Favorite corner of the internet

Under appreciated Talent of the Internet

When asked to think of my favorite corner of the internet, it was hard. Most of the places I venture to are very highly trafficked websites like Twitter, ESPN, Reddit, Amazon, etc. I had to narrow down the specific areas I like about each of those popular websites, and while I was doing this, I was listening to music. The thing is, every time I am on the internet, I have music in my ears and I realized that my favorite part of the internet is having access to almost every piece of music ever created. I like to listen to a lot of spotify, consisting of mostly mainstream rap, R&B, and alternative, but my favorite corner of the internet is musical covers of popular songs because they offer an interesting switch-up from the same artists and songs that we hear every day.

The website that I use to find these covers is Youtube, and while I love watching funny pranks, sports highlights, and conspiracy theories, this is my favorite side of youtube because it receives little attention. The musician I want to highlight today is Justice Der, who is a synth/electric guitarist that covers semi-popular R&B and alternate music. He mostly covers songs of artists like Frank Ocean, BROCKHAMPTON and Daniel Caesar. The reason I got into his music in the first place was from trying to find an instrumental for one of Frank Ocean’s songs and stumbling upon one of his covers. His smooth construction of the melodies encapsulated me and somehow I become increasingly impressed with each new cover of a song that he releases. He has even inspired me to buy a guitar and learn how to play it. I haven’t yet gotten one, but I think the perfect time for me to start is winter break when I can make money and devote my time to the craft of learning an instrument.

Justice Der has 79,000 subscribers which doesn’t really make him that big of an unknown in the musical cover business, but when I first discovered him about a year ago he only had about 8,000 subscribers. He has never let his voice be heard in any of his videos and does most of them in his concrete bedroom with only his bed and a Pulp Fiction poster in the background. His videos are very minimalist and only features the music that he is performing. I like the way he lets his music do the talking and isn’t greedy by doing advertisements or asking people to donate money to him, although he probably deserves it. Clearly, other people appreciate that aspect of his videos too, as a few of his videos hit 300,000 views. Not only do people watch is videos, but his like to dislike ratio is insanely good on most of them. His “Japanese Denim” cover has 18,000 likes to only 71 dislikes. His comments are full of positive feedback with some examples being “Somebody somewhere, somehow, HAS to sign you guys to something,” and “My heart just melted into butter”.

Ultimately though, my words cannot do his music nearly enough Justice (see what I did there?). I hope that the reader and anybody else with internet access and a love for good music are able to listen to him because he has brought good feelings and moments to many people including myself.  Justice Der deserves a lot more recognition for his talent and hard work and that is why this is my favorite corner of the internet.