YouTube is an absolute powerhouse of a website for a reason. It has a little touch of everything, from the usual funny cat videos, to teach-yourself tutorials of knitting. It is a cultural platform unlike any other, where people of the world can be propelled to stardom overnight. Think Jessie J or Justin Bieber. Some do not get propelled to these heights, admittedly, but many make a tidy living from it through product placement, sponsorships and advertisement.

YouTube is now a way for people to make a career out of themselves. It can even be used as an online CV, and has helped people gain their ultimate job. But it has also cost many employees around the world, doing things they shouldn’t, to lose theirs. One of my personal favourite examples of this is the FedEx Employee Throwing Items in Truck. It really was appalling. It was so awful that it caused the senior vice president of human resources at FedEx to upload their own video to YouTube apologising for their staff’s behaviour and informing us all of their demise.  

You can find not only brand new musicians making it out in the world, but old classical music composed hundreds of years ago. And with this video sharing format, artists can showcase their skills, videoing their entire art-making process and showing us all the final result. It is no wonder to me at all that YouTube has spawned a TV show, namely Rude Tube, showing its millions of uploads, from awe-inspiring moments to the downright dumb.

In my mind, one of the greatest YouTubers has to be Toby Turner, or Tobuscus, as he is known. He has three channels, one filled with his own music, one for games ,and another as a diary or Vlog.  His songs are sublime. Full of wit and nonsense. One of my personal favourites is ‘The Sideburns Song’ – which really is exactly what it sounds like. Just a piano and occasionally a voice so high pitched it should be illegal, singing about his love for his own sideburns, and how tragic life is as a baby born without luscious, thick sideburns.

 

‘The Dramatic Song’ is a work of genius. Here Turner sings about how to make a song sound dramatic, when in reality, as he says, he is singing about “the lack of stuff he is singing about”. Although, in the song, he does make the compelling argument that your foreign grandma would probably love the song, as long as she doesn’t speak English.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On top of his wonderful and hilarious music channel, he plays games, suggested by his five million subscribers, to a satirical and often overly dramatic tone. I urge you all, if you have any interest in video games, to watch him. It is a fantastic way to see first-hand if you actually fancy having a play, or if you want to fill some time and have a good, hearty chuckle in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of hours globally have been lost to YouTube, and there is a reason. Love it or loath it, nobody can deny that there is something or someone there that will take their fancy and possibly even help them to bake that  perfect Victoria Sponge, make their teeth whiter, or learn to do a pull up. But either way, YouTube isn’t going anywhere and we should just stare blindly into our bright screens, marvelling at all it has to offer.