Source: lifestyleasia.com

Imagine, for a moment, that you’ve been creating content on social media for eleven years. You’ve amassed millions of social media followers, conducted multiple world tours, and uploaded thousands of posts and videos [1]. 

However, for whatever reason, you feel that the time has come for you to end that admirable career. It makes sense. After all, eleven years is a long time.

But with such a long career, wouldn’t this be a momentous decision for you? And with such dedicated fans, wouldn’t you announce this departure slowly, explaining your decision with detail and care?

That’s the enigma surrounding TwoSet Violin’s sudden announcement of the end of their social media career. With over 9.5 million social media followers, two completed world tours, and videos dating back to 2013 [1], TwoSet announced the end of it all in a cryptic Instagram post, writing on October 14th that that post would be the “last piece of content we post as TwoSet Violin” [2].

“It’s been a wild ride with you all for the last 11 years,” TwoSet wrote, along with a series of pictures showcasing their career over the years. “We’ve all grown up together and it’s kinda surreal that we’re ending our chapter here.
Thank you for all the laughs, the genuine encounters in real life and all the special moments we’ve had with you online and offline” [2].

But who is TwoSet Violin? Hailing from Australia, TwoSet Violin is a YouTube music duo consisting of Taiwanese-Australian violinists Brett Yang and Eddy Chen. The two met in high school through youth orchestras, and both have pursued classical music and the violin from a young age. In 2016, the two decided to quit their positions on the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras to commit to making content on social media full-time. Primarily operating on YouTube, the two began to consistently upload a new video about once every week. Their goal as content creators? To make classical music accessible to a wider audience [1].

That goal was certainly no easy task. In fact, classical music is one of the least popular music genres: in 2022, only 4.6% of US adults attended a classical music concert [3]. Classical music, in its most stereotypical form, is just too “boring” and “outdated” to appeal to a young social media audience.

But TwoSet proved the stereotype wrong. With their creativity and humor, classical music became just as fun as any other content on social media. The two dressed up in powdery wigs and composed an imaginary diss track between Beethoven and Bach [4]. The two found movies where actors who obviously couldn’t play the violin had to act like they could and poked fun at their awkward, twisted postures [5]. They ridiculed Ben Lee, who tried to break the Guinness World Records of “fastest violinist in the world” with an electric violin that had the wrong number of strings and was not made of wood, but 24-carat gold [6]. (“Sacrilegious!” TwoSet called him.)

And the result? Not only did the duo garner millions of views on social media—more importantly, they created a community centered around classical music. They had a subreddit with almost 300,000 members where musicians shared advice and memes about classical music [7]. They had an apparel line of T-shirts, hoodies, jackets, and even watches with designs specifically pertaining to classical music [8]. They created an inside joke with their viewers: a fictional character named Ling Ling, a cousin who you were always compared to and who was so good at violin that he practiced 40 hours every day [9]. They popularized a certain lingo, a certain jargon—if someone kept on saying “Ling Ling 40 hours”, “interesting!”, or “sacrilegious!”, you just knew they were a TwoSet viewer. It was a tight-knit, fun community where young musicians found relatable content and peers with the same interests. You could not be a young musician and not love TwoSet.

That’s why their announcement that they were simply giving it all up was so devastating to us Ling Ling wannabes. TwoSet hadn’t revealed any sign that they would be quitting at all before the shock announcement. How could TwoSet give up on the community without any prior warning or explanation? 

Besides, just before the announcement, TwoSet had been embarking on new projects, such as TwoSet Academy, a masterclass program where they would provide violin lessons to their viewers [10]. Why would they start new plans if they were planning to quit soon? 

And perhaps the weirdest aspect of the whole fiasco was their decision to delete almost all of their past content. Before their shock announcement, TwoSet’s YouTube channel held thousands of videos. However, after their announcement, TwoSet deleted almost all of them, leaving only 29 of their most popular videos untouched [11]. Why? Moving on from your content creation career doesn’t seem to warrant deleting almost all of your content. Wouldn’t you want to keep those videos up so that your fans can remember you?

In the confusion, fans have made a new speculation about TwoSet’s decision: maybe they weren’t quitting at all. Maybe TwoSet was simply rebranding. After all, in their Instagram announcement, they stated that the post was the last piece of content they’d post “as TwoSet Violin” [2]. Perhaps the two were just simply changing brands, and purposefully made their announcement sound like a retirement post as a publicity stunt. But that still doesn’t explain why TwoSet deleted almost all of their past content. Besides, TwoSet has been TwoSet for 11 years. Why change that brand now?

There are so many questions, but so little answers. TwoSet has kept to their word and has not uploaded any new piece of content since that last Instagram post. And as the days drag on, the possibility of a return or a rebranding stunt seem to be dwindling away, with the reality that this may really be the end beginning to sink in.

But whatever their intentions or motivations, what TwoSet did for the classical music community was astounding. They made an obsolete genre fun and approachable. They made millions of young musicians across the world feel heard. If they’re truly off to bigger and better things—well, perhaps all we can do is wish them the best.

Sources:

[1] https://twosetviolin.com/

[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/DBG9LuJS9PJ/?img_index=1

[3] https://www.arts.gov/news/press-releases/2023/new-data-reveal-how-adults-participated-arts-during-covid-19

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0b9xhnR0Xc

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaihF0kev6Q

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsvaCU6i1M

[7] https://www.reddit.com/r/lingling40hrs/?rdt=55571

[8] https://twosetapparel.com/

[9] https://twosetviolin.fandom.com/wiki/Ling_Ling

[10] https://twosetacademy.com/

[11] https://www.youtube.com/@twosetviolin