Diposting oleh
Greatest on Kamis, 01 September 2011
Did you know Taylor Swift wanted to be a stockbroker when she was growing up? Or that she can be found reading John Adams' biography or tuning in to CSI marathons when she's not performing?
Earlier today, Taylor Swift answered questions from fans around the world during her YouTube Presents interview. Questions were submitted through Taylor Swift’s channel and the most popular were asked in today’s Q&A, including whether she sings her own songs in the shower, what beauty means in her eyes, and the funniest thing a fan has done to get her attention (it involves a chicken suit).
The four-time Grammy Award winner sat down with us and gave a candid look inside her life as one of the youngest and most successful pop stars in the world.
Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Lion Cubs hugs."
Diposting oleh
Greatest on Selasa, 30 Agustus 2011
Summer’s drawing to a close, but there’s still time to discover a new summer anthem. Perhaps it’s a tune from Cults, the indie-popsters Noisey profiled last week on youtube.com/music. Or perhaps you’ll find your summer song in one of this week’s featured playlists.
Every month, we feature a handful of newly-signed music partners on YouTube’s homepage. This month, the pickings were so rich we couldn’t narrow it down to just four, so we chose six artists to feature, and they’re an inspiring group that spans the gamut, from a sixteen-year-old emcee from New Jersey who’s sworn off cursing to J Dilla protege and former Slum Village member Elzhi. Add a few jazzy singer-songwriters into the mix and there’s something for everyone.
The annual art festival takes place in Nevada Black Rock Desert this week. And while the event’s official focus is art -- kinetic, sculptural and frequently fire-breathing -- it’s also a premier gathering spot for fans of electronic music. Soundsystems on the “playa” vie with each other, putting on all-night raves that host cutting-edge deejays as well as some of the business’ biggest names. We’ve assembled a playlist of some sounds you might hear if you were there.
Dubstep’s errant child and indie’s golden son have teamed up for an EP that releases later this year. They’ve dropped the first song from it on YouTube, and it’s a mysterious and spacious experiment in sound...just as we expected.
From "Tim McGraw" to "Sparks Fly," Taylor Swift has won over fans worldwide with her vocal talent and songwriting skills. In addition to a tremendous fan following, Swift has racked up four Grammys, six CMT Music Awards, thirteen Teen Choice Awards and even the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year award, joning the likes of Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and The Dixie Chicks. And now she takes your questions on YouTube!
Ever wonder what it’s like to become a major pop star before you’re out of high school -- on the strength of your own songs? Whether you’re cheer captain or on the bleachers, Taylor wants to hear from you and she’s agreed to be fearless in answering!
Starting today, submit written or video queries on Taylor Swift’s channel, and she’ll answer the most popular ones as part of our YouTube Presents program. You have until noon on August 31 to submit your questions and vote on the ones you’d most like to see her answer.
YouTube Presents is an ongoing program dedicated to bringing you live performances and interviews with your favorite artists. Upcoming YouTube Presents events will include artist interviews (with questions provided by the YouTube community), intimate performances at the YouTube offices, and live streams of music festivals.
Stay tuned for more YouTube Presents sessions this fall -- and watch the homepage to see Taylor’s Q&A, which we’ll post as soon as it’s uploaded. Anna Richardson, Communications Manager, recently watched "Our Song."
Diposting oleh
Greatest on Selasa, 23 Agustus 2011
Whew. Did you catch all that? We’re still trying to recover from five intense days of music mania. That’s right, we relaunched youtube.com/music last Thursday, and throughout the weekend you saw our logo redesigned and a bundle of playlists from folks you might have heard of: Lady Gaga. David Guetta. The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Eminem and Royce Da 5’9. And we had folks like SPIN Magazine, XLR8R and The Needle Drop clueing us in about what music we don’t know about, but should.
In the coming weeks, keep returning to youtube.com/music to discover more new videos, live performances and eye-opening playlists. Not only will our first batch of curators be returning with new features to share, we’ll be adding even more regular features from influential blogs, magazines, video bloggers and others. Keep coming back; we promise you’ll dig it.
After featuring a bevy of celebrities over the past week, it’s fitting to come back to a celebrity YouTube helped foster. When Zee Avi posted her first video on YouTube, she had no idea it would make her a star; she just wanted to share a performance with a friend. One album and oodles of views later, she’s back with her second album, ghostbird. Today she shares an extremely lovely acoustic performance of several songs from the new album with us (we’re tripping over the first song, “Anchor,” which she filmed on a rooftop). She also shares some videos that put her in a state of self-described enchantment.
The song is off their most recent album; the video was inspired by a scene in David Foster Wallace’s door-stop of a novel Infinite Jest. It feels to us like a metaphor for bad international decision-making, set on a tennis court with kids playing world leaders. What do you think?
How do you keep albums private in the digital age? How do you build excitement and mystery in an age devoted to breaking it down? Tom Waits, as always, shows us how.
YouTube has videos across the entire spectrum of music, from current pop hits to classic tracks to obscure but wonderful sounds. But how do you find that next piece of musical gold? To help with this task we’re re-launching our YouTube Music page with a host of new features to help guide you on your audio-visual quest, and several guest curators to help out as well.
recommended videos and artists based on the music videos you’re watching
local concert listings in your area paired with artist videos
the YouTube Top 100 - your invaluable source to the most popular music based on what the community is viewing
To help you get more into music on YouTube we’ve also partnered with music experts and tastemakers to provide you with daily playlists and picks. In the coming weeks you’ll be able to check out curations from SPIN, Vice, XLR8R and more. Some of YouTube’s music vloggers will also find a new home on the page, like the “Internet’s busiest music nerd,” Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop.
Finally, you may have noticed the electric guitar adorning the YouTube logo today. It’s there today to celebrate the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Guide to Rock, who have the first hand-picked playlist on the new music page. Over the next five days some of your favorite music stars will be sharing a personal guide to their genre, including David Guetta’s Guide to Electronica on Friday, Lady Gaga’s Guide to Pop on Saturday and Eminem & Royce Da 5’9”’s Guide to Hiphop on Monday. Look out for a new music-based YouTube logo each day, and clicking on it will bring you straight to the music page.
YouTube has become a thriving music ecosystem and a place for established and emerging singers and songwriters to find an audience. Today, we’re happy to announce an agreement with two leading U.S representatives of music publishers -- the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and its subsidiary Harry Fox Agency (HFA) -- that will help more music publishers, and the songwriters they represent, make more money from use of their compositions in YouTube videos uploaded by fans.
We already have deals in place with a number of music publishers in the U.S. and around the world, and today’s deal offers more choice for rights holders in how they manage use of their songs. Going forward, the 46,000 music publishers already affiliated with HFA will be able to license the musical compositions they represent for use by the YouTube community. When these publishers allow YouTube to run ads alongside user generated videos that incorporate their compositions, the publishers, and the songwriters they represent, can make money. We’ll also be working with HFA to invite other publishers to sign up, even if they’re not affiliated with HFA.
Our Content ID system allows us to identify the works of these songwriters whether the compositions appear in an original sound recording or in a cover version, using information provided to us by the publishers. This means that more songwriters will be able to share in more of the revenue that the YouTube community’s creativity yields. It’s simple for publishers to opt in to this licensing opportunity, and advances in our technology help publishers to find even more performances of their songs, providing the opportunity for more revenue. Content ID is used today by 2000+ partners including every major US music publisher, record label, network broadcaster, and movie studio.
While this deal is only with the publishers, it will also benefit recording artists and record labels. It’s been YouTube’s policy to run ads alongside videos with commercial music only when the copyright holders for both the sound recording and the composition have authorized YouTube to do so. We’ve long had agreements with all four major record labels as well as dozens of independent labels, and now that we are broadening our coverage with more publishers, we’ll be able to create more revenue streams for all of them.
With today’s deal and advances in Content ID technology, we’re continuing our recognition of songwriters for their artistic contribution by supporting them with an additional revenue stream to help their future creative pursuits.
Diposting oleh
Greatest on Selasa, 16 Agustus 2011
We’ve been a little obsessed with the intersection between film and music on youtube.com/music this week -- we kicked off Monday with a playlist of music videos by the acclaimed director Spike Jonze, who just directed Kanye West and Jay-Z’s easy, playful video for “Otis” and is also known for his work on the big screen, most recently for Where The Wild Things Are. And then there’s Jeff Bridges...
Actors can convince us of a lot of things, but historically speaking, it’s pretty hard to make us believe they’re actually musicians. (Remember William Shatner’s “music” career?) But after his portrayal of a washed-up country singer in Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges got inspired to go back to a recording studio -- which he built on his own land -- and start writing songs again. With the expert support of producer T Bone Burnett, Bridges is proving himself to be more than an actor playing a part. His first single from his new album is catchy, smart and -- best of all -- convincing. Today we feature the man better known as “the dude” sharing a little bit about the music that has influenced and inspired him.
In the spirit of Jeff Bridges getting his songwriting on, we thought we’d look at the track record of other actors who tried their hand at the music biz. You might be surprised by how many there are: from Keanu Reeves and Ryan Gosling to Minnie Driver and Zooey Deschanel, a lot of thespians have tried to cross the divide -- with mixed results. Wondering who soars and who falls flat? Only one way to find out: watch!
Back in 2009, the L.A. band Fool’s Gold convinced reluctant indie rockers that they actually could enjoy music that wasn’t in English -- in part because the unholy mongrelism of the band's debut album was just too compelling to ignore. (Perhaps that was due to the incongruousness of a singer crooning in Hebrew over guitar licks that came straight of the Sahara.) The focus has changed on their follow-up Leave No Trace -- vocalist Luke Top sings primarily in English and the once-sprawling collective has become a tight five-piece. But if this charming video is any indication, change is a good thing.
The death of Amy Winehouse on Saturday has dominated music headlines. This week on youtube.com/music, we commemorate her talent and mourn her passing, while also turning our gaze to a famous rocker’s birthday and a video premiere.
RIP Amy Winehouse Amy Winehouse came into the music world as a singer-songwriter who had the phrasing of a world-class jazz singer and the swagger of a hip-hop star. She left it as a tragedy and cautionary tale. Winehouse was just 27 years old when she died—the same age as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. It’s both auspicious and grim company to keep, and Ms. Winehouse fulfilled both attributes, grabbing the world’s attention with her ferociously good music (which succeeded, in no small part, thanks to the contributions from her borrowed band The Dap-Kings) and then slowly squandering that attention with increasingly addled behavior that was fueled by her multiple addictions.
After the story fades, the music will remain. People may think of the bravado-laden “Rehab” as her signature song, but the flipside of Winehouse’s bravado was intense vulnerability, which you hear in spades on wonderful songs like “Love Is A Losing Game” or the deceptively upbeat “He Can Only Hold Her.” To pay homage to Winehouse, we shied away from her official music videos and looked for live performances that let you experience her towering talent more directly -- as well as her charm and humor.
Happy Birthday, Mick Rock’s most dynamic frontman turns 68 years old today. We salute the Jagger-meister with a playlist of videos capturing his onstage antics through the years.
Bjork “Crystalline” video premiere The Icelandic singer has made a career of subverting expectations and pushing boundaries, so it’s no surprise that her upcoming album Biophilia is in fact not an album but an app that’s due out in September. You can chew on that, or you can check out her mystical new video for “Crystalline,” which debuts with us today.
Introducing The Needle Drop This week we debut a new monthly series from Anthony Fantano, the DJ and music critic otherwise known by his channel name, The Needle Drop. Anthony quickly became one of our favorite music reviewers on YouTube for his witty and perhaps nerdy insights into a broad range of music. Sure, he skews indie, but as he admits himself, that’s only when he’s not reviewing major label releases, hip-hop or metal. His serious engagement with the music is matched only by his entertaining screen personality, and this week he begins a monthly round-up for us of his favorite releases, complete with music videos and reviews.
Fresh Faces: July Oodles of under-the-radar musicians find a home for their work on YouTube, and every month we feature four of them on the homepage. Today we profile four very different artists who bring strong, distinct perspectives to their work. Shankar Tucker is a young clarinetist who got obsessed by Indian classical music, with awesome results. Jayanti’s now-burgeoning career got started when a friend took a video of her singing a song at dinner one night. LaTosha Brown is a crazily talented singer who actually stopped performing eight years ago and now heads the Gulf Coast Fund, a social justice philanthropy organization. (San Francisco micro-label Porto Franco Records caught one arresting video of her singing recently, and we decided it deserved a feature.) And we just liked Faded Paper Figures’ style.
Kurt Vile “Baby’s Arms” Vile’s deceptively simple song gets its power from its stripped-down aesthetic, and it’s bolstered by an extraordinarily lo-fi video which was shot entirely on a smartphone. This is the kind of one-two punch you have to love.
Things have been popping on youtube.com/music over the last week. Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s son Seun just released a new album, and in honor of the potent genre his dad created, we put together a playlist of Afrobeat essentials. We also joined the world in celebrating pride week last weekend with a clutch of anthemic songs new and old. And we turned our attention to England, where the Glastonbury music festival raged. We remembered Glastos past and heard from a young band named Viva Brother, who played the festival for the first time and guided us through the experience. Oh yeah, and pop star/actress Selena Gomez debuted her new album (with commentary) on Sunday. On to this week!
Mystery bands With the release of Shabazz Palaces’s full-length debut Black Up this week (which you can listen to in its entirety here), we found ourselves thinking about disguises, and all the bands over the years who’ve used them. Shabazz Palaces offers an avant-garde take on hip-hop; the group is helmed by Ishmael Butler of Digable Planets, but he hid behind the moniker Palaceer Lazaro for several years and still refuses to name his collaborators. Butler isn’t the first to cloak his musical experiments in a veil of mystery. This week, we present some artists who have used anonymity to fuel their boundary-pushing work, starting with San Francisco provocateurs The Residents and moving through the leftfield R&B of The Weeknd (who seem to be linked with Drake), the pop culture pastiche act Nike7UP, British oddities Hype Williams and more.
Buddy Holly raves on Buddy Holly forever altered the course of rock’n’roll with his astonishing 25 hit songs—all of which he penned and recorded before he died in a plane crash at the age of 22. Don McLean famously sang that the day the plane crashed was “the day the music died,” and it was hard not to agree with him. But nothing proves Holly’s music lives on like Rave On Buddy Holly, a tribute album that features everybody from CeeLo Green to Patti Smith covering his songs. We check out a few tracks from the album as well as other tributes to the rock’n’roll pioneer.
Breakbot “Fantasy Jacques Renault Remix” With “Fantasy,” the French producer Breakbot turned out a song that could have come off of Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall” circa 1979. But really it’s the video that had us at hello: a mash-up of roller-skating videos from the 1970s and ‘80s that practically screams “summer.”
Summer is finally underway in the northern hemisphere, and while new releases may be slowing down, youtube.com/music is getting busy. Neo-soul songstress Jill Scott graced us with a playlist of her inspirations over the weekend, the ever-charming Alicia Keys celebrates the ten-year anniversary of Songs In A Minor with an invitation to the YouTube community and the music world mourned the loss of Clarence Clemons, the gentle giant who played saxophone with Bruce Springsteen for more than thirty years. Meanwhile, everybody from Bon Iver to Pitbull are releasing new albums today. Later this week we’ll feature a contest, another video premiere and some very special coverage from England’s Glastonbury music festival; be sure to check out youtube.com/music over the weekend for updates.
Other Music recommends...music! When we started inviting independent record stores to curate playlists of their favorite music, we had no idea that so many of you would be watching. More than 500k views later, Amoeba Music’s playlist is still turning people on to good music, so this month we head to the East Coast to see what’s popping at Other Music, the New York record store known as a home to all things indie, experimental and adventurous. They came up with a creative collection of videos which we’re featuring on the homepage today.
Terra Naomi One of YouTube’s early music stars, Terra Naomi set the template for many who followed. Her song “Say It’s Possible” featured one of the first crowdsourced music videos; five years later, she’s releasing a new album and a new crowdsourced video, which she’s premiering with us today. The video is directed by Alex Albrecht and made in conjunction with iPhone app Hipstamatic and pulls images from over 10,000 entries from around the world. She also shares a playlist of some of her favorite cover songs of all time.
Smif-n-Wessun & Pete Rock premiere the album Monumental Smif-n-Wessun (later known as Cocoa Brovaz after a legal dispute over their name) helped define hardcore hip-hop lyricism with a string of successful, critically-lauded albums back in the 1990s. Pete Rock has been in the game just as long, an emcee and producer who helped define jazz-hop alongside acts like A Tribe Called Quest. He went on to become one of the Wu-Tang Clan’s go-to producers, crafting tracks for everyone from Raekwon to Ghostface Killah. Monumental proves the duo’s tag-team rap style is still on lock, while Pete Rock’s production never misses the mark — and often recalls his late, great colleague, the venerated J Dilla. Check it out now, one week before release date.
It’s a quiet week on the new release front, but on the video front, things are popping. Perhaps the biggest debut was Katy Perry’s new video. The pop vixen performs as her alter-ego Kathy Beth Terry, and the video features none other than Rebecca Black and other familiar faces. If that doesn’t float your boat, check out what else is happening on youtube.com/music today.
Eminem’s favorite collaborations How many EPs generate this much buzz? Eminem and fellow Detroit rapper Royce da 5'9 go way back -- the duo met in 1997 and immediately clicked. They formed Bad Meets Evil and recorded a few songs, but then Emimen got signed to a major label and, well, you know the rest. Though Royce appeared on The Slim Shady LP, various beefs led the friends to fall out until a mutual friend’s death reunited them a few years ago. Now they’re back in the studio, and Royce’s skillful rhymes seem to have invigorated Eminem: he sounds looser and more playful than you’ve heard him in years. You can see their chemistry in the video, which emphasizes the lyricism and wordplay with painted graphics. Today, Eminem picks his favorite collaborative videos to celebrate the release. It’s a Dre-heavy mix, naturally, but he also showcases an EPMD classic and the Junior Mafia evergreen “Mo Money, Mo Problems.” Also, Royce and the famously publicity-averse Mr. Mathers take to his YouTube channel this afternoon at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT to answer your questions live.
New jazz, now This week, we extract some fresh jazz tidbits for the curious. Top of our list? Ambrose Akinmusire, a young trumpeter out of Oakland, Ca. who has been making waves among jazz fans for his fluid compositions and compelling tone. We’ve also got Norah Jones singing a lovely rendition of “Come Rain or Come Shine” with Wynton Marsalis and a short piece on the new album from the sultry Brazilian vocalist Eliane Elias.
CHLLNGR “Ask For” This is the first single off of CHLLNGR’s upcoming release Haven. Who is CHLLNGR? The Danish producer has been quietly remixing everybody from M.I.A. to The XX, but that’s not why we love him. First, the creepy video is a win: shot in a forest outside of Copenhagen, nothing much happens, yet you keep watching in rapt anticipation. Something might happen. Equally awesome is the song’s G-funk synthesizer line, which erupts straight out of the West Coast circa 1992 and collides with dubstep’s unsteady bass (currently London’s biggest export). It’s a subtle and smart combination, and it has us looking forward to more from this producer from the north country.
We know he has a superb voice but in our latest YouTube World View interview, John Legend shows he also has serious heart as he talks about his major passion — education for all.
In this 30-minute interview, YouTube partner Josh Sundquist asks your top-voted, and pretty difficult, questions, including those about whether charter schools really work, how to recruit college grads into teaching positions rather than corporate gigs and how to balance the importance of work and school in lower-income families. Watch the full interview here:
For more information about how you can get involved with John’s own “Show Me Campaign,” visit www.showmecampaign.org, and for great educational content year-round, from guitar lessons to astronomy lectures, check out YouTube EDU. Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched “2011 Commencement Address by Denzel Washington."
This week, Coldplay returns with a brand new song, Duncan Sheik covers ‘80s classics, Youssou N’Dour celebrates reggae, Branford Marsalis keeps jazz vital and country star Randy Travis celebrates 25 years in music. But we first turn our attention to a math-rock supergroup some had written off after they lost their lead singer -- until their new album landed on critics’ laps, four years after their lauded debut.
Battles curate the YouTube homepage Battles’ 2007 debut Mirrored still amazes with its precise shards of sound and wholly formed aesthetic. It integrated electronics and rock instrumentation into such a seamless whole that some hailed the band as the future of rock — and avant-garde vocalist Tyondai Braxton as its voice-manipulating headman. Braxton’s departure from the band left doubt about their future, but four years after their lauded debut, they’re back: sans Braxton, but full of sonic innovation and a bevy of guest vocalists. Gloss Drop is an engrossing listen, and it gains in texture with contributions from Gary Numan (yes, the man behind the ‘80s classic “Cars”), Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, Chilean producer and vocalist Matias Aguayo and Yamantaka Eye of Japanese rockers the Boredoms. Battles bring their heady, wonky, original aesthetic to the homepage today, choosing their favorite videos and debuting a new version of their video for “Ice Cream.”
The Power of CANADA Battles are likely to gain fans on the strength of their new video, and they have the amusingly-named Spanish video director collective CANADA to thank for that. The team features three directors: Luis Cervero, Nicolas Mendez and Lope Serrrano. After spending years as the go-to videographers for Spain’s indie rock artists, CANADA gained a massive following from their provocative video for El Guincho’s “Bombay.” El Guincho has a growing U.S. fan-base, and his global ghetto pop/electronic sound mashed perfectly with the directors’ aesthetic: bawdy (which has earned their videos more than a few age restrictions), comic and flooded with images that often find their power in rapid-fire juxtaposition. Their videos poke fun but also celebrate everything from bad ‘70s flicks and European art films to Carl Sagan. They seem to have an endless storehouse of images at their fingertips, and their editing borders on revelatory. We share some of their best work today on youtube.com/music.
Vetiver “Wonder Why?” They’re transplanted San Franciscans (native to North Carolina), friends of freak folk luminaries Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom, and willing slaves to harmony and twang. Vetiver make the kind of urban roots music that feeds people looking for organic, unprocessed music in our highly digitized age. Check out the brand-new video from their upcoming album, premiered on youtube.com/music today. It takes a city’s inanimate landscape and brings it to life; watch as sandwich carts mouth the words to the song and buildings blink their windows in time.
Simon Cowell, the man who has made many an aspiring pop star’s dream, is coming to YouTube in search of new talent.
Future singing superstars in the U.S. take note: you have one week, starting today until 11:59pm ET on June 9, to submit your X Factor audition video for a chance to compete on the show for a $5 million recording contract.
Here’s the fine print. You can audition either as a solo artist or as a group, but you must keep your submission to two minutes or less and be sure to include a brief introduction (around 30 seconds) stating the name of your act and everyone in your group. Also, you must be living in the U.S. and all video submissions must have been created in the past two months, or you risk disqualification. Full rules and regulations can be found here.
If things go well, you could be performing in front of Simon Cowell, The X Factor judges and millions of viewers this Fall.
We know how much talent there is on YouTube — you’ve been showing us for years — and we’re excited to be partnering with The X Factor to bring you more opportunities to shine.
What’s happening on youtube.com/music? If you’re a fan of one of indie rock’s most influential bands, a lot. Check out our picks for what's happening in music this week.
Death Cab for Cutie curation Death Cab for Cutie’s intelligent, heart-restrained-by-head songs have always vibrated with barely-contained desire. They’re also innovative video-makers -- earlier this year they released a pretty stunning one-take video for “You Are A Tourist.” They followed it up by asking Shepard Fairey to tag L.A. with the lyrics to “Home Is A Fire.” So we were pretty psyched when Ben Gibbard and Nick Harmer agreed to sit down and choose some of their favorite videos for us on the eve of the release of their new album Codes and Keys. Like the band itself, their videos are diverse, thoughtful, surprising and sometimes cute: you’ll find indie rock videos, sure, but also French bulldogs, exploding volcanoes, and a starry sky. Prepare to swoon.
Cibo Matto reunites Everybody’s favorite quirky Japanese alterna-pop duo, Cibo Matto grabbed a devoted following back in the ‘90s for their deceptively simple, sly and silly songs. They weren’t rockstars, but they were cool and goofy and hard to ignore. They recently announced they’re getting back together for a tour and a new album. Here’s why you care:
Lavalier "Santa Claus Ain't Comin'" When even Nylon Magazine is trying to remind us that there’s music being made outside of Brooklyn, it feels a bit perverse to hype yet another Brooklyn band. But Lavalier -- a slightly psychedelic, slightly melancholic indie band -- have something else going for them: their new video from the art collective Everything Is Terrible. The collective scours junk sales and thrift stores for discarded VHS tapes and turns them into hilarious videos. They hit the jackpot with this one, sending up ‘80s culture by using detritus from the decade itself. This is cultural archeology at its best -- and the song’s not bad, either.
In the past five months, YouTube World View has challenged leaders to talk about some of the most pressing issues facing the world today. Until today, these leaders have resided squarely in the government space, however, our next World View subject has a slightly different background.
Starting today, you can ask questions of philanthropist and soulful crooner John Legend. In addition to being a nine-time Grammy Award winner (!) and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, John is the founder of the Show Me Campaign, an effort to use education to break the cycle of poverty.
John wants to hear your questions about education, whether they’re about raising the standard of education around the world, improving the quality of teachers, or the work he is doing with the Show Me Campaign. You can head over to www.youtube.com/worldview to submit your questions now. He’ll answer the top-voted questions in a special interview that will be released on June 8. Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched “John Legend in Ghana”
Tonight at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, indie rock darlings My Morning Jacket will debut their new album Circuital in style: with a performance in Louisville, Kentucky’s historic Palace Theatre. No ticket? No problem. Watch the performance live on youtube.com/mymorningjacketvevo.
The show marks the next installment of the original music series UNSTAGED, in partnership with American Express and VEVO. UNSTAGED pairs bands with iconic film directors to create one-of-a-kind live performances.
Director Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine, I’m Not There) will conduct the show. Haynes has been engaged with pop music throughout his career, crafting films that have frequently looked at music icons through an unusual lens: in Velvet Goldmine, he approached glam rock through the guise of a fictional, Bowie-like rock star named Brian Slade. In I’m Not There, six different actors inhabit or embody Bob Dylan’s many-faceted career. A subtle provocateur, Haynes has always looked to transgress social norms in his work.
As an indie band that often flirts with experimental elements, My Morning Jacket are a natural match for Haynes. The group burst onto the scene in 2001 with the release of their sophomore album At Dawn. Alt country had become the fashion among many northern rock bands, but as native southerners, these Kentucky boys came by their twang honestly. When they drenched it in oceans of reverb, what could have been relatively straightforward country rock verged on otherworldly.
Over the years, the band has evolved, experimenting with neo-psychedelia, reggae and progressive rock and even emulating Prince. Circuital sees the band returning to its early influences -- and returning home to Louisville to perform in the Palace Theatre, an ornate Spanish Baroque-style theater built in 1924. The theater oozes with atmosphere: the trompe l’oeil ceiling looks like an open sky, and a “hall of faces” features over a hundred sculptures of Socrates, Beethoven, Dante and more. The venue also has amazing acoustics -- and, according to some reports, a ghost.
Anything could happen tonight! Tune in early for an exclusive Q&A before the show, and keep an eye out for interesting components of the webcast: vote for their encore song, choose your camera angle, watch for user-submitted eyeball photos (yes, eyeballs) on stage, and potentially unlock some exclusive photo content during the performance!
Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “LOUDER|DUBSTEP.”
While Lady Gaga tears up the charts (and makes her entire album available on YouTube), we’re dedicating this week to the under-the-radar artists who pump creative juices into YouTube’s veins. We’ve got a treasure trove of talent, starting with Diego Stocco, the Italian inventor/composer/multi-instrumentalist who can make an instrument out of discarded pianos and a song out of a bonsai tree. Jeff Pianki is a young singer-songwriter who wins hearts the old-fashioned way: with sweet lyrics and catchy melodies. Sanders Bohlke, the folk artist from Mississippi, has videos as easygoing as his music. And finally, Yasuhito Watanabe is a Japanese singer-songwriter brimming with crossover potential. Check them all out on youtube.com/music today.
Music from Everyday Objects Can you make music out of a blow dryer? A bicycle? A bonsai tree? It turns out that a lot more artists think so than you might expect. Diego Stocco’s inventive pursuit of new sources for sound got us curious about who else is corralling everyday objects to make music on YouTube. And what we found is delightful: music made from wine glasses, a bottle opener, an old Soviet camera, a refrigerator door, Game Boys and much more.
Making Friendz “Situtation” video premiere Making Friendz is Tami Hart, the former folk musician-turned-party girl who claims to be ripping off her buddies No Age, found herself a member of the tranny/dance collective MEN earlier this year, and is now gearing up for a new release on June 21. The first single is a big, noisy party song that’s equal parts New Pornographers and Valley Girl-era sass. And it’s perfectly matched by a crazy video from the directing team Wildwoodils. It’s all gross-out, 1980s Nickolodeon humor -- and very worth your time.
She’s got 32 million Facebook followers, 10 million Twitter fans, and a devoted legion of little monsters. But Mama Monster isn’t done with her quest for total pop domination: in a move in line with Gaga-esque surprises, Lady Gaga is posting audio tracks of the deluxe edition of her new album Born This Way on YouTube and VEVO on Sunday, May 22 at 9 p.m. PT to coincide with the album’s physical release. Go to her channel tonight to hear the new album from start to finish -- with five remixes thrown in for good measure.
While you're waiting, why not get a taste of what's to come?