Todd in the Shadows

Todd Nathanson (born: ), better known online as Todd in the Shadows, is an American music reviewer on YouTube who, until April 2018, was also one of the more prominent members of Channel Awesome. His three primary series are Todd's Pop Song Reviews, One Hit Wonderland, and Trainwreckords.
==History==
Todd was a blogger on TGWTG.com and musical talent on YouTube until 2010. He was a fan of the site for a long time before deciding to become part of the Channel Awesome family. He found the site through 5 Second Movies before the site went live in April of 2008. He reviews current (usually bad) pop music and, starting in 2012, one-hit-wonders of the past. In addition, he occasionally reviews music-related movies.
In his videos, he plays the piano (having spent eleven years playing piano) and he wears a gray hoodie in order to keep his true identity secret. The reasons for this are unclear -- he has alternately claimed that he hides his face to protect his position as a Sunday school teacher, as a secret agent, and as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. At other times, he has said that he doesn't want his face attached to the "hamburger incident." His image-consciousness led him to do his reviews in profile silhouette, which adds to his mysteriousness. When not 'in the shadows' such as during crossover videos and during the events of Suburban Knights, Todd wears a Zorro-esque bandanna that covers everything above his mouth (though it is revealed in Surburban Knights that he can't even see out of his mask, to the point of mistaking a pole for one of the villains).
Todd claims that he didn't get into pop music until an incident in 2007 when the antenna came off of his car. Because he didn't have money to fix it, he listened to pop music over and over because that was the only station that came on, and eventually he got into it. He started to review the songs he heard over and over in his personal blog. He then started filming his reviews and posting them as blogs on TGWTG under the name "MBI"; two early reviews were chosen as Awesome Blogs of the Week, which greatly increased his popularity on YouTube. As he built his fanbase, he was invited to come on to Channel Awesome.
On March 22, 2018, Todd announced on Twitter that he parted ways with Channel Awesome. He continues to make reviews on his YouTube channel.
==Video Format ==
Every video depicts Todd sitting in a chair in a darkened room, with his side to the camera, wearing a gray hoodie that conceals his face. This is why he's known as Todd in the Shadows. At the start of every review he plays the piano rendition of the song he'll be talking about for several seconds before getting into the actual review itself.
==Videos ==
=== Main Series===
====Todd's Pop Song Reviews====
The most frequent series on Todd's channel is Todd's Pop Song Reviews, where he reviews a recent hit song that appeared on the top 100 pop charts. The genre isn't a major issue, as long as it's considered "popular music", although this is usually in the realm of Pop, Rap, Hip Hop, R&B, and other genres of those types. In addition, they don't actually have to be a recently released song when he reviews them, only that they recently became a hit. He'll typically do the review the same week that they became a hit so he doesn't risk waiting too long and them not being a hit anymore.
====One Hit Wonderland ====
The channel's most popular series. A "One Hit Wonder" is a band or artist that's only ever had one hit song, regardless of how many other songs that they may have had; a common theme are bands and artists from other countries that are only known for one song in America but achieve more success in their native country. This is a series where Todd goes in depth with discussing the careers of such bands or artists. The series covers hits from multiple decades but mainly focuses on older songs (i.e. before the 2010s.) The following segments are used in his One Hit Wonderland videos, in this order: Before the Hit (looking at the life/career of the band/artist prior to their success), The Hit (the song itself and the circumstances as to why it became popular), The Failed Follow-up (why any other single they may have released didn't see the same level of success), Did They Do Anything Else? (the careers and lives after their attempt at a second hit flopped), and Did They Deserve Better? (explaining whether the band/artist deserves to be a one hit wonder or if they deserved a more successful career).
==== Trainwreckords====
This series is about albums from artists that killed or stalled their careers. It is different than the two other series in that they don't have a piano cover at the beginning, instead doing it at the end credits. Also, they would sometimes be more serious in tone than the other series. 
===Other Series ===
==== Top Tens====
At the end of every year, Todd does his top ten best hit songs of the year and his top ten worst hit songs of the year. Plus, he'll occasionally do top ten best hit songs and top ten worst hit songs of a randomly selected year of music history.
=====Best Hit Song of the Year=====
Year	Artist 	Song
2009	Lady Gaga 	"Just Dance" (ft. Colby O'Donis)
2010	Lady Antebellum 	"Need You Now"
2011	CeeLo Green 	"Fuck You!"
2012	Drake 	"Take Care" (ft. Rihanna)
2013	Daft Punk 	"Get Lucky" (ft. Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers)
2014	Mark Ronson 	"Uptown Funk" (ft. Bruno Mars)
2015	Taylor Swift 	"Style"
2016	The Chainsmokers 	"Closer" (ft. Halsey)
2017	Lorde 	"Green Light"
2018	Ariana Grande 	"Breathin"
2019	Billie Eilish 	"Bad Guy"
2020	Morgan Wallen 	"More Than My Hometown"
2021	THE ANXIETY, Willow, Tyler Cole	"Meet Me At Our Spot"
2022	Taylor Swift 	"Anti-Hero"
2023	Olivia Rodrigo 	"Bad Idea, Right?"
=====Worst Hit Song of the Year=====
Year 	Artist 	Song
1976 	Starland Vocal Band 	"Afternoon Delight"
1987 	Kenny G 	"Songbird"
1991 	Bryan Adams 	"(Everything I Do) I Do It for You"
2004 	Eminem 	"Just Lose It"
2009 	Beyoncé 	"Diva"
2010 (songs not covered)	Ke$ha 	"Take It Off"
2010 (songs covered) 	Chris Brown 	"Deuces" (ft. Tyga & Kevin McCall)
2011 	Hot Chelle Rae 	"Tonight Tonight"
2012 	Rihanna 	"Birthday Cake (Remix)" (ft. Chris Brown)
2013 	Katy Perry 	"Roar"
2014 	Jason Derulo 	"Wiggle" (ft. Snoop Dogg)
2015 	Charlie Puth 	"Marvin Gaye" (ft. Meghan Trainor)
2016 	Lukas Graham 	"7 Years"
2017 	Taylor Swift 	"...Ready for It?"
2018 	Maroon 5 	"Girls Like You" (ft. Cardi B version)
2019 	Lil Dicky 	"Earth"
2020 	Justin Bieber 	"Yummy"
2021 	Aaron Lewis 	"Am I the Only One?"
2022 	David Guetta, Bebe Rexha	"I'm Good (Blue)"
2023 	Morgan Wallen 	"Last Night"
====Cinemadonna====
This was Todd's primary side series, which has been discontinued as of October 2016. This is where he would go into the filmography of popular singer & songwriter Madonna, and review her movies, and is the only movie review segment on Todd's channel. They were always negative reviews, as he felt that Madonna was a terrible actress, director, and film writer. The series was discontinued after he completely finished her filmography, but said that if she ever makes another movie again (which he sees as highly unlikely) then he would briefly revive the series again.
==Gallery==
Todd in the Shadows1.png
==References==
Category:Music YouTubers
Category:Review YouTubers
Category:Vlogging YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2006