Sunday, November 3, 2013

YouTube Music Awards (YTMA)




Join us on now as we reveal the winners you voted for at the first YouTube Music Awards, live from Pier 36 in New York City. Featuring performances by Lady Gaga, Eminem, Arcade Fire, and more; and hosted by actor and musician Jason Schwartzman and comedian and musician Reggie Watts. Presented by Kia.

YouTube Music Awards is all about you—the fans—and the artists and videos you love. The nominees were selected based purely on YouTube data from the last 12 months, and every time you watched, shared, liked, or subscribed, you helped determine the final list. And now you helped decide the winners of the first-ever YTMAs by casting your vote real-time.

First YouTube Music Awards Boast Gaga, Eminem Live

Internet stars mingle with industry heavyweights at the inaugural New York show.

NEW YORK — Internet superstars stepped out from behind the computer screen and onto the stage at Pier 36 Sunday night to make history at the first YouTube Music Awards.

Hosted by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts and featuring live performances by Lady Gaga, Eminem and other pop and rock greats, YouTube set quite a challenge before itself in the show's first year: The event was live-streamed the world over, and the awards were entirely dependent on the participation of viewers.

Unlike the Grammys or the MTV Video Music Awards, winners were voted on entirely by fans, with One Direction, Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj among the artists nominated across six categories. With director Spike Jonze at the creative helm of the ceremony, the YouTube Music Awards promised — and delivered — a volley of surprises, including the creation and broadcast of music videos with notable talents as the show unfolded. This wasn't your typical red carpet affair with a few songs and dances thrown in between acceptance speeches. The YouTube Music Awards sought to redefine expectations for a celebration of popular music, and in turn, revolutionized them.

Confusion reigns: The general vibe is a confused one. Upon entering the main room at the awards, a handful of stages greet you, and many showgoers choose to sit down on the ground in front of these setups. A staffer walking around backstage mentions that Schwartzman has a different "set of directions" than everyone else, and that no one has any idea how the show will go — that the idea is to be unscripted and spontaneous from start to finish.

Schwartzman and Jonze come out into the audience to greet the crowd, and the message is simple: The audience is going to fully participate in the show.

"I want you to know that not only are you watching the show, you're going to be a part of the videos," says Schwartzman. "If you feel like you're in the video, don't watch the show around you, watch the performance!"

Call-and-response: Arcade Fire hits the ground running with this emphasis on audience participation, walking the crowd through a call-and-response. Frontman Will Butler seems to be all about it: "If you tried this at the VMAs, you'd be (screwed)!"

So much for the fourth wall: Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha) makes the first non-performer cameo of the night as the star of the "video" being filmed for Arcade Fire's live performance of Afterlife. Dancing her way through an apartment hallway into a grove of snowy trees, Gerwig is joined by Butler before taking off into the audience, flanked by a group of tiny dancers and effectively shattering the fourth wall. This theme of breaking down expectations for music videos and awards shows is effective, so far, and one the audience embraces.

And the nominees are:

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney, Epic Rap Battles of History
Demi Lovato, Heart Attack
Girls' Generation, I Got A Boy
Justin Bieber (featuring Nicki Minaj), Beauty and A Beat
Lady Gaga, Applause
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (featuring Mary Lambert), Same Love
Miley Cyrus, We Can't Stop
One Direction, Best Song Ever
Psy, Gentleman
Selena Gomez, Come & Get It

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Eminem
ERB
Justin Bieber
Katy Perry
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Nicki Minaj
One Direction
Psy
Rihanna
Taylor Swift

RESPONSE OF THE YEAR
Boyce Avenue (featuring Fifth Harmony), Mirrors
Jayesslee, Gangnam Style
Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix, Radioactive
The Piano Guys, Titanium/Pavane
Walk Off the Earth (featuring KRNFX), I Knew You Were Trouble

YouTUBE PHENOMENON
Diamonds
Gangnam Style
Harlem Shake
I Knew You Were Trouble
Thrift Shop

YouTUBE BREAKTHROUGH
Kendrick Lamar
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Naughty Boy
Passenger
Rudimental

INNOVATION OF THE YEAR
Anamanaguchi, Endless Fantasy
Atoms for Peace, Ingenue
Bat for Lashes, Lilies
DeStorm, See Me Standing

Toro Y Moi, Say That

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