MainstreamTube

Last week YouTube aired its “First Ever Live Music Awards,” and I oscillated between esteem and scorn. The award show couldn’t decide whether it wanted to award those who mastered market algorithms or underdog talent.

But maybe this blend is representative of what YouTube is.

Considering the conglomerate now known as Justin Bieber was once a no-name musician who rose to power via his videos, perhaps a happy medium is what audiences deserve.

As Tyler the Creator put it, the awards show was a “beautiful platform for talented people who think on a creative level to actually (get) exposure ... and let them shine.” He then expressed his disappointment that the show wasn’t truly the YouTube music awards so much as radio music awards because they lauded everything we’ve already heard.

Miley Cyrus’s “We Can’t Stop” video, for example, was nominated for Video of the Year. Given that people can’t scroll through Tumblr without seeing at least five .gifs of a tear rolling down her face, it might have better served the audience’s time to hear something more obscure.

But that’s not to say YouTube didn’t aspire to be different. Reggie Watts and Jason Schwartzmann, kings of offbeat humor, were the improvisational hosts. They ran around from set to set admitting they weren’t informed of what was going to happen.
There were live music videos and “Innovation of the Year” awards. The theme was said to be “Creativity,” and all about “anything happening.”

There were allusions to “I’m On a Boat,” and a performance by Walked Off the Earth covering “Call Me Maybe,” Rebecca Black’s infamous “Friday” and the most recent “What Does the Fox Say?”

But even if they just did covers of songs we all know, instead of seeing them performed by the same people, it would have been “innovative” to hear them given some nuance by a YouTube artist who doesn’t already have 40 million Twitter followers.

To build a show almost entirely around mainstream music misses the entire point of YouTube. Then again maybe the “Phenomenon” category makes sense. Big artists are what bring people to YouTube — besides cats.

The montage of YouTube cover performers introducing “Artist of the Year” hinted at the site’s underbelly, but Katy Perry, One Direction and Rihanna were the actual nominees.

Celebrity is already rewarded elsewhere. Though the stars garner viewership and put people in seats, we don’t need another reminder of who’s already made it.

What about Maxine Ashley? Christina Grimmie? Leroy Sanchez? Tori Kelly? Even Bastille, whose song “Pompeii” made the group somewhat famous somewhat suddenly.

If there’s going to be yet another awards show it should be justified by fewer performances from already-established artists and more from those who are less predictable with their lyrics and chord changes.

­— ashhendr@indiana.edu