I left YouTube on autoplay for an hour and I feel extremely called out

• YouTube has an Autoplay function which will automatically select the next video for you. 
• I usually switch it off but decided to see what would happen if I let it go wild. 
• Would I end up in a dark part of the website - or trapped in a musical blackhole of my own creation? 

For as long as I can remember I’ve held this irrational distrust of autoplay and shuffle features. I am sure any therapist reading this could offer an explanation, something about wanting to be the captain of the ship and not a passenger. 

But it means that the only time I have let YouTube pick videos for me is if I didn’t realise the option was switched on. So in the name of science (okay, mild personal intrigue) I decided to give myself over to the algorithm and see what would happen if I let YouTube’s autoplay feature go wild. 

The algorithm behind the popular video sharing platform remains shroud in mystery - and websites like Reddit are full of posts along the lines of “how does it work”. However no answers are forthcoming. 

I half expected that once the journey into the unknown would end in a recruitment video for the Mormon Church or worse, to invest in cryptocurrency (this is just a joke to make clear). Instead it ended up lifting a mirror to my music taste and left me humbled as well as more than a little called out. 

Original video: Noah Kahan - Stick Season (Official Lyric Video) 

The weather was absolutely rotten, which has been the case here in York for all but a day so far in September, and so I thought there was no better place to start than with the most autumnal of songs. The lyric video for Stick Season is one of the videos I have probably played the most on my work’s YouTube account to keep me company while working on miserable days. 

If I was to guess what comes next, it probably would be a similarly folky/ autumny song. Perhaps some Taylor Swift from that acoustic album that came out in the pandemic. Evermore/ Folklore/ Everfolkmorelore - you know the title. 

Video Two: Noah Kahan - Orange Juice (Official Lyric Video) 

Okay, I probably should have seen that YouTube would send me to another Noah Kahan video. After all, as previously mentioned I’ve regularly played Stick Season on loop on my work account over recent years. 

We are less than 10 minutes into this journey, but so far it has been two for two when it comes to absolute bops. (Admittedly I did pick the first one). Hopefully the next video moves out of the Noah Kahan vortex and takes us off down a YouTube rabbit hole. 

Video Three: Noah Kahan - You’re Gonna Go Far (Official Lyric Video) 

So for the second time in a row, my guess was wrong. Unfortunately we are still stuck in the Noah Kahan vortex, which normally wouldn’t be a problem as it is autumn and perfect time for his oeuvre (although if you’ve checked Spotify charts for the UK at any point this year, it apparently has been Stick Season 365). 

At least the algorithm is working to keep me on songs I am interested in, it will be interesting to see if it stays in this (admittedly lovely) musical quagmire for much longer. Or if this will finally be the time we escape from the gravitational pull of Stick Season - at least I am 100% sure this is not a Noah Kahan track I’ve listened to on this YouTube account before, so at least we are tiptoeing to pastures new. 

I won’t complain if I get to hear Paul Reverie or Dial Drunk before the algorithm gets more adventurous. If you are reading this YouTube/ the CIA. 

Video Four: Noah Kahan - Call Your Mom (Official Lyric Video) 

Alas, YouTube and the CIA were not reading this article as I was typing it and instead I was served up another Noah Kahan song. I think this is the definition of a deep cut, I must have heard it when listening to the deluxe album in my spare time but I can’t really recall it. 

So, even though we remain on a very Vermot themed patch of digital land at least it is getting more into the reeds. Perhaps starting with Noah Kahan was a mistake, but it is a well-trodden path on this YouTube account and the algorithm is just serving me what I want. 

At least I didn’t attempt this in the summer and can wallow in the perfect soundtrack for a gloomy, grey autumn day. But fingers crossed we must have nearly escaped from the gravitational pull of the Noah Kahan vortex by now, hopefully we will be launching off into uncharted space soon. 

Video Five: Noah Kahan - Everywhere, Everything (Official Lyric Video) 

Oh for Pete’s sake, I love me some Noah Kahan music but I think five tracks in a row is a bit much even for me on this miserable day. I had expected by this point that I would have entered uncharted territory, not being stranded in my usual sphere. 

I could have put together a better Noah Kahan playlist on YouTube myself, sorry to say algorithm. But ever the optimist, I am hoping that by the time this song comes to an end in a couple more minutes, we will be ever so slightly closer to the algorithm conjuring up some magic and taking me into the unknown.  

I am setting myself up to be a punchline yet again, no doubt. 

Video Six: Noah Kahan - The View Between Villages (Extended) (Official Lyric Video) 

Narrator: he was setting himself up to be a punchline yet again. I think we have to accept, you (dear reader) and I (the writer), that like the Hotel California we have checked in and we are never going to leave. 

I welcome the Noah Kahan vortex as my new overlord. All hail the Noah Kahan vortex. Please keep serving me up deep cuts after deep cuts, Noah Kahan vortex. 

At least there is a nice dog in the still image for this video. 

Video Seven: Lord Huron - Love like ghosts•Meet me in the woods•The night we met (Mashup+Lyrics)

Yes, the reverse jinx worked and we are finally free of the Noah Kahan vortex. We have gone from folky music with millions of views to a ‘mashup’ from an account called Ghostly Tunes with 19 subscribers. 

It is perfectly fitting the prior vibe to be fair, capturing the feeling of being stalked by a ghost on the north yorkshire moors. Which must of course be a truly universal experience and not the imaginings of a 10-year-old scout. 

I have just checked the length of this mashup and it is 11 minutes long. So plenty of time to try and guess what will come next. 

Based on the track record of the last six choices picked by the autoplay function, it is probably going to be something folky/ autumny. I may need to put on a second jumper if this continues because I’m starting to feel a shiver. 

With plenty of time to kill before the 11 minutes (11 whole minutes) of this video are up (you wouldn’t get this on TikTok, maybe the kids are right after all), I decided to look at what Ghostly Tunes had put in the description. And seemingly this mashup is simply just three tracks from an album by an artist called Lord Hutton uploaded back-to-back. 

Only two minutes left to go and I’m not sure you will be able to convince me that this isn’t music that escaped from my dreams and into reality. It is the soundtrack to liminal spaces and foggy mornings. 

Video Eight: Meet Me Like Ghosts - Lord Huron Mashup (Meet me in the woods x Love Like Ghosts x The Night We Met)

I am feeling actively called out by the YouTube algorithm at this point, perhaps I need to stop listening to sad autumn music when working. In my defence, this was before I started taking medication, so let's put an asterisk next to this. 

But we are now onto a second Lord Huron mash-up. Which you have to admit is quite a strange phenomenon. 

I understand people uploading their favourite track with lyrics if there isn’t a lyrics video. Especially in the days before Spotify started featuring lyrics and when Genius wasn’t ubiquitous. 

I would also understand people uploading full albums, so you can listen to them in one video and not have to jump around on YouTube. But just two or three songs “mashed up” together from one artist seems utterly bizarre to me. 

Back in my day mashups were Linkin Park and Jay Z randomly fusing Numb and Encore together into an even more legendary track. But what do I know? 

I will also admit I’m utterly unfamiliar with Lord Huron (at least in the waking realm) and have no idea if these two mash-ups have changed much of the original songs or not. Let’s see where I end up next. 

Video Nine: Lord Huron – Yawning Grave beneath the Frozen Pines

A third mash-up in a row? Really YouTube? Is this the best you’ve got for me? I think me and the algorithm need to step outside and sort out our differences because this is a joke. 

Of course all three of these mash-ups have been very well done (they may even just be the original songs I have no point for reference) but it is all getting very samey. I suppose though perhaps the algorithm thinks I am looking for background music. 

An 11 minute video followed by two seven minute ones would certainly be perfect if you are just wanting noise while working or doing chores. But I went into this journey hoping for a bit more of a sense of discovery, like I was being carried by the tides of fate. 

Instead it feels more like I have been swaddled in a lumberjack shirt. Although, I may snap out of my grouchiness for a moment to say the Frozen Pines part of this “mash-up” has caught my ears. 

Video Ten: Lord Huron - The Yawning Grave, Frozen Pines

Is this cosmic horror, is this what happens in HP Lovecraft books? Am I trapped in a lovecraftian nightmare where old ones are torturing me with eerie autumn music. 

While I have been underwhelmed by how the algorithm has seemingly trapped me in a specific ‘sad boy’ music box, this is the first time I’m disappointed. To be served up the same song twice in a row, even if it is in some strange seven mix both times, feels very much like a five minutes to five on a Friday job. 

Although now I have a reference point for Frozen Pines and to my humble ears this does not sound any different from the prior “mash-up”. So back to my questions about why people are uploading just a handful of songs from an album in one slightly longer video. 

The autoplay tried to serve me up yet another Lord Huron mash-up video after Frozen Pines round two and this is the point where I have to admit defeat. I am tapping out, there is only so much vaguely spooky autumnal coffee shop music a man can take on a Monday. 

I had feared that after leaving the autoplay function on for an hour or so I may have been cast into the realms of the crypto crazes, Andrew Tate fans and other internet nasties, but instead it just held up a mirror. I am realising that just because the weather has turned grey, I don’t need to give into the Noah Kahan vortex and have the music listening habits of a survivalist trapped in a cabin in the wilderness. 

I am not Bon Iver, and this article is not For Emma, Forever Ago. And the word count of this ill-fated voyage into a soundtrack of autumnal gloom is certainly not a Skinny Love. 

Have you ever left YouTube on Autoplay by mistake? Share your experience with our tech writer by emailing: [email protected].