On Dec. 21, 2012, the world watched in awe as a YouTube video surpassed a billion views for the first time in video history. Psy's "Gangnam Style" reached this milestone by having an appeal to people all over the earth, and has maintained an incline since, even in 2017, boasting over 2.7 billion views as of February and maintaining its first place spot as the most viewed YouTube video of all time.
This was seen as an incredible achievement in its time, and it still is, since only five years have passed since "Gangnam Style" reached this milestone. However, nearly every single other YouTube video that reached the same milestone over the next few years had one thing in common with "Gangnam Style;" 44 of 47 of these videos are all music videos.
With Wiz Khalifa, Justin Bieber, Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift all respectively trailing Psy’s K-pop music video, music videos are essentially what makes up the “mainstream” of YouTube. People who are not generally active on the site will watch these music videos (or listen to them) without paying much attention to what we consider “popular YouTubers” and the “YouTube community.”
Strangely enough, just three of the videos with over a billion views are not quite music videos. Two of them are collections of children’s songs and nursery rhymes, and one is a single episode of an animated Russian children’s television show entitled Masha and the Bear. The reasoning for this is most likely that these are all family-friendly videos that parents can play for their children when they don’t have anything else or that teachers can show in class in the younger grades of elementary school.
Scanning the entirety of the list of the top 70 viewed YouTube videos of all time, however, and you won't find a single video by a YouTuber. In fact, the rest of the list is still all music videos; save one more nursery rhyme collection. What gives?
Well, YouTubers generally aim for steady content that keeps viewers coming back. Not only that, but they appeal to a much more distinct and focused audience than the nursery rhyme collections or most music videos (especially pop, which makes up a majority of the list).
None of this, of course, is bad. The fact that music videos have so many more views than regular “YouTuber” videos is meaningless. YouTubers are still very able to make a living off of being successful, and their regular view counts are nothing to scoff at. Music has always been something people can find common ground in and enjoy together, and just about everyone likes it in some form; it only makes sense that the most viewed videos of all time would be the video accompaniment of a popular song, especially if the video is emotionally appealing and entertaining.
Perhaps something will change that. Perhaps someone on YouTube will go so viral and become so mainstream that they will produce billion-view videos. Or, perhaps, we will just have to wait for either a greater population of people or a further spread of technology for enough people to even be able and have the desire to watch YouTubers on a regular basis and get their videos to over a billion views. If, of course, YouTube even lasts long enough for that to happen.
Marco Omta is a sophomore studying music production. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What YouTuber could hit a billion views first? Email Marco at mo183714@ohio.edu.
