The inaugural YouTube music awards aired live across the internet from Pier 36 in New York on Sunday night, a messy affair that achieved its goal of being the antithesis of regular awards ceremonies: not least because the hosts, Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts, ended the night covered in paint and fake blood.
Somewhere among the chaos, the hosts presented awards in seven categories – giving winners a small, shiny, YouTube logo or, as innovation of the year winner DeStorm called it, “the dopest paperweight”.
The goal of the show's creative director, Spike Jonze, was to be prepared for as little as possible – each host was armed solely with a list of bullet points about the awards, all of which were voted on by YouTube users.
“I’m used to that and that’s the way I like to work," said Watts, whose favourite YouTube video is an hour-long UFO documentary.
“I cannot reiterate how we had no idea what was going to happen, ever," said Schwartzman after the show. "All we had on the cards were the next award, but there were no lines and nothing scripted and we had no idea what was going to happen next.”
That simple premise did not satisfy the show producer, so the hosts were also presented with "obstacles” . Just 20 minutes into the show, the hosts’ humorous diatribe was interrupted as they were sent to the VIP section where actress Rashida Jones presented them with two babies, then walked away once the hosts had them in hand.
Schwartzman, a father, was visibly upset as the baby he held cried, and repeatedly said he was concerned about the loud music – one of several elements that helped create an over-stimulating environment, even for mature adults watching from the comfort of their screens.
"I can’t speak for the baby, nor can the baby speak for itself, but it seemed like the baby just wanted its mother more than it was nervous to meet me,” he joked later, adding that the baby stopped crying when she was returned to her mother.
The show had glimmers of promise during the live music video segments, in which filmmakers including Jonze, Fafi and Chris Milk showed off their talent and seized on the crowd of revellers to create some genuinely impressive images.
Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler the Creator rapped Sasquatch in a pink cube filled with enthusiastic kids fight-dancing toward the cameras. Lady Gaga dressed as a male skateboarder for a piano ballad – the live premiere of her song Dope, backed by an enraptured audience. MIA held a brightly-lit parade filled with hula-hooping dancers and paint-throwing for her Come Walk With Me video.
The consistently artful videos strayed into gimmick territory in DJ Avicii's short film, which paired a sullen concert-goer with the mocking stereotype of a rave girl, against a foreign DJ and the concertgoer's ex-girlfriend, played by Vanessa Hudgens.
Towards the end of the film, both pairs froze in place and the in-house audience was invited to vote on whether the prior pair could “hail a taxi, meet each other's parents and have some soup” or partake in a “double tragedy”. Audience members were overwhelmingly in favour of tragedy, which resulted in a mock double-suicide from the ceiling, replete with red string guts splayed on the audience below.
Award winners:
Video of the year
Girls' Generation – I Got A Boy
Artist of the year
Eminem
Response of the year
Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix – Radioactive
YouTube phenomenon
I Knew You Were Trouble
YouTube breakthrough
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Innovation of the year
DeStorm – See Me Standing
