YouTube is officially cancelling the YouTube Rewind video series, following a decade of hits and misses on the platform. From bemused gamers to crazy celebrity cameos, the Rewind format has been ever-evolving but has received lots of backlash and ridicule in recent years. Established by YouTube, the popular video-website, in 2010, YouTube Rewind : A Year in Review, was the first official annual look-back by the company. A simple Top 10 list format of the most popular uploads of the year, Rewind was an obvious recipe for success and a positive appraisal of the platform’s wide spectrum of content.
Soon, Rewind became a yearly staple for the site. In 2012, YouTube changed the formula as the site became more and more popular in the social zeitgeist, involving elaborate appearances from the platform’s most recognizable content creators, from gamers to vloggers to makeup artists, as the mini-movies integrated the year’s biggest tracks and trends. This formula worked quite well for several years, but over time, YouTube’s slightly utopian view of its site led to increasing backlash. This all culminated in the infamous 2018 YouTube Rewind; as Will Smith told viewers how much he liked to play Fortnite, before an odd selection of creators began awkwardly replicating memes and praising people for using their voice in a way that many saw as in insincere, sanitised and all together very out-of-touch. YouTube Rewind became a source of mockery, with the general users berating the company for being “cringe” and for hand-picking creators that were seen as YouTube’s most family-friendly, excluding some of the actual most-popular channels.
After a tumultuous few years, Game Rant reports that a YouTube spokesperson has confirmed the series is canceled until further notice. Rewind 2018 went on to become the site’s most disliked video of all time, causing YouTube to desperately seek a new direction; uploading a less-extravagant list video in 2019, before missing Rewind altogether in 2020 following the Global crisis faced by everyone. According to the site, YouTube Rewind as fans know it will no longer be a star-studded production montage and the company will shift its focus elsewhere from 2021 as it hints at some form of interactive event instead.
Rewind has been a source of great entertainment for users over the years, and although it became a subject of derision and mockery in its final form, many people will be sad to see the annual tradition go. Some disenfranchised channels even began to upload their own versions of Rewind in recent years to rival the more corporate, official one, claiming their Rewinds to be truer to the spirit of celebration, and not shying away from more controversial creators and trends. YouTube has acknowledged these unofficial retrospectives, and said it will continue to support them (though not through sponsorship), and in the meantime, the video-platform company will take a back seat as they search for a new medium to explore.
Though some will be glad they don’t have to sit through celebrities doing Fortnite dances and content creators self-praising one another around a campfire ever again, the fun tradition will certainly leave a void on the popular site, but it could open up an opportunity for more independent creators to celebrate their achievements yearly in a way that represents them, and not in a way that represents the corporation instead. What YouTube has planned for the future, for now, remains unknown.
Source: Game Rant
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