Trendspotting Tuesday: UkeTube

The ukulele is a tiny guitar that many associate with hula dancing at Hawaiian luaus or even Merry Prankster Tiny Tim. But leave it to YouTubers to prove that, actually, ukuleles are everywhere if you just do a little looking. From parodies to punk rock, to heartfelt originals to blazing displays of finger-picking skills, it's time to reconsider the many sounds and styles emanating from this humble instrument. On today's Trendspotting Tuesday, we bring you UkeTube!

Bosko and Honey lead the way with their Ukulele Safari USA series. Based in Australia, they are traveling the world, performing and interviewing some of our favorite UkeTubers, like MERCEDEZZZ and Ukuleleaya from Japan (who decorated her ukulele with cake!).

Also featured is the uke community's Next Big Thing Julia Nunes (aka jaaaaaaa), who submitted a brand new original just for this special ukulele celebration, right before she takes her wee guitar on tour with Ben Folds this summer. Julia was also spotted attending this summer's first annual Bushman Ukulele Luau in Nashville, Indiana -- along with ukers/users Seeso, The Barnkickers and Populele.

There are so many stellar examples of ukuleles from all around the world on YouTube, uploaded from Fiji to Russia, that there was no way we could include all of them on this list. We even found some good how-to-make-your-own-ukulele clips; once you have yours, there are folks like ukulaladotcom who can teach you how to play indie rock on it.

And finally there's Lauren (of the Moaning Myrtles) and Lena (of the Butterbeer Experience) who bought their ukes, immediately wrote a song about guacamole, and then filmed it right there in the store's parking lot. Only on YouTube…

Yours in Uke,
The YouTube Team