Author Archives: Jamie

FA Cup Nerdfighteria: Football Fan Culture on YouTube

John Green is many things: a Vlogbrother, the author of "The Fault In Our Stars" and "Paper Towns", and part of the driving force behind YouTube conference VidCon. But in addition to these he is also a dedicated football fan, funneling revenue from the Hankgames channel into the groundbreaking AFC Wimbledon club to secure shirt (and now shorts) sponsorship. 


However, John is also a passionate fan of  Liverpool FC, and so found his allegiances tested when the teams drew each other in the FA Cup. His vlog of the trip to London for the fixture is a must-see, as are highlights of the game itself (which include a fantastic free kick from Steven Gerrard). 

 

John isn't the only football fan choosing to capture his love of the game to share on YouTube, as the past few seasons have seen fan channels and content springing up and finding success. The Redmen TV has tracked the highs and lows of following Liverpool since 2010, Arsenal Fan TV has done likewise for the North London club (striking gold earlier this season when fellow fans clashed after a loss) and the Manchester United-backing Full Time Devils, whose post-match interviews have turned vocal fan Andy Tate into a YouTube and Vine star. This season has also seen The True Geordie get into his stride, documenting his reactions to Newcastle United's volatile Premiership run, picking up over 60,000 subscribers in the process -- six times the following of the club's official channel. 


Life as a fan is also given a more traditional documentary treatment from football specialists Copa 90, who travelled to Seattle to capture the commitment of the Sounders' ultras, attended the most ferocious fixtures across Europe with the Derby Days series and sent Football Virgin Maya Jama on a personal quest to both learn about the game and find her team. 

So there you have it: it's a great time to be a football fan on YouTube, so go join the conversation with fans (and rivals) of your team voicing their passion on the platform. You could even become 'internet famous' in the process... 

Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched "Nike Academy: Winter Training". 

Source: YouTube UK Blog


YouTube Rewind 2014: A Tour of Europe

YouTube Rewind offers many things: an excuse to produce epic videos, the opportunity to crown a mutant giant spider dog Winner of The Internet and the chance to check out singing nuns in Italy’s version of “The Voice”. 


The fun doesn’t stop there, as there are almost as many YouTube Rewind channels as there are countries in the world, each of them listing the Top 10 trending and music videos of the year. This means that you can discover that in France viewers fixated on rapping Mario Brothers, that a young girl talking to a chick stole Spanish hearts in 2014, or that Polish pranksters baiting police with cookie cellphones caught the country’s interest. You can also find out what happens if you feed Danish classical musicians super-hot chilis while they play, what different languages sound like to foreigners or even experience a Reindeer roadblock in Lapland — very festive, although the Finnish driver isn’t so enchanted.


There’s plenty more where that came from, so if you’re at a loose end come tour the world of video with YouTube Rewind. Who knows, you may even take a shine to Romania’s version of The Lonely Island… 

Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched "Walking on beautiful clean ice in Slovakian Mountains". 

Source: YouTube UK Blog


What’s Up On YouTube: YouTube Thrills The Radio Stars

Russell Brand, Zoe Ball and Chris Moyles aren’t necessarily names that you would place side-by-side, but for the purposes of this post, that’s exactly what is going to happen. The reason for this being that all three of them have launched their own YouTube channels, variously documenting their lives, transforming take away-style cuisine or calling for a no-holds-barred revolution in political engagement across the UK and beyond… 


While famous folk taking to YouTube is nothing new — Tulisa responding directly to the release of a sex tape, Bill Bailey blogging from his bunker or model Ruth Crilly recommending beauty products and sharing her life — it’s great to see people with established careers in TV, radio or film using YouTube to deliver personal projects, connect more directly with their audiences or simply try something new. 

However, if revolution, transforming take aways or exploring life post-breakfast show fame don’t appeal, the YouTube UK spotlight channel hosts a selection of viral videos and more, and youtube.com/music seeks to meet your musical needs. 

Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched “Phil Jagielka Goal Vs Liverpool by 442oons”. 

Source: YouTube UK Blog


What’s Up On YouTube: One Album Per Hour With Beardyman

The music-making process is traditionally seen as prolonged and painful: weeks spent burning through budget in a darkened studio, wrestling with recording equipment and sweating over songwriting. Beatbox maestro Beardyman is having none of that -- he's planning to make an album an hour in a series of live shows on YouTube which harness the power of his audience and input from a celebrity record producer.



The series starts with Jack Black at the controls from 9pm this Sunday, September 14, as Beardyman prepares to sift through song titles submitted online. He'll then lay down a bassline, instrumentation and conjure up verse and chorus using nothing more than his mouth, his mind and a mass of electronic trickery (including the all-new Beardytron_5000 mkIII). The weeks to come will see Peter Serafinowicz, Tim Minchin and Daniel Sloss submit to the same process.

So tune in for an hour of music, madness and improvisation with a strong chance of comedy live on YouTube this Sunday. Not to mention the opportunity to watch Beardyman sweat and presumably fast-forward through the 'difficult second album' barrier. For more trending videos head to the YouTube UK spotlight channel and if talk of tunes has you wanting more, /music has playlists to suit every mood.

Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched "Kutiman -- Thru You Too -- GIVE IT UP".




Source: YouTube UK Blog


What’s Up On YouTube: Following Football — The Premiership

The Premiership enters its third week this Saturday and the league has already produced its fair share of surprises, with Manchester United without a win to their name and Swansea joining Manchester City, Spurs and Chelsea with maximum points from their games to date. 


This season, fans of both clubs and the league as a whole can stay abreast of developments direct from the clubs themselves thanks to video updates from all of the Premiership sides bar Manchester United and Sunderland via official YouTube channels. Channels typically offer previews of the weekend’s games, post-match analysis, game highlights, glimpses behind-the-scenes, interviews with players, manager press conferences and more. 

Between them the Premiership sides boast around 1.3 million subscribers, with Chelsea (360K), Manchester City (300K), Liverpool (290K) and Arsenal (138K) currently topping the table. So, if nothing else, as a fan of Spurs, Swansea, Hull City, Aston Villa, West Ham, Everton, West Brom, Southampton, Stoke, Leicester City, Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Burnley or Queens Park Rangers, subscribe now and boost their profile on the site, while ensuring that the latest uploads are delivered straight to your inbox. 

If football doesn’t quite do it for you, the UK Spotlight channel or music page should have something to catch your eye (or ear) with the latest trending videos, themed playlists and more. 


Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched “T Pain loses the locks and comes back to music (GGN)”

Source: YouTube UK Blog


What’s Up on YouTube: Tomorrowland and Beyond

This weekend Tomorrowland stages the second of its sold-out three-day parties in Boom, Belgium, with DJ talent like Tiësto, Steve Aoki and Above & Beyond animating the crowd and streaming five hours of sets live on Friday, Saturday and Sunday here on YouTube. 


The festival has racked up almost 400 million views, its series of official aftermovies from 2011, 2012  and 2013 accounting for almost 260 million of those clicks, proving the popularity of dance music events on YouTube. 

EXIT Festival, in Serbia, for example — named the Best Major European Festival in 2013 — teamed up with YouTube electronic music powerhouse UKF this year to produce "Fresh From The Fort", a series of daily updates featuring artists including Gorgon City, Skrillex and Andy C talking music and sampling the local grog. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has streamed on YouTube the past few years, famously bringing Tupac back to life with a holographic performance seen around the world. 

Boiler Room are also no stranger to streaming sets from festivals across the world, with the likes of Laurent Garnier, Bill Brewster, and Digitalism appearing under their banner from Amsterdam to Croatia and beyond. 

So if you can’t make it to The Great Outdoors to join the party in person — or if you want to relive magical musical moments after the event — then YouTube may have the answer. For more music, head here, and if it’s trending videos you fancy, the UK Spotlight Channel may well have something for you. 


Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched "Weird Al Yankovic -- Word Crimes". 

Source: YouTube UK Blog


What’s Up on YouTube: Talking The Talk

Ever since the likes of Terry Wogan and Michael Parkinson bestrode the world of the talk show like besuited colossi, the format has illuminated TV like no other. At heart it’s simplicity itself: two people talking. But the results can be unforgettable — in both good and bad ways. 

The producers of these programmes have now started to turn to YouTube to share show snippets, with moments like Sandra Bullock playing the piano with her Christian Louboutins on The Jonathan Ross Show alongside Tom Hanks captured for eternity and clocking up almost five million views — in May 2013 the show's series finale drew ratings of a shade under 2.6 million.


In the US hosts like Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and latterly Jimmy Fallon and John Oliver have enjoyed stellar numbers on YouTube with regular sketches like ‘Clueless Gamer’, ‘I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy’, ‘Mean Tweets’, ‘Lip Sync Battle’ and ‘People Who Think Good’. In the wake of that many channels are now uploading highlights daily and internet-based set-ups are clearly on the up. 

Their UK counterparts are also getting in on the act, with The Jonathan Ross Show being joined by The Graham Norton Show, Alan Carr Chatty Man, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and The Clare Balding Show. So if you're looking to hear Joey Barton’s French accent, play drunk golf with Justin Timberlake, discuss pubic hair with Cameron Diaz or learn to pole dance with Lindsay Lohan, then you know where to head. 

But if the prospect of shooting the breeze with a celebrity doesn’t do it for you, why not plot a course to /music or /YouTubeUK to get a taste of what else is trending on YouTube… talkative or otherwise.

Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched "What If The Earth Stopped Spinning?"

Source: YouTube UK Blog


What’s Up on YouTube: Food, Food Revolutions and… More Food

This Friday Jamie Oliver is going to attempt to deliver the world’s biggest cooking lesson live on YouTube as part of the 2014 Food Revolution Day, an event dedicated to broadening children’s knowledge of nutrition alongside improving their cooking skills. What’s on the menu? Rainbow Salad Wrap, apparently — tune in from 2pm. 


However, it isn't all health, health, health when it comes to food on YouTube, as a new series from Time Out London attests. "Boy Vs Food" sees the listings magazine's 'gastric athlete' take on the capital's biggest big-food challenges, including the Meat Liquor Triple Chilli Challenge, the Oktoberfest's Double Knuckle and the outright terrifying Wonder Café monster fry up. By turns enthralling, appetizing and disgusting, the series is one to watch.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube channel has been steadily building since relaunching in a more concerted, YouTube-specific way in late 2012. With 800,000 subscribers, 45 million views and more recipes than most of us will ever attempt in our lives, the channel has become a hub of food-related activity, bringing established chefs like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gennaro Contaldo to the platform. It has also provided a home for the likes of DJ BBQ, Barry from My Virgin Kitchen and Food Tube’s international competition winner, Felicitas Pizarro — and with Food Revolution is delivering something you'll struggle to find anywhere other than here on YouTube. 

But, to give them their due, there is a channel that predates Jamie Oliver in terms of having a vision about food online and both building and connecting with the wider YouTube community in the form of Sorted Food. Starting out with an approach that was nothing if not irreverent, the channel has gone on to collaborate with top YouTube channels and rack up 63 million views — keeping things fun throughout. 

If that isn’t enough food-based video for you, then the Waitrose channel recently launched a series featuring baking guru Paul Hollywood and Sainsbury’s have uploaded a raft of cooking how to videos. All in all, right now you’ve got no excuse not to hit the kitchen. 

But if food doesn’t do it for you, why not head to /music or /YouTubeUK to get a taste of what else is trending on YouTube… edible or otherwise. 


Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched: “BBQ with Franklin: Pulled Pork”. 

Source: YouTube UK Blog


What’s Up on YouTube: The World Cup is coming

In case you hadn’t noticed, what with the Premiership reaching its most exciting (and borderline surreal) conclusion since Sergio Aguero’s last-minute winner in 2012, Brazil is preparing to host the World Cup this summer, welcoming the finest players and most fervent fans that the planet has to offer. At the same time a host of YouTube channels are also looking to serve your every need as the tournament approaches. 


Organisers FIFA are in the midst of a 100-day countdown featuring World Cup goals scored by the host nation (check out this classic free-kick from Garrincha in 1966). The channel also profiles all the teams battling to reach the final on Sunday, July 13 at the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro. 

In the run-up to on-pitch hostilities, football lifestyle channel Copa90 have sent their very own Football Virgin, Maya Jama, to scope out the 12 cities that will provide the backdrop to the competition: visiting the stadia, finding out more about football in the country and — let’s face it — having what looks like a wonderful time in the sun. 

Another person hoping that their day in the sun has come is England Manager Roy Hodgson, who is set to announce the squad he will take to Brazil on May 12 in a press conference that will be streamed live at youtube.com/England from 2pm. If you can’t wait that long, the channel also features his thoughts on fan expectations and the group stage England must navigate at the tournament, alongside all the action from the nerve-racking qualification process. 

Other national teams with official channels on YouTube include Brazil, Mexico, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Uruguay, Italy, France, Nigeria, Ghana, The USA and Belgium. 

If the prospect of blanket football coverage leaves you cold, come and see what we have on offer at the UK Spotlight channel or strike to the YouTube Music page for something completely different…


Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched “Chilly Gonzales talks Daft Punk". 

Source: YouTube UK Blog


What’s Up on YouTube: Boxing, More Boxing and Migrating Birds

Las Vegas is built on showbusiness and right now the biggest show in town is the forthcoming fight to decide who will become the Welterweight Champion of the World, with the unbeaten Floyd Mayweather taking on Marcos Maidana. As part of the build-up to the bout, the Showtime Sports channel has produced an Emmy-nominated series profiling the fighters, which sits neatly alongside full-length fight footage and more, including Maidana’s 2010 loss to the UK’s Amir Khan at light welterweight — billed by Oscar De La Hoya as one of the fights of the decade. 


If that isn’t enough of the sweet science for you, British boxing legend Chris Eubank’s son, Chris Jr, has set up a channel documenting his progress in the ring. The latest uploads show him knocking out Hungarian champion Sandor Micsko in the second round of the their eight-round fight, taking his tally to 14 fights unbeaten. 

Another series of note to hit YouTube this week comes from TV naturalist Chris Packham, who, when he isn’t busy inserting The Smiths and David Bowie song titles into his BBC “Springwatch” scripts, is a keen birdwatcher. Troubled by the springtime tradition in Malta of shooting migrating birds — much of which is illegal — “Malta - Massacre on Migration” sees Packham talk to local campaigners, hunters and the local Police as he takes a closer look at a practice that many believe is impacting bird numbers across the whole of Europe.

For more highlights from across YouTube, head to the YouTube UK Spotlight channel to see the hottest videos of the day, stay abreast of what’s happening in the news and find out more about some of the trends making waves on the platform. And if it's music you want, give youtube.com/music a try -- what could possibly go wrong?

Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched “Ed Sheeran F64”. 

Source: YouTube UK Blog