It’s that time of year again, with the sounds of sleigh-bells initiating the hub-bub of annual traditions. Christmas is a time where everybody joins together to get excited about putting the tree up, getting piss drunk on Boxing day and scoffing at YouTube’s annual ‘Rewind’, and make no mistake – this year’s edition had us cringing with rabid intensity.
YouTube Rewind 2018 marks the eighth feature in the annual series, however as the years have gone by it’s devolved from being a celebration of the video streaming site’s noteworthy events and top content creators to a shameless and embarrassing fiasco that ignores any events of magnitude to focus on soulless channels and vapid trends. The YouTube community have expressed their hatred in a similar manner to last years vid, as it stands ‘YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind’ has 910,000 likes to a jaw-dropping 1.9 million dislikes. Uh-oh!
This year was a busy one for YouTube, from Shane Dawson’s meteoric comeback, the numerous controversies featuring the Paul Brothers, the multi-million-dollar boxing matches between some of the top YT stars, the TanaCon travesty as well as war between top-dog PewDiePie and the rapid growth of Indian media distributor – T-Series. And how does YouTube acknowledge the internet’s biggest stories…it doesn’t! Not even a kernel!
Instead, we the viewer are subjected to eight minutes worth of bland, advertiser-friendly creators (the majority of whom are vloggers, former-viners and from beauty channels) jump from skit-to-skit, flickering from heartfelt yet ham-fisted attempts at shoving a political message down the viewer’s throat to Fortnite dancing. Other points of contention include that of YouTube’s insulting general preference towards established celebrity figures (like Will Smith, Jon Oliver and Trevor Noah) whilst most of the biggest names (namely PewDiePie, Shane Dawson, iDubbbzTV and Phillip DeFranco) were left unsurprisingly absent. In addition, despite the flashy and expensive visuals, we are left with YouTube’s mortifying attempts at seeming “hip” and “cool” by flushing the vid filled with just god-awful trends and attempts at comedy. I could detail a list of these muppets flossing, dabbing and demonstrating Drake’s ‘In my feelings’ challenge, but why not view it for yourselves.
Without a doubt, it can be said that since the start of the YouTube Rewind Series, many users have noticed how the company has rapidly been edging its way away from its core userbase to concentrate on pandering to advertisers and family friendly content. YouTube is obviously doing its very best to steer clear of controversy, even faces from last years vid like the Pauls and KSI have been left absent after a tricky year, despite jointly raking in tens of millions of subscribers. YouTube’s attempts to sweep any and all controversy under the rug in order to win back advertisers just shows how overtly serpentine they are towards actual content creators, it’s a real shame.
Nevertheless, despite their obvious lack of interest in anyone that isn’t a pre-established celebrity or Twitch streamer (in the case of Ninja), YouTubers have continued their own annual traditions – ruthlessly lampooning the video through memes.