Intercom camera videos are nothing new. They’ve been going viral online for years now, but they usually feature random events, from animals accidentally ringing doorbells to couriers throwing around fragile parcels, and various pranks. Because of their generally poor quality, intercom cameras aren’t usually a great choice for artistic performances, but that hasn’t stopped a group of Young Russians from using them to make a name for themselves online.
23rd Microdistrict is a musical group made up of tenth-graders from the 9th Lyceum high school in Orenburg, Russia. Since 2024, they’ve been going viral online with musical performances recorded on intercom cameras around the city. The system is simple: residents check their intercomm recordings and re-upload their live performances to social media, where they garner millions of views and thousands of comments.
According to BFM.ru, in 2004, lead singer Arsenyi came up with the idea of recording his performances using random intercom cameras around Orenburg. Because intercom camera footage usually features violent content, he decided to use it for something positive, like music. Last year, his bandmates started showing up in clips as well, and people started talking about 23rd Microdistrict.
Although the boys don’t yet have a record deal, they’ve had a few school concerts in Orenburg and some of their performances have over 10 million views on platforms like TikTok. They have no control over how clips perform because they get uploaded by the intercom camera owners.
Shot with a rudimentary fisheye lens, intercom camera videos are usually black and white and blurry, but according to some social media experts, this only adds to the charm of 23rd Microdistrict.
“We’re just so oversaturated with content now that singing well isn’t enough, so we need to come up with something unusual.” Denis Terekhov, the head of a social media marketing agency, said. “It’s not about the intercom per se, but rather that they’ve found an unusual way to produce content: the classic options are no longer interesting.”
