Many channels have made popular videos about “scary” things like abandoned asylums or amusement parks. But there is a different trend which reveals the mundane decay of the suburbs.

The [urban exploration] community lives by the ethos “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.” Urbexers on YouTube document their adventures with cameras, cellphones, and drones. The most popular videos in this genre tend to delve into the locations of dreams and nightmares, like abandoned asylums and amusement parks. But in America, there is a specific subsection of videos that reveal the mundane decay of the suburbs.

The ruins of Ancient Rome are aqueducts and coliseums; America’s are malls and superstores. YouTuber Dan Bell produces the “Dead Mall Series,” which is devoted to the subject. Bell’s videos offer both historical and personal context, and are rich with nostalgia. He edits classic commercials into his journeys, and seems drawn to relics of American kitsch. In “THE END OF KMART: From Open to Closed to Abandoned,” he makes three visits to a Kmart that’s going out of business, observing as the stacks become increasingly disorganized. He sprinkles in reminiscences about going to Kmart with his grandfather and eating at the store’s greasy spoon restaurant. “Those are some really good memories. That is why I’m kinda sad about Kmart going under,” he says. 

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