If Hollywood and television networks can hold elaborate award shows, so can our very own YouTube! On Sunday, November 3, the media giant held its first ever YouTube Music Awards (YTMA) at Pier 36, New York City.
The event was weird, special and unique in its own way. There was everything, right from crying babies to crooning musicians, and none of them failed to tantalize. Completely unscripted, the bizarre event started off at 6.pm in New York City and unlike other award shows, was streamed live on YouTube (Of course!)
Sometime back in September, YouTube announced that it will be holding an awards show in November and urged fans to vote for their favourite videos. The director, Spike Jonze had admitted to Billboard.com, "None of us have done anything live before or an awards show -- in a way we're all like amateurs on YouTube ourselves, making our first video. So even if it's messy, it'll be live."
The Good
Winners were chosen solely on the number of shares, likes, comments and subscriptions. There was no jury or panel involved. On Monday, October 21, YouTube announced the nominees in six categories: 'Video of the Year', 'Artist of the year', 'Response of the Year', 'YouTube Phenomenon', 'YouTube Breakthrough' and 'Innovation of the Year'.
On the D-Day, the venue was star studded. Performances from Lady Gaga, Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler the Creator wowed the 750 fans that attended the show. The winners took away the famous "YouTube Play Button" award home.
The Bad
The list of winners was announced amid brief, awkward pauses and short technical glitches. However, not everybody was pleased with the results. While some thought that the nominations were unfair, others expressed their disappointment at the result.
Win Butler was visibly dissatisfied with Taylor Swift winning the 'YouTube Phenomenon' award.
"Not Taylor Swift. I'm gonna let you finish. Not Taylor Swift. The YouTube phenomenon of the year was definitely the 'Harlem Shake.' I don't know. No disrespect, but everybody knows that if you've ever been on YouTube, so whatever," Butler said, reports The Associated Press.
"While the modest approach indicates that they are rolling out an event that should be taken seriously, critics have argued that YouTube failed to capitalize on the wide variety of content that lives on the site, despite the fact that Epic Rap Battles Of History is honored more than once," Billboard.com writes.
People expressed their dismay on twitter too.
i honestly feel bad for youtube because this is an embarrassment #ytma
— laura (@urbanjdb) November 3, 2013
im not watching this mess. i just hope people realize youtube is a lot better than this. #ytma — Ariadne (@AriadneRentz) November 3, 2013
Well! At least the show was annoyingly incredible!
Okay, so, this is the sloppiest, worst award show ever. It's incredible. #YTMA
— Alex Goldschmidt (@alexandergold) November 3, 2013
Read the winner list below: (Courtesy - MTV)
Response of the Year: Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix, "Radioactive"
Breakthrough of the Year: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Innovation of the Year: DeStorm, "See Me Standing"
YouTube Phenomenon: "I Knew You Were Trouble"
Video of the Year: Girls' Generation "I Got A Boy"
Artist of the Year: Eminem
