most interesting, is that young, digitally-equipped people are watching these videos before they go to bed to help them sleep. Because of this, there have been numerous reports that watching videos of slime and other things under the oddly satisfying umbrella help make people feel relaxed and calm, which has led to some conjecture as to whether the ‘oddly satisfying’ is in fact another branch of ASMR,” Faramarzi continues.
As ASMR gained traction across the digital space in the late 2010s, it also started receiving more mainstream attention. W Magazine, for instance, launched a Celebrity ASMR series online, where celebrities “experiment with ASMR to trigger tingles and relaxation… while you [the viewer] learn more about these high profile people.” The earliest video in the series featured Cara Delevingne and was posted on July 28, 2016. Since then, they have tapped celebrities from Paris Hilton to Troye Sivan. The most popular video in this series is Cardi B’s episode from 2018, which has since amassed over 61 million views.
Obviously, ASMR has also been featured in other parts of mainstream pop culture. In 2018, for example, Jimmy Kimmel included a segment in his show where Kids Teach Jimmy Kimmel About ASMR. A year later, Sabrina Carpenter even used ASMR to promote one of her songs from Singular Act 2, In My Bed.
While ASMR has undeniably entered the mainstream, it remains a predominantly digital phenomenon. According to a 2022 article from ASMR University, there are approximately “500,000 ASMR channels, 500,000 ASMRtists, and 25 million ASMR videos on YouTube.” The most popular ASMRtists garner millions of views on YouTube, with some of the most active creators being Gibi ASMR, ASMR Glow, and, of course, Gentle Whispering.
How has TikTok changed ASMR?
TikTok has only accelerated the reach of many ASMRtists and the genre as a whole. By the nature of TikTok, the FYP has introduced many of us to different facets of internet culture and spawned its own class of creators.
While ASMR has extended beyond just auditory content – as previously mentioned many internet culture pundits consider oddly satisfying videos as a part of ASMR – TikTok has embraced various ASMR subgenres. One popular example is the bottle smashing trend that took over TikTok a couple of years ago. For those unfamiliar, millions of TikTok users started engaging with viral videos where bottles and jars filled with drinks or food were rolled down steps before smashing.
“Some of these viewers seem to be watching the videos for the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) that the videos evoke, as many videos are uploaded accompanied by the hashtag #ASMR,” Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience Helen Nuttall writes for The Conversation.
With new ASMR trends to jump on, TikTok has also elevated smaller ASMR creators. One example is Southern ASMR Sounds – whose real name is Mary.
Mary has been posting on YouTube since 2015, but recently a TikTok creator named Julieta ASMR clipped content from Mary’s YouTube and posted it to her over 1 million followers. While Julieta creates her own ASMR content, she also frequentlyshares content from ASMRtists.
She wrote above the video, “Who knew watching a Southern lady organise shelves at the Dollar Tree could make me so relaxed.” This video of Mary garnered over 5.9 million views, where viewers flooded the comment section, praising the TikToker for featuring Mary, and expressing that she deserves more recognition.
“TIKTOK FINALLY DISCOVERED MARY/SOUTHERN ASMR 🙌🏻 i’ve been waiting for this moment, she is amazing 🫂” on user wrote.
“I love southernasmr!!!! yall should check out her videos – she’s got quite a good variety ! another added.
But what happens to ASMRtists when they enter the digital mainstream?
Interestingly, some female ASMRtists have monetised their audience by pivoting into NSFW content.
As we have established, ASMR is not inherently sexual. But it does aim to create a hyper-intimate environment—one that many people enjoy because it evokes feelings of being cared for. Of course, this intimacy doesn’t have to be sexual, but some people find the genre’s soft-spoken roleplays, close-up whispers, and gentle movements arousing. Some critics have even likened ASMR to micro-dosing soft-core porn.
When people (often men) find themselves aroused by this kind of content, they are not subtle about it. This, in turn, has led many famous female ASMRtists to head down the OnlyFans route. Gwen Swinarton — known as GwenGwiz – and Angelica ASMR are two interesting examples.
We have done a whole deep dive into Gwen, so feel free to head to that episode if you want the whole story. But to make a long story short, Gwen joined YouTube in 2011 and later launched her channel, GwenGwiz, where she found success as ASMR creator. At the time, she was vegan, openly identified as queer, and posted content that was pro-feminism and pro-body positivity.
From the start of her ASMR channel, Gwen was sexualised by a large portion of her audience. This subset of her fanbase frequently left comments about how “hot” she is and comment timestamps when Gwen gives a sexy smirk or accidentally shows cleavage so other viewers can easily access these moments.
This behaviour from her audience came to a head in 2019 when Gwen’s privacy was violated by an unknown source who leaked her nude photos. This opened her up to an onslaught of requests from viewers saying they would pay for more sexually explicit content from her. According to an interview with Refinery29, these requests piqued Gwen’s interest. She began responding to these comments and launched an OnlyFans account in July 2020.
Last year, concerns emerged that Gwen had fallen down the “crunchy to alt-right pipeline.” After moving to the suburbs, she adopted ‘crunchy’ interests like homesteading and also began preaching increasingly conspiratorial beliefs. She has since launched a TikTok account, Gwen The Milkmaid, where she tends to post tradwife-style content. In December last year, she shared a testimony explaining how God and Christianity stopped OnlyFans from ruining her life. While she has taken a step back from OnlyFans, she has returned to ASMR – posting her first video in over a year on July 18th. In it, she updated her followers about her life and shared that she recently got married.
Angelica ASMR, another popular creator in the community, has seemingly followed suit. In June last year, Angelica started spouting conservative political views across her social media— a stark departure from her previous leftist beliefs.
Angelica created her channel in 2015 and began posting ASMR content the following year. She gained recognition for her unconventional ASMR roleplays, where she pretended to be an array of characters— including a plastic surgeon and an epidemiologist. However, the video that catapulted her to viral fame within the ASMR community was when she roleplayed as a WWII nurse in November 2016.
Much like Gwen, Angelica started an OnlyFans and was active on the platform until May of last year.
After deciding to stop posting explicit content, she returned to her second channel “Angelica’s Grass” with a video titled “Onlyfans Hurts Young Girls.”
She began the video by listing the types of people who shouldn’t start an OnlyFans, claiming that it can be dangerous for anyone “under 23” or “people with people-pleasing habits, anyone that has a mental illness… [or someone] who is very chaotic.” Angelica also noted that celebrities like Cardi B have “brainwashed” many young girls into thinking this lifestyle is “normal.”
Angelica also explained that OnlyFans money can sometimes lead women to “gaslight” themselves and push their boundaries in order to meet the “demands and desires of grown men who have perverted imaginations.”
Many internet users praised Angelica’s analysis of OnlyFans, appreciative that she pointed out some nuances that are often overlooked in discussions about sex work.These viewers noted that while OnlyFans creators may initially start making such content to reclaim their sexuality, they still operate within patriarchal and capitalist power structures that remain exploitative and alienating.
However, viewers grew concerned when Angelica began sharing some of her other beliefs, particularly after she detailed her transition from “Anarcho-Communist to Catholic.”
After exploring her new-found commitment to Christianity with her audience, Angelica continued to detail her problems with radical feminism and leftist ideology on her YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. She soon faced backlash, with many social media users claiming that her commentary was riddled with homophobia. Since then, her content and subsequent apology has since been deleted.
While some of Angelica’s followers were happy that she had found some comfort in Christianity, many were worried by the sudden and drastic nature of this change. With this in mind, some internet users have speculated that Angelica’s reaction was some sort of traumatic response to her sex work.
At the time of recording, Angelica continues to post daily ASMR content on her second channel Angelica’s Grass.
While Gwen and Angelica are extreme examples, there could be an argument made that as the genre becomes increasingly more mainstream and thus garners a significantly bigger audience, there is more opportunity for female ASMRists to be sexualised and exploited by people who aren’t really there for ASMR.
That brings us to now. In 2024, ASMR is one of the most popular genres of content on YouTube.
As a result of this popularity, ASMR content has become oversaturated and highly produced. Over the years, to compete with the thousands of other ASMRists online, creators fitted out their equipment with expensive binaural microphones, creative set designs, and state of the art cameras. This is a stark departure from the Whisper Community, who for the most part, were filming on first generation smartphones in their bedrooms.
This has bred two new subgenres of ASMR– unintentional ASMR where users seek out videos of people who give them an ASMR sensation but aren’t trying to make ASMR content, AND lo-fi ASMR, where a creator is filming an old-school style video, usually without a micrphone and on their smartphone.
While ASMR trends and content styles ebb and flow, this is a genre that is here to stay. One of the most positive corners of the internet, the ASMR community helps millions of people through some of their most difficult times– helping us stay calm, find moments of relaxation, and lulling us to sleep every night, usually through the whispered tones that started it all.
Listen to the full episode via the ‘infinite scroll podcast’ on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.