YouTube: Blast From the Past, The Best and The Worst

Now a days, YouTube seems like a second nature thing. The most popular of videos over the last 10 years to be watched were all music videos of the current popularity. But YouTube has not always been about what's behind the music. Today you could Vlog, or video blog. You can create "How To" tutorials. You can post reaction videos to other videos or things going on in the media. You can post rants and raves about things your passionate about. You can post commentary on anything from games to movies to other YouTube videos. YouTube is now a free form of self expression for anyone for just about any topic.

Have you thought about where it all started? Of course, I'm going to tell you. YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. The domain name "YouTube.com" was activated on February 14, 2005 with video upload options being integrated on April 23, 2005. The first YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, was uploaded on April 23, 2005, and shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo, I mean, obviously, right?

During the summer of 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest growing sites on the World Wide Web, hosting more than 65,000 new video uploads. The site delivered an average of 100 million video views per day in July. It was ranked the fifth-most-popular website on Alexa, far out-pacing even MySpace's rate of growth. The website averaged nearly 20 million visitors per month according to Nielsen/NetRatings, with around 44% female and 56% male visitors. The 12- to 17-year-old age group was dominant. YouTube's pre-eminence in the online market was substantial. According to the website Hitwise.com, YouTube commanded up to 64% of the UK online video market. 

On October 9, 2006, it was announced that the company would be purchased by Google for US $1.65 billion in stock, which was completed on November 13. At that time it was Google's second-largest acquisition. The agreement between Google and YouTube came after YouTube presented three agreements with media companies in an attempt to avoid copyright-infringement lawsuits. YouTube planned to continue operating independently, with its co-founders and 67 employees working within Google.

Google's February 7, 2007 SEC filing revealed the breakdown of profits for YouTube's investors after the sale to Google. In 2010, Chad Hurley's profit was more than $395 million while Steve Chen's profit was more than $326 million.

Over the next 10 years, the company won many awards, including the Peabody Award (2008). The company also had so much exposure in the media while being the media. Now lets go through a blast from the past and hit all the most viewed videos from each year since YouTube became the new hit thing.

2006

Evolution of Dance - 300 million views

Just about everyone has seen this video at least one time and at least half of you have tried to do the dance!  So many others have done their own rendition of it and posted replies to the video itself. But nobody can top the original Evolution of Dance.

2007

Charlie Bit my Finger - 852 million views

What I remember most about this video when it was so popular was everyone and their mother was quoting the "Charlie Bit My Finger" bit. As an American, it can tend to be addicting to speak in another accent, especially an English accent. Needless to say, as annoying as everyone was trying to attempt it, this video is still one of the most adorable for child videos.

2008

Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist - 63 million views

It takes true talent to really become famous in the olden days. Jeff Dunham has one of the most dying out talents I've ever seen. Ventriloquism, the beautiful dead art, is what has given this man so many personalities, including the one that made this video the most watch video of 2008. Say hello to Achmed.

2009

JK Wedding Entrance Dance - 33+ million views

Every girl dreams of their wedding down to the intricate details, but whoever was behind the original entrance dance is a pure genius. So many attempts to recreate have been posted since the original in 2009, but as similar as they all are the original has the most spunk and originality. But it sure looks like a hell of a lot of fun!

Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent - 120 million views

This was the first time that the world was open to the idea that beauty is deeper than skin deep. In the beginning of Susan's audition, Simon is utterly rude to her based off of her appearance.  Check out the video to see his reactions to how amazing she really is!

2010

The Bed Intruder Song Parody -- 50 million views

Around this time, it was very "hip" to create parody videos of natural things that happen. In this instance, the original video was an exclusive interview on the news from some sort of incident in a neighborhood. Of course the world made its own spin on it.

2011

The Ultimate Dog Tease - 75 million views

YouTube was often used to create nothing but comedy on every level. One of my favorites was speaking for people or things that can't actually speak. Like Dogs. Seriously, take a listen to this before you start to wonder what is going on in your pets head at home when you're talking to it.

2012

Gangnam Style - 2914 million views

I have almost no words for this video. There is not a single person that hasn't seen it or at least heard it. Believe me, after the 5th time of hearing it, you'll hate it too.

2013

What Does The Fox Say?

I can't imagine the muse for this song and video. Everyone is entitle to their own free expression, but even I, one of the creative types, don't understand where they were going with this one. But Kudos for originality.

NFL Bad Lip Reading

Pure Comedy. Enough said.

2014

Let It Go - Frozen - 84 million views

Despite that this was from a Disney movie, it represents such a wonderful message to kids everywhere. Moving forward with whatever is holding you back and possibly singing along with someone who makes all of us sound like rock stars!

2015

Electric Fence Challenge

The first time that I saw this, I almost peed myself from laughing so hard.  What makes this video the most entertaining from this girls poor stupidity is the unexpected ending. No spoilers, but trust me, its worth the watch!

2016

Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen  -  123,516,252 views

Why?  Just why?  This is a day in age Gangnam Style, but with better dance moves.

2017 so far --

Despisito

I tried my best to find videos that were strictly not music videos. 2011-2017 was even more challenging because that is solely what YouTube is for anymore. Official videos, covers, lyric videos, etc.  Its a place to get discovered. And so far this year, nothing really stands out besides the one and only J. Biebs. The collaboration with Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi is really one of the most catchy jingles of the year on top of being one of the more main stream Latina albums across all boards of genre. Though, the radio could probably play it a little less so it doesn't die out so quickly.

Some of these were wonderful, others were popular for their plain stupidity. But society likes what it likes, regardless of its sanity. What will be the next big thing?  Maybe you should start a Vlog or channel and be as famous as Jenna Marbles or Jimmy Fallon. Send me your favorites that you follow!