It was up to the viewers to decide which acts got the prizes at the first annual YouTube Music Awards, presented by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts on Manhattan's Pier 36.
BY JIM FARBER / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2013, 9:40 PM
JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC FOR YOUTUBE
Eminem took home the Artist of the Year prize at the first YouTube Music Awards.
The web site that sicked Psy’s “Gangnam Style” on the world, forked over its first prizes for music clips on Sunday.
The brand new “YouTube Music Awards” streamed live over the net from an event held at Pier 36, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The program, co-hosted by comic actor Jason Schwartzman and comedian/musician Reggie Watts, handed out six prizes, and showcased performances by stars as looming as Lady Gaga, Eminem, Arcade Fire, M.I.A. and Avicii.
While YouTube has been holding awards shows since 2006, this marked their first program devoted entirely to song.
ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS
Vanessa Hudgens was ready to hit the stage at the YouTube Music Awards, where she joined Michael Shannon to shoot a live music video.
The night instantly distinguished itself from all other music awards shows with a brilliant gimmick: The performers created what amounted to live music clips, some directed by the show’s creative overseer, movie auteur Spike Jonez. Each artist performed on dramatic sets, employed elaborate back projections and featured costumed actors. Arcade Fire staged a choreographed phantasm for “Afterlife,” in which a depressed housewife broke free of her dank kitchen to roam through a wild forrest before joining the band in a joyous dance. Lady Gaga countered her usual high style by sporting a dowdy flannel shirt, a trucker’s cap and no make-up while performing her new ballad “Dope.” Crying floridly, she delivered the song at the piano as a high-strung hymn to need.
The piece scored by EDM DJ Avicii boasted a full scenario by Lena Dunham. As the story progressed, the hosts of the show allowed the live audience to decide on a sweeter or a more violent ending to the story. They opted, enthusiastically, for gore.
JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC FOR YOUTUBE
'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' co-stars Michael Cera (left) and Jason Schwartzman do some cleaning up onstage at the YouTube Music Awards.
In between such insta-videos, Schwartzman and Watts vamped through shtick graced by only the vaguest script. Some winners were revealed through a treasure hunt, with one name hidden in a series of cakes, another lost “somewhere” on the set.
YouTube’s decision to mount its first foray into the self-congratulatory world of music awards dovetails with its increasing power in the industry. In the last few years, the web site has become the primary way fans hear new music. It’s also a key way for them to participate in it, fashioning own tribute, and parody clips. The ascent of YouTube’s influence reached a peak this year when Billboard elected to count “views” and “likes” from the site in the figures which decide no fewer than 7 of their current charts, including the powerful Hot 100 Song list.
Winners of Sunday’a prizes were decided by YouTube viewers. Schwartzman claimed 16 million fans cast votes. Their choices included Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for “Breakthrough Video,” (“Thrift Shop”), and Eminem (Artist of the Year), who performed a minimalist “Rap God” at the event. Also acknowledged were YouTube-created artists like Lindsay Sterling (for “Response of the Year”) and - for “Video of the Year” - Girls Generation, a K-pop group known in the U.S. mainly through the site.
JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC FOR YOUTUBE
Lady Gaga debuts another new look at the YouTube Music Awards, where she performed her new song 'Dope,' the 13th of her upcoming album, 'Artpop.'
In a nod to the MTV Awards, Arcade Fire’s Win Butler interrupted the win for Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” (as “YouTubePhenomenon”), a la Kanye West’s rude intrusion of yore. He insisted “Harlem Shake” should have gotten the prize. Otherwise, YouTube’s show had a freshness like no other awards show, as well as a brevity. It came in just under 90 minutes. Oscars take note.
DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/GETTY IMAGES
M.I.A. attends the YouTube Music Awards, where she performed 'Come Walk With Me.'
Winners List:
- Artist of the Year: Eminem
- Response of the Year: Lindsay Sterling and Pentatonix “Radioactive”
- YouTube Phenomenon: Taylor Swift “I Knew You Were Trouble”
- YouTube Breakthrough: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
- Innovation of the Year: DeStorm “See Me Standing”
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