Trendspotting Tuesday: Political Music Videos
Every day you surprise and delight us with the way you use YouTube and the things that rise up on the site. From the tecktonik dance trend that germinated in France and spread like ivy throughout the Internet to the amazing video collaborations that could only happen because of the Internet, we love that YouTube can be a catalyst for so much creativity, change, and connection.
To that end, we're launching a new home page initiative called "Trendspotting Tuesday." This means every Tuesday, we'll highlight one trend that's alive on YouTube with a full, 24-hour home page takeover and accompanying blog post. We'll archive the playlists on our Trendspotting Tuesday channel, which is also where you can leave us comments about the trends that you've noticed and think we should highlight.
The first trend we're featuring is the rise of the political music video. Certainly users and politicians are creating these kinds of videos around the world, but where it's really heating up lately is around the highly scrutinized U.S. elections. The now-infamous Obama Girl video was probably the first nationally-recognized "pioneer" in this genre, but these days barely a week goes by without a new political music video gaining popularity on YouTube. The most talked about political music video we've seen on YouTube is will.i.am's "Yes We Can" anthem for Senator Obama -- it has 4.9 million views.
Some political music videos are passionate anthems in support of a particular candidate, like this video from salsera2984, a Hillary Clinton supporter. Others take a more playful approach, like the viral "McCain Girls" ballad about their favorite GOP candidate. Meanwhile, others use music as a means of crossing cultural boundaries, such as this Spanish-language video in support of Barack Obama. To see more, check out the homepage today or peruse this playlist:
...and if you're inspired to join the trend and create your own political music video, we have just one piece of advice: go easy on the cross dressing. Or maybe not – this is the kind of stuff that makes YouTube so weird and wonderful.
Best,
The YouTube Team
P.S. Drop a comment below with your ideas for future Trendspotting Tuesday features!