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Urban Le Pharaon called it out on Instagram. I want to come back to it, because it deserves to be taken further.
A few days ago, I came across a video by a YouTuber titled “I INFILTRATE Berlin’s NIGHTLIFE (shocked).” A few seconds are enough to understand the angle. The title says it all: infiltrate. Be shocked. And, of course, the phrase “nightlife,” as if we were talking about some secret society waiting to be exposed. His video borrows the codes of investigative journalism, as if we were about to uncover satanic rituals or other tired clichés of that kind. Honestly, it borders on laughable, let’s say it, because it is so ridiculous. But this is not curiosity. This is voyeurism. And the distinction matters.
Nightlife Is Not a Zoo
“We’re going to get into the hard stuff, the real parties.” “Discover the real underground.” Spend an entire weekend there to “learn as much as possible.” What is this supposed to be, a wildlife documentary? Because it certainly looks like one. It’s crazy to produce an entire video like this without ever questioning the legitimacy of your voice, your position, the respect owed to the people around you, or the fact that you are entering a culture you clearly know nothing about and, on top of that, despise.
Techno, and the Berlin space in particular, was never designed to be filmed, packaged and turned into clickbait for unhealthy curiosity. That is the first point. It is a space of freedom, built by and for communities that needed somewhere to exist outside the gaze of others. Outside your gaze, in fact. Minorities. People who need to breathe, dance, let go, without a camera turning them into an attraction.
Filming people in these spaces, even with blurred faces, is already a form of violence. It means exposing intimate moments. When a bouncer refuses to let the two guys chasing a scoop inside, Léonard does not understand why. Given their behaviour, the answer should be obvious.
The Mechanics of “Sketchiness”
What is particularly revealing is the music chosen to illustrate the sequences. A sound aesthetic of danger, of tension. The message is: I am scared, this is a dangerous place. But yes, of course, look at him bravely facing this hell of “goths.”
“I don’t know if you noticed, but everyone is wearing black.” “The vibe is weird.” “It’s almost scary here, it’s such a gothic atmosphere.”
The anxiety of that commentary. As if anything subversive were a frightening aesthetic to decode, rather than a political space with a history. And of course, they eventually “stumble upon drug baggies, not suspicious at all.” Berlin, capital of drugs and excess. The narrative is complete. You know the story. We are tired, honestly. Tired of hearing this, tired of seeing this kind of approach, with no self-reflection whatsoever in 2026. Obviously, if you look for drugs, like in 99% of nightlife spaces, you will find some, especially in the toilets.
This is not innocent ignorance. It is exactly what low-grade journalists do when they participate in the reproduction of stereotypes. The same mechanisms, the same shortcuts, the same condescending gaze toward a culture they are not trying to understand, only to mock.
But Honestly, It Is Also Partly Our Fault
After watching this video, I remembered an analysis by Colleg about subversive aesthetics and how it had become a huge machine, with a consumer aesthetic being sold in every possible way. If people like this YouTuber can show up with their prejudices and find material to confirm them, filming and looking for exactly what they want so it appears properly scandalous, it is also because part of the scene has turned into a caricature of itself. Eaten away by the capitalism of attention too. Eaten away by an industry that always wants things bigger, louder, more visible, more subversive, more “underground.” Don’t you think that word has become a caricature too?
And there we go: out come the harnesses, the leather, the BDSM-inspired looks worn like costumes. We reenact the Berlin aesthetic, often badly copied, like something some people put on for the weekend. Whereas for others, it is their identity. It is who they are, intrinsically. And then we are surprised when people think they are watching a spectacle and allow themselves to go to Berlin to make this kind of frankly shameful video.
I am not talking about Berliners. I am talking about the impostors who squat the French scene thinking that black clothes and latex are some kind of cultural passport. Originally, techno was a space where you could dress however you wanted. I am not pointing fingers at those who do it, I have done it too, but ask yourself why. What is your reason? Is it freedom? Or is it to show that you are super cool because you are a techno girl or a techno boy?
What Remains
What Léonard produced is filmed stupidity. It is a shame that this idea did not remain “underground,” ironically enough. Maybe it was not calculated malice, the YouTuber does not seem like a bad person, but the result is the same: a video that reduces spaces of resistance to a freak show for the algorithm, reinforces stereotypes about drugs and “excess,” and treats communities as objects of curiosity.
Filming someone else’s culture while mocking it is contempt. It does not matter if it is done with a smile and dynamic editing.
And if we truly want things to change, if we want the outside gaze on our spaces to be different, then we need to start by looking at ourselves, at our own scene. To preserve our spaces and our authenticity.
credits photos : Envato Elements