YouTube’s Greatest Hits

YouTube’s Greatest Hits

Read/Write Web yesterday examined YouTube’s most popular videos. The results were somewhat surprising.

Number one - my only favorite that turned up on the list - is "The Evolution of Dance."


The rest of this list? Professional musicians, music videos, and Shakira.

The promise of the Internet is the free sharing of information, and like all new media, it was immediately co-opted by the predictable interests: news, comedy, romance, opinion, porn. YouTube began as a human experiment: what do we, as a race, want to watch? The people have spoken: we want dancing comedians and girls with hips that don’t lie.

The corporate influence is also notable here. Apparently, we enjoy watching professionals more than the Numa video or the Charlie short. Give me a magical liopleurodon over My Chemical Romance (#3 and #7 on the list) any day.

Finally, I’m saddened (but not surprised) at what this list lacks: reality. Where are the videos on the great issues of our time? Where is Darfur? Where is anything serious, for that matter?

The internet holds great power for changing lives, but it won’t happen through ever louder and more colorful music videos. It begins with opening minds. In that spirit, let me share my favorite YouTube video. Warning: it won’t make you laugh.

This entry was written by Swad and posted on August 22, 2007 at 6:19 am and filed under Link. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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2 Comments

  1. BethL

    What is the *name* of your favorite video? I’m having trouble finding it on YouTube since I don’t know what it’s called.

    Posted August 22, 2007 at 7:20 am | Permalink
  2. Swad

    Hey Beth.

    The video is called “Global Night Commute: I Got Soul” produced by Invisible Children (the advocacy group… not a bunch of transparent toddlers).

    The video is here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI_suOg7Awc

    Their website is here:
    http://www.invisiblechildren.com

    Posted August 22, 2007 at 8:06 am | Permalink

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