Official Blog
Trendspotting Tuesday: Political Music Videos
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
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!
Labels
3D
4k
accessibility
account info
activism
ads
africa
annotations
arts
awards
benefit
betas
bizblog
blogs
bulletins
buzz
captions
celebrity playlists
channels
chrome
citizen journalism
citizen reporting
citizentube
comedy
comments
community
community guidelines
contests
creator's corner
creators
curators
customization
dance
design
discovery
doodle
editor
education
embeds
entertainment
events
facebook
film
flagging
gaming
gmail
google
google tv
government
grants
groups
guidelines
hd
help center
holidays
homepage
howto
inspiration
investment
jobs
journalism
life in a day
live stream
marketing
meetups
mobile
moderator
movies
music
musicians wanted
news
nonprofits
open-source
partners
playlists
policy
politics
privacy
product update
quicklist
ratings
rentals
research
safety
science and technology
screening room
search
sharing
shows
social networks
sports
staff
stats and data
store
subscriptions
tags
test tube
travel
trends
tv
twitter
upload
vevo
video editing
video production
video volunteers
viral video
youtube api
youtube direct
Archive
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Feed
Follow @youtube
Follow
Learn more in the
YouTube Help Center
.
Follow