As with all modern award shows, except for The Oscars, the winners at the first YouTube Music Awards seem like the least important element. That said, there were winners — deserving ones, especially since they were solely voted on by fans and not silly experts.
The biggest story of the show was the nontraditional set-up: The barriers between audience and the stage were blurry, and the performances were shot like "live music videos," complete with choreographed cuts, dialogue, scene changes and more.
It was incredibly ambitious, with seven distinct "live music videos," each as elaborate as a one-take music video, within the span of 90 minutes. When it worked, it was a beautiful thing — Lindsay Stirling's transcendent "Crystallize" is a great example — and you could argue that the freewheeling "let's make it work" ethos had enough excitement to overcome anything that feel short of what was envisioned.
But, if show creative directors Spike Jonze, Chris Milk and team seemed focused on deconstructing the typical live award show, YouTube seemed to gunning for more old-fashioned goals: An attempt to build an "everyone at once" live event, and a way to steer music video related traffic directly to YouTube without any VEVO involvement... That live audience
Read More for the YouTube Music Award Winners and Performances:
Video of the Year:
- Girls Generation "I Got A Boy"
Innovation of the Year
- DeStorm “See Me Standing” (Matei Dima, dir.)
YouTube Breakthrough
- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, "Thrift Shop"
YouTube Phenomenon
- Taylor Swift, "I Knew You Were in Trouble"
Response of The Year
- Lindsey Sterling & Pentatonix, "Radioactive"
Artist of the Year
- Eminem
And the performances:
- Lindsay Stirling "Crystallize (YouTube Music Awards version)" (Ray Tintori, dir.)
- M.I.A. "Come Walk With Me (YouTube Music Awards version)" (FAFI, dir.)
- Earl Sweatshirt "Sasquatch (YouTube Music Awards version)" (Wolf Haley, dir.)
- Avicii "Hey Brother (YouTube Music Awards version)" (Spike Jonze, Chris Milk, dir.)
- Arcade Fire "Afterlife (YouTube Music Awards version)" (Spike Jonze, dir.)
- Eminem "Rap God (YouTube Music Awards version)" (James Larese, dir.)
- Lady Gaga "Dope (YouTube Music Award version)" (Spike Jonze, Chris Milk, dir.)
