YouTube Stars!

You've seen it on YouTube, you've seen it on the Evening News, now see it on YouTubeStars! Its time for some Gangnam Style videos!  This K-Pop dance song from Korean pop star PSY is approaching 300 Million Views on YouTube.  It reminds me of a generic LMFAO song, some kind of cross between Party Rock Anthem and I'm Sexy And I Know It.  The video features lots of dancing with plenty of hip swirling and "Ride 'em Cowboy" motions.  Random is the key word here; you never know what will appear in the next scene.  There is a guy thrusting above a man on the floor in an elevator.  There's PSY on the toilet.  There's dancing in the streets, as expected, but also party bus action.

Here's the official Gangnam Style video, bt PSY.  Watch it and learn the dance.  You'll be a hit at the next wedding you attend. :P



A video like this was bound to spawn a thousand variations and parodies. There is this Western parody, where they are ready to whip some ass, Gangnam Style. There are several girls in bikinis dancing on the beach which probably accounts for more of the 3 Million views than the cheesy fight scenes. Erica Law is the girl in the white bikini.



Of course there is a sped up version of the Gangnam Style song! There always is. Someone, or typically several someones, do a chipmuck version of pop songs. This one is pretty cool, and the song actually rocks harder at a faster tempo. The dance moves are there from the original, as well as the funnier random scenes. Due to the rev up, the video clocks in under 2 minutes, which may be fine for those tired of the tune already! Pretty girls and goofy situations make for a nice parody with nearly a million views.



What are people saying about this video? Like any pop tune, the reaction is all over the place. Love, hate, amusement, SMH, and W/E. The Fine Brothers make a series of "Teens React" videos. Here is their take on Gangnam Style. This cross section of teens watch the video then answer questions posed to them by the behind-the-scenes narrator. Rapid but interesting analysis from the target demographic. Watch and see which people in this video you agree with.

Labels: dance, Gangnam Style, K-Pop, music, pop, PSY

posted by KennyCrane at 9/25/2012 04:54:00 AM 0 Comments

Kayleigh is back! As I mentioned last time, we recently passed One Million page views at YouTubeStars, and it is in large part thanks to our excellent guest bloggers. So here's a big Thanks to our great guest bloggers; Kayleigh, Emma, Danni, Christina, Ashlee, Anna, Samantha and all the other wonderful people who have written here over the last 6 years!

Guest Blogger, Kayleigh Levitt is back with this excellent blog post and it lives up to the kind of insight into the human condition that we have come to expect from Kayleigh! Kayleigh is a creative young lady with a real talent for writing. You can find all her guest blog posts here. We're happy to present the fifth Guest Blog post from this talented young lady who can sometimes be found in a tree singing and playing guitar! This post reviews one music video from the groovy swingin' psychedelic 60s; a song played by the Velvet Underground and sung by Nico. Kayleigh uses the lyrics of the song to dive into a discussion of subjective versus objective thoughts and how a meaningful dialogue with another person creates a transforming connection. Carefully read this post and give it some thought; its heavy, man!




I’ll Be Your Mirror by the Velvet Underground enchanted me recently. I love this song because I think the lyrics speak to what it is like to experience another person, fully.

“I’ll be your mirror/ Reflect what you are, in case you don’t know/I’ll be the wind, the rain and the sunset/The light on your door to show that you’re home”

A mirror reflects only what is there, but we perceive it through our beliefs of what is there. Say for example, I believed I wasn’t worthy of love. When I look in the mirror then, what I would see would be qualities I find unworthy. The mirror is objective. My eyes are not.

But I think there is no objective reality, ever.

To me, we all live in our own worlds. There are 7 billion little worlds walking around on this earth, experiencing something completely different than everyone around them. I think when we talk to each other; most of the time we are actually two people having a monologue.

A personality is a story. A personality is an expression of our beliefs about who we are and why we are that way. It is our story. Stories are not people. Those stories do not make a person who they are. True connections have nothing to do with liking someone’s personality. It has everything to do with realizing people are made of this soulstuffstardust that has no personality, only essence of Love. This song talks about two people who See each other’s essence.

A dialogue is rare. It is what I live for. I think it is what we all live for. In my experience, I see someone else and I experience myself through our interaction, our relationship. New parts of me may arise. For example, I might meet an intellectual person who is highly opinionated. They share their story. Then it’s my turn to speak. I search within myself for something to say and might discover something I didn’t know I felt.

Connection is alchemy. When I fully connect with people, I feel transformed. They forever imprint my heart. The next person I connect with gets a little piece of every person who imprinted my heart previously, and I experience every person who imprinted theirs.

This song is about two people who can just reflect the Light they see in each other. It is about Seeing each other without judgment. It is about showing this other person the Love within them, because they might not be able to see it at the time, because their beliefs might be blocking them.

Let us give the gift of looking beyond personality, and seeing the person.

Labels: 1960s, Connection, Dialogue, Kayleigh Levitt, Mirror, Velvet Underground

posted by KennyCrane at 9/21/2012 11:37:00 PM 1 Comments

Today I was checking the stats for this blog, http://YouTubeStars.com, and I noticed that we now have over a million page views! Thanks to everyone for visiting our blog over the years. We have almost 300 posts and have talked to you about nearly a thousand YouTube videos and their makers. We have been here for over 6 years now and we're still going strong. We have plenty of guest writers who have made excellent contributions to our site. Our weekly YouTube Top 100 Chart continues to get lots of views as well. So again, thanks to all our readers!

Labels: blog, million, one million views, Viewed, YouTube, YouTubeStars

posted by KennyCrane at 9/14/2012 06:48:00 PM 2 Comments

I was reading an article in Wired, one of my favorite magazines, about how popular cat videos are on YouTube.  So I decided to check for myself and see how many of them are among YouTube's Most Viewed videos.  As you may expect, music videos are at the top of the Most Viewed chart (http://www.youtube.com/charts/videos_views?t=a). Justin Bieber is number one, with Baby.  Then there's Jennifer Lopez, Eminem, Shakira, Lady Gaga and LMFAO.  We have the famous, Charlie Bit My Finger baby video after them. Not a single cat video in the top 30 Most Viewed YouTube Videos of All Time.

 The Wired article talks about Maru, Mao, Shironeko and Nyan cat, all in Japan. Let's see what their videos are all about! Here's 5 minutes of Maru doing things cats do - getting into things, lying around, stretching, pouncing, hunting, hanging out in a sink, coming out from under a bed spread and diving into boxes! This video has almost 15 million views in its almost 4 year history. Watch Maru!



Here's an orange cat named Mao and a baby who wants to play with Mao's tail!  The baby is biting Mao's tail and Mao lets out a yelp but doesn't move or swat the kid away or anything. This winning video combination of cat and baby got almost 5 million views in the last three years.  Check it out, kinda cute!



Shironeko is a white cat who seems to be totally cool with anything his owner puts on his head! Here, Shironeko is chilling out in a basket while cans of moist cat food are stacked in his head. This has over a million views in its year and a half run so far. The top comment seems to be in answer to someone asking what breed the cat is, and replies with "not give a f*** breed" - which is somewhat amusing but remember you never know what people will say on YouTube so be careful about letting your young kids on there unsupervised!



Here is almost 4 minutes of a side scrolling animated graphic of Nyan cat, set to some synth soundtrack where the words appear to be variations on meow. This has nearly 85 million views, more than the three real cat videos above, combined!



For more cat videos, please see here. Thanks!

Labels: cat, cat video, cat videos, Mao, Maru, meow, Nyan, Nyan cat, Shironeko, YouTube cat videos

posted by KennyCrane at 9/03/2012 12:04:00 AM 1 Comments