Yuhhhhhhhh, it's Rewind time!
The original “Rewind” of how they came to be from
2012-2018
So as most people who watched a good amount of YouTube in the 2010s know, there used to be this thing towards the end of the year called "YouTube Rewind". "YouTube Rewind" was a big production video made by YouTube itself originally intended to be a highlight of the main videos, music, trends, and creators on the platform of the last year. Initially it was something a lot of people would look forward to every year. Then it started to… change a bit.
Over the years it was starting to get noticeably more corporate. Sure, it always had some big stars, especially in the music space since YouTube had become the place for music videos, but the primary focus in the early years was usually on the people who made YouTube what it was: the content creators. But of course as YouTube gets bigger, "YouTube Rewind" must get bigger which means less focus on mid-size channels, and more on who brings the biggest views and advertising bucks.
YouTube was going through a big change in the mid-late 2010s. The Rewinds got more corporate because YouTube was more corporate. Google needed to find some way to make money on the platform, so everything became ads, ads, ads. And who do advertisers want, but the safest multi-million view channels like large music creators, late night TV, and celebrities of course. The kind of views Jimmy Fallon was pulling back in the day was astounding. But all of this came to a head in "YouTube Rewind 2018".
Everyone was ready to watch this one just hoping that it would be better after the 2017 one featured long segments with fidget spinners and the Paul brothers. Everyone clicked the video and all of their hearts sank at the same time when Will Smith appeared on their screen.
Reupload of 2018 Rewind
"Yuhhhhhhhh, it's Rewind time!" he says.
"If I controlled Rewind, I would want Fortnite—" ALL RIGHT, WILL SMITH, let me stop you right there buddy!
But it gets worse.
Yay, it's Ninja, the Fortnite streamer who gained most of his notoriety from a different streaming platform, Twitch. Makes sense makes sense.
Eventually, we cut to a group of people around a one day infamous campfire. This is where it actually gets bad.
"There's one thing this video needs… K-Pop!". GROOOOOOAAAAAAANNNNN.
What's next? Ah yes, slime, Marshmello, and mukbang… wonderful.
At this point we're almost halfway though and we've only seen like maybe 20 YouTubers. Previous Rewinds at least had upwards of 100 creators. Maybe the second half will be better…
OH GOD NO! Why are Trever Noah and John Oliver doing Fortnite dances!? Who made this!?
Wait hold up! Things are about to get serious for a second.
"You know who really deserves to be in Rewind, everyone who managed to do something bigger than themselves this year". Okay, where are we going with this? Oh look, it's Markiplier for half a second.
"For everyone who showed that it's okay to talk about mental health struggles." "It takes great bravery, and I'm so proud of this community." "Can we give a moment to Asian representation in entertainment this year."
Okay, I see, YouTube. You're gonna go around and give a few groups some flower's so your giant company can feel good about itself this year. Isn't that great only 2 years after their algorithm fueled a rise of far right and white nationalist views that indirectly led to the whole mess we have today. Go ahead YouTube, feel proud of what you've done for mental health and racial minorities in the US. Well at least the Rewind can't get worse from here, right…
"Here's to all women in 2018 for finding their voices"
…
So we're just gonna shout out allllllll women now!? Dear god, I want to crawl into a dark hole. Okay it's almost over. Just a little more to get through. Back to regularly scheduled Rewind.
yay, "High Hopes" by Panic at the Disco! and "Baby Shark". wonderful. Play us out, Will Smith!
"Ah, that's hot! That's hot!"
I gotta say, rewatching "Rewind 2018" for this post made me realize it was even worse than I remembered. How did we deal with this back in the day. I suppose I should give "Rewind 2018" some flowers. It did a way better job of featuring non-English speaking creators than previous years. Andddddd… welp, that’s all I've got.
"YouTube Rewind 2018" was such a failure that they stopped making Rewinds after it. The 2019 "Rewind" was just a top 10 list in a few different categories. "Rewind 2018" became the most disliked YouTube video of all time.
I think it's fair to say YouTube wanted to end Rewind. Clearly, 2018 had a much smaller budget than previous years. YouTube made a monster and they wanted to kill it. And they did. Now a decade later, all Rewinds have been deleted from YouTube.
Warning: Ben Shapiro jumpscare
And now all we have are the memes and memories.
Say what you will (hehe); Will Smith is why this is remembered. I'm still quoting him in this Rewind to this day. And after this monstrosity, the main good we had is that people made other YouTube Rewinds meant to really highlight 2018. How's that for positive memeing?! Sometimes you've got to turn some particularly sucky lemons into lemonade. And in divisive times maybe all we needed was one crappy Rewind to unify the internet.
I’m so proud of this community.
