A Brief History
Although the term ASMR was not coined until 2010, unintentional ASMR-inducing “triggers” (whispering, tapping, scratching) have existed in audio for a long time. The early years of radio drama featured silences, whispering, and hushed voices, as seen in Mercury Theater’s 1938 radio broadcast of Dracula. Once television surpassed radio as the most popular broadcast medium, such triggers could also be found in TV shows, and their relaxing and tingly properties were eventually discussed in online forums in the early 2000s. At the time, however, the to-be ASMR community had yet to find a name for the phenomenon. Once the phenomenon gained its official name, Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, in 2010, it slowly made its way into mainstream media—researchers began studying ASMR to understand why people feel “tingles” when they hear certain aural triggers, large corporations put it in commercials, and directors intentionally put it in their movies. In 2022, there were an estimated 500,000 ASMR channels and 25 million ASMR YouTube videos; in 2024, it was the most searched term on YouTube.
Google Ngram Visualization
The emergence of ASMR as a socially constructed phenomenon is closely tied to digital media. A Google Ngram search of the most common terms following “ASMR” from 2000-2022 reveals that prior to the 2010s, the acronym was rarely used in literature, mainly used in reference to age-specific mortality rates. Following the term’s coinage in 2010, its usage steadily increased, reflecting the growing popularity of ASMR content on platforms like Youtube.
Though experienced long before its naming, ASMR gained social recognition only after its “discovery” in online forums around 2007. Notably, “ASMR videos” had the most significant rise compared to the other terms in the Ngram search, suggesting academic discussions about ASMR are connected to digital media. The online environment fostered the growth of ASMR communities and solidified its identity as an internet-born, socially constructed sensory experience.
Why is ASMR Significant?
Despite ASMR’s modern-day association with Internet popularity and memes, it has become a medium for ASMRtists to express their creativity through sound and storytelling, transcending cultures and languages and mirroring compositional techniques used in experimental artistic languages (we will go into a more detailed discussion of how ASMRtists intentionally play with sound and silence in our case study). Typical ASMR videos often include hours of tapping and whispering or consist of roleplays of comforting, seemingly mundane routines (massages, doctor examinations, haircuts, etc.). However, some ASMRtists have taken advantage of ASMR to create videos with complex storylines and props, and some ASMRtists have even created humorous parody videos.
Furthermore, a significant part of ASMR’s popularity can be attributed to the fact that it allows listeners to slow down and meditate. While much of our digital environment today values a constant and rapid flood of information, ASMR is a pocket of the Internet where people are allowed to indulge in the quiet and subtle. Most listeners listen to ASMR videos before bed after a long day to de-stress, relax, or for insomnia. The relaxing “tingle” response that people experience when listening to ASMR isn’t just a placebo effect, either—the phenomenon is well-studied and research-backed. In one collection of studies, researchers found that ASMR is associated with lower heart rate, higher skin conductance (i.e. skin becomes better at conducting electricity), and increased positive emotional states.