Young People Shaping YouTube
YouTube was created in February 2005 by three guys, Steven Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, and is now the third most popular site on the internet, after Facebook and Google. For most of us YouTube is the first place to find a video, while for a talented and creative segment of YouTubers, it has become a place of countless opportunity. YouTubers are transforming the face of entertainment, business, news, music and more. Tempo’s Mirriam and Shaheer Akbar reviewed top YouTubers who are making an impact.
QIAS OMAR
Qias Omar embraced YouTube from the outset. The young Afghani-American from California has been making YouTube videos since late 2007 is someone I’ve also been a long time fan of. Qias mainly creates comedy sketches, parodies, and pranks. As a child Qias would make comedic videos, whether they were home videos or videos posted on MySpace, so when YouTube launched Qias jumped on board, posting his videos.
Qias made Middle Eastern and Asian sketches with cultural refences that young Middle Eastern Americans and Asian Americans living in the US identified with. He features cultural traditions in comedy sketches that break down stereotypes. His first video “Afghan Fight For Dinner Bill!!” is an example. His fans love his videos for their originality and humour.
Aside from Middle Eastern and Asian videos, Qias has made funny sketches and parodies of trends and music. His parody of Maroon 5’s song ‘Payphone’ and his take on ‘The Harlem Shake’ both have over a million hits. He’s also done a couple of interesting prank videos, like the “Shopping Cart Prank.” He also has the Thirsty Guy Prank where he demonstrates how two girls, one wearing hijab, and another wearing short pants, are perceived, and treated differently.
Qias’s fan-base has grown a lot over the years, and he now has over 70,000 subscribers. He’s travelled to different events around the US and Canada, where he met his fans and performed for them. A skilled actor, Qias has a knack for comedy and timing. He also uses his platform as a positive message to inspire young people to follow their dreams, do what they love, and to persevere.
HOBBIE STUART
No one’s YouTube star as a singer is shining bright quite like that of Roberto Stuart da Cunha Lima, professionally known as Hobbie Stuart. Hobbie is a singer and songwriter from Brighton, England who joined YouTube in late 2010 and has been uploading covers of songs as well as original songs ever since. With the help of his friend Alex Wells, he’s able to put his own unique twist on all his videos.
Hobbie knows how to play the guitar and had a fair amount of experience in music, doing shows around his hometown. But it wasn’t until the day Hobbie joined YouTube that he decided to pursue music as a career, and from that moment on grabbed the attention of hundreds of thousands of viewers from around the world.
Hobbie has over 160,000 subscribers and has millions of hits in six of his videos. His cover of Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’ alone has over five million views! Some of his original songs like ‘July Rain’ have garnered critical acclaim, while ‘How We Lived’ is a great example of Hobbie’s talent not only in singing, but also in songwriting. Hobbie’s fans have been supportive of his YouTube channel, and his approach to music – from vocals, to song choice, to the way he makes each song his own.
JORDAN MARON
Jordan Maron, a famous YouTuber from California, has been making a name for himself on YouTube as ‘CaptainSparklez’ for quite some time. In 2010 he opened a second channel under the name CaptainSparklez, to differentiate it from the explicit-language format of the first channel. Jordan Maron is a gameplay commentator on YouTube and also comments on ‘Trials Evolution’, ‘Happy Wheels’, and ‘Portal’. He is also known for his parodies of popular songs, changing lyrics to fit the Minecraft world.
It wasn’t until his senior year, that he began to make ‘Call Of Duty’ gameplay videos. Jordan was also given the opportunity to be a director at Machinima (every gamer’s dream) and then partnering with the company and uploading content more frequently.
Now a fulltime YouTuber, Jordan is a Lets Player with two video postings a day. At last count he has over seven million subscribers and his channel is the fifth solo-gaming channel to reach one billion views. His parody videos like ‘TNT’, ‘Revenge’, ‘Kingdom’, ‘Minecraft Style’ and ‘Take Back The Night’ all have views of between 20 million to 120 million hits. Jordan has not only made a significant contribution to YouTube, but also to the gaming community.
Credits & Links:
www.youtube.com/QiasOmar Twitter.com/QiasOmar
www.youtube.com/HobbieStuartMusic Twitter.com/HobbieStuart
www.youtube.com/CaptainSparklez Twitter.com/CaptainSparklez
Mirriam Akbar www.inmirzwords.wordpress.com
Shaheer Akbar www.youtube.com/ShaheerTV
