After mixed reactions to the inaugural 2013 YouTube Music Awards, this year, the giant video sharing website dropped the actual awards ceremony and opted for a virtual format instead. Although the lack of a live-streamed awards show wasn’t so bad, fans were disappointed by the lack of diversity and any sense of “the awards”.
March 23 was announced as the day of the awards ceremony, but instead of a ceremony or any kind of a live show, YouTube posted a series of tweets on social media that highlighted 13 of the 50 winners. The website simultaneously premiered 13 videos and on the YouTube Music Awards’ (YTMA) official channel users can see short interstitial bits, hosted by Tyler Oakley. In fact, the entire “awards show” comprises of short comments, intros, and the new videos of a dozen of featured artists. These include Action Bronson feat. Chance the Rapper, Ed Sheeran & Rudimental, FKA twigs, Usher, Lindsey Stirling, Megan Nicole, Nicky Jam feat. Enrique Iglesias, and a few more. Despite exceptions such as Spanish superstar Enrique Iglesias and English singer Ed Sheeran, these new videos are of artists with quite niche followings (although somewhat sizable).
Among the 50 winners announced there were also world-famous musicians such as Beyonce, One Direction, Drake, and Nicki Minaj. There were also several Eastern artists, including Korean girl group 2NE1. The biggest disappointment, expressed even by the winners’ fans, that the awards celebrated not the quality of content, but the relevant influence of these artists on the website. And many of the so-called “YouTube” stars – performers that gained popularity through the website, weren’t even featured. The genres included sound strangely the same, unless you are a teen, devoted to pop music.
The inaugural edition of the YTMA faced criticism from both the industry and fans because it failed to showcase something unique and different. The 2013’s ceremony was also slammed for the technical difficulties it presented artists and their teams with, as well as for the fact that it focused on mainstream music rather than YouTube. It was immediately clear that the YTMA couldn’t compete with MTV and their extremely popular awards. This year, it’s perfectly obvious that YouTube may be a great video sharing platform for millions of people, but it’s definitely incapable of delivering neither the content, nor the entertainment element of a good awards show.
