Published September 5, 2026
Lindsey Stirling is a YouTube violinist and dancer who broke through between 2011 and 2013 by playing electric violin over dubstep, hip hop, and video game soundtracks while performing choreographed dance routines. Her ice-castle dubstep video 'Crystallize' pulled tens of millions of views within months, and her covers of Skyrim and Zelda themes drew a devoted fan base before she signed with Lady Gaga's then-manager Troy Carter in 2013.
Overview
Her act pairs a violin bow with hip hop-inspired dance moves, shuffle steps, and full costume production, usually filmed in dramatic outdoor locations. The videos lean cinematic, with lighting design and storyboarded shots that treat each release like a short film rather than a straight music clip[3]. Genre mashing is the point, classical training grafted onto dubstep drops or Skyrim melodies played straight over dance production[2].
The recurring visual grammar is what makes her work recognizable: Stirling in costume playing violin while dancing through an ice cave, a forest, or a fantasy set, usually shot by YouTube filmmaker Devin Graham[2]. That formula of nerd-friendly source material plus theatrical staging plus choreography-while-playing gave her a distinct place among early YouTube musicians[1]. Instead of chasing radio singles she built a catalog of stand-alone visuals, each one designed to travel through fandom communities on its own[3].
Gallery
Origin & Background
Stirling started her YouTube channel on May 20th, 2007, under the handle Lindseystomp, taking the name from her first band Stomp On Melvin[5]. Her earliest upload was a live performance of an original composition titled 'Violin Rock'[6]. She grew up in California and Arizona and told an interviewer she started begging her parents for violin lessons at age five, eventually landing a teacher who agreed to a 15-minute lesson every other week[4].
Before YouTube took off she appeared on America's Got Talent with a hip hop violin act she pitched after joining a high school rock band and losing her bandmates to LDS missions[4]. She originally sent a demo tape to The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and a producer suggested she try a hip hop angle to get on the air, which pushed her to write her first hip hop-scored routine[4]. The televised AGT exposure did not immediately translate to a full-time career, so she kept uploading videos on her own channel while studying therapeutic recreation at Brigham Young University[4].
How It Spread
In August 2011 she uploaded a violin cover of LMFAO's 'Party Rock Anthem' that used shuffle dance moves between bow strokes; that video passed 13 million views by May 2013[5]. Early blog coverage from geek-culture outlets like Neeks and Gerds picked her up that same month as a 'super geek' violinist worth watching[8]. The bigger breakout was 'Crystallize', uploaded on February 23rd, 2012, a dubstep original filmed inside an illuminated ice castle in Silverthorne, Colorado[2].
'Crystallize' passed 11 million views inside two months and hit close to 58 million by May 2013, by which point her main channel counted more than 2.2 million subscribers and roughly 301 million total views[5]. Her Skyrim theme collaboration with singer Peter Hollens and her New Zealand-shot Lord of the Rings medley pulled the fantasy and video game crowd into her audience[3]. Her tracks also lived on Last.fm, where scrobble counts climbed into the millions as the video views compounded[7].
The music industry noticed the numbers. In February 2013 Ty Stiklorius at Atom Factory flagged Stirling's channel to her boss Troy Carter, Lady Gaga's then-manager, who flew to a sold-out 1,200-seat show in Orlando to see her live[1]. By April 2013 Stirling had signed a management deal with Atom Factory, and her self-released, self-titled debut had moved 108,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan[1]. She kept a second channel, LindseyTime, for tour vlogs and meet-and-greet clips to feed the fanbase between music releases[1].
Cultural Impact
Coverage from mainstream outlets tracked the YouTube-native career model in real time. The Huffington Post wrote up 'Crystallize' shortly after release, framing her act as a leap from hip hop violin into dubstep with the ice-castle production as the visual centerpiece[2]. The Mary Sue covered her Skyrim collaboration with Peter Hollens as a nerd-culture crossover moment, quipping that she would 'sword fight you with her bow and win'[3]. Billboard's April 2013 profile pointed to her as a proof case that YouTube artists could sell tour tickets and albums without radio support, citing the sold-out 1,200-seat Orlando date and the 108,000 total copies sold since release that got Troy Carter on a plane[1].
Fun Facts
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She studied therapeutic recreation at Brigham Young University when 'Crystallize' went viral[4].
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The ice architecture in the 'Crystallize' video was built by California artist Brent Christensen and shot by Devin Graham in Silverthorne, Colorado[2].
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The song title 'Crystallize' references claims that human thought and speech alter the molecular structure of water[2].
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Stirling started begging her parents for violin lessons at age five and initially took 15-minute lessons every other week[4].
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Her self-titled 2012 debut album moved 108,000 copies before her Atom Factory deal was announced in April 2013[1].
Frequently Asked Questions
She is an American violinist and dancer known for YouTube videos that combine choreographed movement with covers of dubstep, hip hop, and video game music[1].
She launched her YouTube channel Lindseystomp on May 20th, 2007, and broke through nationally after her 2012 dubstep video 'Crystallize' hit tens of millions of views[2].
The name refers to the American violinist Lindsey Stirling, who built her audience on YouTube before signing a management deal with Lady Gaga's then-manager in 2013[1].
Her videos work as a format others copied: pick an unexpected genre or video game soundtrack, film in a striking location, and play violin while performing choreographed dance moves[3].
By 2013 she had over 2 million YouTube subscribers and signed a management deal with Lady Gaga's then-manager Troy Carter, and her music library kept climbing on YouTube and Last.fm after that[1].
