Since the site’s launch in February 2005, YouTube has fostered a countless number of viral video sensations including Fred, Rebecca Black, Charlie the Unicorn, and of course, Justin Bieber. His success is adored by millions and abhorred by even more, but nonetheless, Bieber’s humble beginning and rags to riches story is an inspiration; a testament to the amazing opportunities the Internet has to offer. Here’s a look at some newer and lesser-known YouTube sensations.
Walk Off the Earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M
Walk off the Earth is a Canadian Band that decided to try something a little different. “Out of boredom,” said one of its members, they decided to cover popular songs while the five of them play the same guitar at once. Their cover of Gotye’s “Somebody that I Used to Know,” was featured on Ellen on January 23rd.
The Beat Boxing Flute Player (Greg Pattillo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ZX5qdIEB0
Patillo has the unusual ability to play the flute while simultaneously beat boxing. His rendition of the Inspector Gadget Theme Song has accumulated over two million views.
The Evolution of Dance (Judson Laipply)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg
Laipply’s demonstration of ridiculous and obnoxious dance moves throughout the ages boasts almost 200 million views, making it the single most viewed video on YouTube.
The Annoying Orange
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN5PoW7_kdA
Though tragically stupid, the Annoying Orange is somehow captivating. With over 98 million views, it must be doing something right.
Jenna Marbles (Jenna Mourey) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wRXa971Xw0
Jenna Marbles and her “vlogs” endeavor to solve the everyday problems of everyday people…in a very unconventional manner. Her sarcasm and humor is illustrated in her videos such as “How to Trick People into Thinking You’re Good Looking,” and “Holiday Crafts with Madonna. Her most popular video, “How to Avoid Talking to People you Don’t Want to Talk to” has been featured on ABC news as well as the New York Times.
SMOSH- (Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla)
Hecox and Padilla run a YouTube channel that is best known for creating comedic covers of popular cartoon theme songs like The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pokémon. Although the Pokemon video ran into some problems with copyright infringement, it was one of the first videos with a multi-million number of views of YouTube. Its success landed the duo a feature of “person of the year” in a 2006 edition of time magazine.