Turn Down For 2014
December 10, 2014 4:56 AM Subscribe
We're three weeks away from the end of 2014, but YouTube have put together their Rewind video for the year already: YouTube Rewind: Turn Down For 2014.
The credits say that it includes 120+ YouTube people, and it was filmed over four different continents. As with last year's (YouTube Rewind: What Does The Fox Say?) it's an absolute mass of references to YouTube and wider culture over the last 12 months.
Some quick ones that jumped out for me were Colin Furze, the Spiderdog, How It Should Have Ended, Action Movie Kid and Kid President, the Ice Bucket Challenge, the first kiss video, as well as more famous names like John Oliver, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.
The music's a mash up by DJ Earworm, which will of course completely lodge in your head. That's got Lil Jon, Iggy Azalea, Pharrell Williams, Meghan Trainor, and the mandatory Frozen Let It Go.
Both paragraphs above are all Metafilter links, so you may well end up on the blue equivalent of a Wikipedia spiral. Apologies if you planned to do anything else with your day.
There's a behind the scenes here, and if you click in the link overlays in the video there's 19 easter eggs.
The credits say that it includes 120+ YouTube people, and it was filmed over four different continents. As with last year's (YouTube Rewind: What Does The Fox Say?) it's an absolute mass of references to YouTube and wider culture over the last 12 months.
Some quick ones that jumped out for me were Colin Furze, the Spiderdog, How It Should Have Ended, Action Movie Kid and Kid President, the Ice Bucket Challenge, the first kiss video, as well as more famous names like John Oliver, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.
The music's a mash up by DJ Earworm, which will of course completely lodge in your head. That's got Lil Jon, Iggy Azalea, Pharrell Williams, Meghan Trainor, and the mandatory Frozen Let It Go.
Both paragraphs above are all Metafilter links, so you may well end up on the blue equivalent of a Wikipedia spiral. Apologies if you planned to do anything else with your day.
There's a behind the scenes here, and if you click in the link overlays in the video there's 19 easter eggs.
Watching this made me realize that (a) there are people who spend a lot of time watching Youtube videos
People (mostly older people) don't realize quite how enormous a deal YouTube is to almost an entire generation at this point. It's basically taken the place that TV had for a generation or two before, and radio before that. There are kids for whom YT is their primary form of media consumption, full stop. Seeing it as "people who spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos" is the wrong way to look at it; or rather it misses something vital there.
An example: my cousin is 12. Last week her mom took her to see a YouTube lifestyle video star make a live appearance at a starbucks. She went early in the morning to get a spot in line, and my aunt posted photos to facebook of people - preteen girls with parents, mostly - who had camped out overnight to be there early, Apple Store style. This, my friend, is a bonified cultural phenomenon.
posted by Itaxpica at 6:29 AM on December 10, 2014 [9 favorites]
People (mostly older people) don't realize quite how enormous a deal YouTube is to almost an entire generation at this point. It's basically taken the place that TV had for a generation or two before, and radio before that. There are kids for whom YT is their primary form of media consumption, full stop. Seeing it as "people who spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos" is the wrong way to look at it; or rather it misses something vital there.
An example: my cousin is 12. Last week her mom took her to see a YouTube lifestyle video star make a live appearance at a starbucks. She went early in the morning to get a spot in line, and my aunt posted photos to facebook of people - preteen girls with parents, mostly - who had camped out overnight to be there early, Apple Store style. This, my friend, is a bonified cultural phenomenon.
posted by Itaxpica at 6:29 AM on December 10, 2014 [9 favorites]
This profile of Susan Wojcicki, Google's old head of ads and current head of YouTube, touches a little on YouTube's massive success with younger audiences and the difficulties that Google has had turning that in to ad revenue when so many ad agencies and brands still see YouTube as being just that site where people watch cat videos.
posted by Itaxpica at 6:36 AM on December 10, 2014
posted by Itaxpica at 6:36 AM on December 10, 2014
The official YouTube blog post on Rewind has a list of the most-watched videos of the year, most of which are referenced in the video but it's not frame-by-frame or anything, and as far as I can tell its not totally comprehensive (since a lot of the people in the video, or at least the ones I recognized, are YouTube folks with popular series, instead of just a single super-popular video).
posted by Itaxpica at 7:13 AM on December 10, 2014
posted by Itaxpica at 7:13 AM on December 10, 2014
Not enough cooks.
posted by cmfletcher at 7:21 AM on December 10, 2014 [12 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 7:21 AM on December 10, 2014 [12 favorites]
(Forgive the triple post, there was some stuff in between that got deleted)
posted by Itaxpica at 7:22 AM on December 10, 2014
posted by Itaxpica at 7:22 AM on December 10, 2014
Mod note: A few comments removed; gentle reminders to (a) maybe skip correcting people's spelling for less than vital reasons and (b) definitely not use the edit window to modify comments based on later exchanges. Contact the mods if you regret something in thread that other folks have read or reacted to already.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:28 AM on December 10, 2014
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:28 AM on December 10, 2014
Also spotted Pentatonix in the "Let it Go" part.
All the people running with the flag through what looked like a Super Mario Brothers game, is that a reference to those videos of people playing video games that I heard about on NPR (only half-joking, I am such an Old)?
posted by lunasol at 7:46 AM on December 10, 2014
All the people running with the flag through what looked like a Super Mario Brothers game, is that a reference to those videos of people playing video games that I heard about on NPR (only half-joking, I am such an Old)?
posted by lunasol at 7:46 AM on December 10, 2014
I made it to 0:45. Anyone beat that?
posted by Uncle Grumpy at 7:53 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Uncle Grumpy at 7:53 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
Yeah, that was interesting to me in that it so starkly revealed a generation divide; I felt like I was standing outside a display at an aquarium or something. I recognised all the songs and about half the memes, but literally had no idea anyone in that video was anything other than a generic pleasent looking 20 something who worked for YouTube until the credits rolled. Once they did I recognised some of the names --- I have enjoyed my drunk kitchen, but I'm just nowhere near into it enough to recognise Hannah Hart sprinting through a set for 2 seconds.
I want to be clear, I'm not saying my ignorance renders the video somehow insignificant, I legit find the vast gap there fascinating.
posted by Diablevert at 7:56 AM on December 10, 2014 [4 favorites]
I want to be clear, I'm not saying my ignorance renders the video somehow insignificant, I legit find the vast gap there fascinating.
posted by Diablevert at 7:56 AM on December 10, 2014 [4 favorites]
This video has officially made me realize that I am old and out of touch. At 27.
posted by galvanized unicorn at 9:02 AM on December 10, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by galvanized unicorn at 9:02 AM on December 10, 2014 [6 favorites]
One of my life goals is to make a YT series or video that's memorable enough to be part of a YT Rewind vid.
posted by divabat at 9:07 AM on December 10, 2014
posted by divabat at 9:07 AM on December 10, 2014
galvanized unicorn: This video has officially made me realize that I am old and out of touch. At 27.
As a 42-y.o., I have to say, Whew! That makes me feel a lot better!
posted by wenestvedt at 9:31 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
As a 42-y.o., I have to say, Whew! That makes me feel a lot better!
posted by wenestvedt at 9:31 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
My kids do not watch tV, they watch youtube.
They watch youtube for entertainment, gaming knowledge and education. They are a generation who has no need of TV. They don't have five channels, or 500 channels. They have 5 billion channels. They don't ask if they can watch TV while eating dinner, they ask if they can watch youtube.
This is probably the first generation since TV was invented where mass media marketing is losing its way. How can you target kids who have no loyalty to brands or TV channels, no interest in manipulated music charts?
And for those who think that Youtube is rotting our kids brains... there are some amazing upsides too. If I want to educate my kids about a topic, I will often find something off youtube to show them. Where else can you find beautifully explained, 2-5 minute videos on any topic you could ever imagine. For my older son especially, who has specific learning difficulties, youtube has been a gift.
We have explored details maths problems, physics, dance videos, musical instrument videos as well as strange tangents like glass blowing amongst other things. Their interest and absorption rate is much higher than trying to get them to learn a topic using more traditional methods.
And as always, the key is following up with discussions after any video. (After working at a museum for 27 years and observing numerous "on the floor" studies that showed that the best learning was done when children could explore and play but with their parents were beside them to help explain and discuss the topics that they were engaged in).
Here are a few channels that have been enormously helpful/entertaining: Smarter every day, minutephysics , MiniteEarth and Physics girl.
posted by greenhornet at 9:34 AM on December 10, 2014 [5 favorites]
They watch youtube for entertainment, gaming knowledge and education. They are a generation who has no need of TV. They don't have five channels, or 500 channels. They have 5 billion channels. They don't ask if they can watch TV while eating dinner, they ask if they can watch youtube.
This is probably the first generation since TV was invented where mass media marketing is losing its way. How can you target kids who have no loyalty to brands or TV channels, no interest in manipulated music charts?
And for those who think that Youtube is rotting our kids brains... there are some amazing upsides too. If I want to educate my kids about a topic, I will often find something off youtube to show them. Where else can you find beautifully explained, 2-5 minute videos on any topic you could ever imagine. For my older son especially, who has specific learning difficulties, youtube has been a gift.
We have explored details maths problems, physics, dance videos, musical instrument videos as well as strange tangents like glass blowing amongst other things. Their interest and absorption rate is much higher than trying to get them to learn a topic using more traditional methods.
And as always, the key is following up with discussions after any video. (After working at a museum for 27 years and observing numerous "on the floor" studies that showed that the best learning was done when children could explore and play but with their parents were beside them to help explain and discuss the topics that they were engaged in).
Here are a few channels that have been enormously helpful/entertaining: Smarter every day, minutephysics , MiniteEarth and Physics girl.
posted by greenhornet at 9:34 AM on December 10, 2014 [5 favorites]
This video has officially made me realize that I am old and out of touch. At 27.
For what it's worth I'm 24, I work for Google (in display/video ads, even) and I still didn't recognize the overwhelming majority of the non-music-video related stuff here.
posted by Itaxpica at 11:18 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
For what it's worth I'm 24, I work for Google (in display/video ads, even) and I still didn't recognize the overwhelming majority of the non-music-video related stuff here.
posted by Itaxpica at 11:18 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
I am absolutely an old, but my two eldest kids spend at least half of their allowed screentime on youtube. I recognize a lot of this stuff from seeing it over the kids' shoulders. I'm even subscribed to some of these youtube channels myself since my nine-year-old shares my computer. On the other hand, I couldn't name most of them, and I've only watched a handful of their videos from beginning to end (when the kids have insisted in showing off some amazing or hilarious thing they just found. I don't usually share their amazement). This has an odd effect of making me feel thoroughly both in and out of touch at the same time.
My kids are gonna love this. I guarantee that when Rhett & Link (current favorites for both of them) show up dancing in gold lamé, they're both going to shriek the same way I did at that age when Duran Duran did a guest spot on tv.
posted by Dojie at 11:33 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
My kids are gonna love this. I guarantee that when Rhett & Link (current favorites for both of them) show up dancing in gold lamé, they're both going to shriek the same way I did at that age when Duran Duran did a guest spot on tv.
posted by Dojie at 11:33 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
My kids do not watch tV, they watch youtube.
So true. I don't think I've sat down and watched a TV show with my daughter since some time in spring of 2013, but once a week or so we have a good session of watching Pewdiepie or whatever together for a half hour.
[Totes caught half-second of Pewdiepie at 4:26! Brofist!]
posted by drlith at 3:14 PM on December 10, 2014
So true. I don't think I've sat down and watched a TV show with my daughter since some time in spring of 2013, but once a week or so we have a good session of watching Pewdiepie or whatever together for a half hour.
[Totes caught half-second of Pewdiepie at 4:26! Brofist!]
posted by drlith at 3:14 PM on December 10, 2014
VLOGBROTHERS! Someone had asked them earlier this year if they had ever been asked to participate in a YouTube rewind, and they said it was more a matter of scheduling.
This seems to be the most celebrity-studded YT Rewind so far. Though last year's was funnier, because GOATS.
posted by divabat at 3:20 PM on December 10, 2014
This seems to be the most celebrity-studded YT Rewind so far. Though last year's was funnier, because GOATS.
posted by divabat at 3:20 PM on December 10, 2014
I have you all beat: not only did I barely recognize anyone in the video, I didn't even realize what was up with all the buckets of water until thirty seconds in.
posted by chrominance at 3:48 PM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by chrominance at 3:48 PM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
Though another theory just came to me: maybe NO ONE recognizes more than maybe a third of the people in the video, but they all know a different third. Maybe it's not just that I'm too old to understand what's going on in the video, maybe it's that I'm too old to understand that the old mass-market model of culture I grew up with is well and truly dead, and that there is no cultural consensus even amongst teenagers and kids watching YouTube all day.
</beanplate>
posted by chrominance at 3:50 PM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
</beanplate>
posted by chrominance at 3:50 PM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
I have a smart TV. It isn't connected to cable or an antenna. I have deleted or hidden all but three apps: Netflix, Amazon Video, and Youtube.
Those three are my ABC, NBC, BBC, HBO, etc.
posted by zippy at 3:52 PM on December 10, 2014
Those three are my ABC, NBC, BBC, HBO, etc.
posted by zippy at 3:52 PM on December 10, 2014
Is there a canonical "here's what all the references are" list anywhere?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:54 PM on December 10, 2014
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:54 PM on December 10, 2014
This is SO Metafilter to say, but with a few moments exception the video was notable for how few people were neither white nor Asian.
posted by wotsac at 6:27 PM on December 10, 2014
posted by wotsac at 6:27 PM on December 10, 2014
[Totes caught half-second of Pewdiepie at 4:26! Brofist!]
He's, uh, he's also in the first entire chunk.
P.S. On the subject of little kids and YouTube culture (PewDiePie in particular): Last week's South Park.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:18 PM on December 10, 2014
He's, uh, he's also in the first entire chunk.
P.S. On the subject of little kids and YouTube culture (PewDiePie in particular): Last week's South Park.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:18 PM on December 10, 2014
maybe it's that I'm too old to understand that the old mass-market model of culture I grew up with is well and truly dead, and that there is no cultural consensus
Sounds like you just figured out what's going on here, which means that you're not too old yet :)
posted by effbot at 12:08 AM on December 11, 2014
Sounds like you just figured out what's going on here, which means that you're not too old yet :)
posted by effbot at 12:08 AM on December 11, 2014
My seven year old never plonks down in front of the TV to see what's on. He watches some shows with his mom, but that's mostly because she initiates it. He does however spend an inordinate amount of time watching youtube on his computer or iPad. What's cool is that he also spends time making youtube videos, which my generation really had no equivalent of.
posted by signal at 6:43 AM on December 29, 2014
posted by signal at 6:43 AM on December 29, 2014
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