How Can Something This Weird Be So Popular?

by Nick Laight | Jun 10, 2026 | Blog | 0 comments

It was a normal day in the office, more or less.

Until something weird happened.

During a break from writing I clicked on a YouTube link someone had sent me, saying “check this out.”

The video opened to reveal a studio with a drum kit on a carpet and a polka dot curtain hanging behind it.

To the left was a guitar player, wearing an outlandish black-and-white polka-dotted costume, sporting a papier-mâché mask with a giant stick-out nose.

To the right. a drummer with a pill-box-shaped head in a similar outfit, but with a much floppier nose.

Already, the whole thing looked insane.

But then they started to play…

I was instantly entranced by the 27 minute onslaught of mad bass loops, demented guitar riffs and super-precise drumming.

This was my introduction to Angine De Poitrine, from Quebec in Canada – two anonymous musicians who are (apparently) aliens!

If you’ve seen them before, then you’ll know exactly what I am talking about, as they are utterly unique.

And if you haven’t, then buckle up and check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ssi-9wS1so

The big question is…

‘How Can Something this Weird Be So Popular?’

Musically, Angine De Poitrine certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

This is avant garde, microtonal ‘math rock’, the sort of stuff that’s usually confided to the outer fringes of the music world.

Maybe you’d read about it in The Wire magazine, or see it on a small stage at an experimental festival.

And yet, if you look at the view count for that video above, it’s currently at well over 15 MILLION!

Originally, it was uploaded by the Seattle radio station KEXP on the 5th February 2026.

The video became an immediate viral hit, racking up over two million views in its first week.

Since then, the band have toured to sold out venues… and their videos continue to be shared and watched by hundreds of thousands of people.

Including me!

Honestly, I’ve not been this obsessed with something in ages…

I watch clips of them almost every day…

I have earworms of their manic, discordant riffs constantly burrowing into my brain.

(Yes, even as I’m writing this to you right now!)

And I’ve gone as far as to design my own Angine De Poitrine print-on-demand t-shirt on Canva (gently mocking French designer A.P.C’s logo).

So how can this strange, funny, complex music have become so widely popular?

Well, it could be the mystery of their anonymity… the striking imagery… the crazy masks… the barefoot guitar pedal looping… the sense of fun…

But there’s more to it than just novelty.

In fact, there is so much to unpack here for the aspiring online marketer.

Because it tells us everything we need to know about what cuts through the noise of the internet right now.

Stop Trying to Appeal to Everybody

Most people who start an online business try to make themselves acceptable to anyone and everyone.

So they use inoffensive stock photos… neutral designs… safe colours… wishy-washy positioning that nobody will find offensive….

After all, the more people you appeal to, the more customers you can get, and the more money you’ll make… right?

Well, no.

Because unless you have a massive budget and a lot of existing fame or credibility, it is almost impossible to start a mass appeal business from home, alone.

If you want to cut through as a solo entrepreneur, the key is to be daring and unusual, so that you stand out – and accept that while many people might ignore or dislike you, there will be a few who LOVE you.

Angine De Poitrine made no attempt to go for obvious commercial appeal…

If anything they acted as if they were deliberately trying to be obscure.

They wore silly costumes… made themselves anonymous… and played music with no lyrics and no frontman or woman.

What’s more, their form of microtonal music (where notes fall between the standard ones) is generally considered inaccessible.

Most bands trying to become hugely popular would avoid this sub-genre like the plague.

Yet Angine De Poitrine came from absolutely nowhere, and became huge very quickly.

Because they are very specifically THEMSELVES.

By that I mean, there is literally no other band like them, and therefore they can dominate a niche of their own!

The same goes for any business or product you create.

Don’t try to appeal to everyone by being general.

A newsletter that offers investment advice.
A digital planner for freelancers.
A YouTube channel about food.
A Substack about getting out of debt.
An Etsy T-shirt shop with various humorous designs.
A gardening advice subscription service.

These are too wide in their appeal, and they’ll never cut through the mass of videos, social media accounts and eCommerce listings that crowd the internet.

Instead, you might try..

A grumpy newsletter that shows bored middle aged men how to turn whiskey and wine into a retirement fund.
A technicolour digital planner for freelance designers with ADHD
A YouTube Channel devoted entirely to analysing font choices on restaurant menus.
A Substack written by a retired debt collector who reveals exactly how creditors think, and how to beat them at their own game.
An Etsy shop selling ‘Chaos to Calm’ daily planners for mums who homeschool children and are losing their minds.
A Print on Demand shop that only sells t-shirts with brutally honest slogans for exhausted school teachers. (“I didn’t go to university for this.”)
A membership site for people trying to grow Mediterranean vegetables on British allotments

The trick is to be so specific, unusual and unapologetically different that it becomes impossible to ignore your idea.

Try to think about what makes you… YOU!

Be Yourself, Warts ‘n’ All

It’s easy to feel embarrassed or shy about what people might think of you when you go online with a product or service.

So you might tend to hide stuff away about yourself.

For example, you might be 67 years old and think you’re irrelevant in today’s online world… so you avoid mentioning your age and try to use the language of somebody younger.

But actually, that’s decades of life experience that a 25-year-old ‘side hustle bro’ on YouTube cannot compete with.

Or maybe you spent 20 years in local government and think that’s a very boring thing to admit to people.

But it means that you understand procurement, planning applications, licensing and grants… all the stuff that small business owners might be desperate to get to grips with.

So maybe there’s a course or eBook in it!

Or it could be that you have obsessions that you feel embarrassed to share with lots of people…

Maybe you’re into steam trains, vintage toys, obscure board games or collecting crisp packets.

But these aren’t embarrassing hobbies to hide away…

They’re potential niches with passionate audiences, albeit smaller ones.

Or they’re intriguing details you can add into your content to give yourself a more distinct personality.

The quality that you think disqualifies you, or leaves you open to ridicule, is often the thing that makes you stand out the most.

Of course, if you’re really shy and determined NEVER to show your face or use your voice, there’s another good lesson from Angine De Poitrine.

You Don’t Have Appear Online!

I know many people are put off starting an online business because they don’t want to have their face plastered everywhere…

They don’t want to share all their life’s ups and downs…

Or what they had for breakfast…

And they don’t want total strangers knowing everything about their private life.

But that’s okay.

You can still succeed online anyway.

Angine de Poitrine became internationally famous while hiding behind masks.

Nobody knows who they are.

It’s not even clear what gender they are!

And it hasn’t held them back one bit.

In fact, the anonymity adds to the appeal.

These days you can build a business around a character, brand or concept… without ever showing your face or using your real name.

Some of the most successful Substacks and newsletters out there are written under pen names. And plenty of thriving Etsy shops, ecommerce brands and YouTube channels are run by people who never appear on camera.

Even if you use social media, there are now ways to get AI to create and voice videos for you.

You can become the Wizard of Oz pulling the strings behind the curtain.

As long as what’s in front of that curtain is interesting and useful to people, then nobody will mind.

Ultimately, the secret is to…

HAVE FUN!

On the surface, Angine De Poitrine’s whole schtick looks like a very clever marketing strategy.

The bonkers masks…. the polka dot costumes… the alien mythology… the double-necked microtonal guitar..

But when you dig deeper, it’s clear that none of it was strategically planned.

It emerged naturally from the personalities of the people involved.

You see, one of the most fascinating parts of the Angine de Poitrine story is that it began as an inside joke between two friends.

They were booked to perform twice in one week at a Canadian venue, but worried that people wouldn’t come along to the second gig.

So they pretended they were a different band, and dressed in joke costumes.

But that was how they hit upon their unique formula.

And sometimes, that’s the way it goes.

To come up with a breakthrough business idea you need to play around with ideas, experiment, and have fun.

For instance, someone might start a YouTube account about converting white transit vans into luxury camper vans on a £100 budget… just for the fun of it.

But then six months later they might have 40,000 followers…

So they decide to create a ‘how to’ book or video course, and – hey presto – they have a thriving business.

That’s pretty much what happened to a guy named Nate Murphy who shared what he learned after living in a van for 5 years.

He’s since built a business selling guides, electrical design services, and conversion resources to tens of thousands of customers and 700,000 YouTube subscribers! (You can check it out here: https://www.thevanconversionguide.com)

If there’s something you do that you enjoy, and excites you, then there could be money in it!

Even if it seems weird.

Actually…. especially if it seems weird.

As long as it’s genuine and authentic, it will appeal to people… and stand out in an internet that is drowning in AI-generated sameness.