Did K-Pop Win At The YouTube Music Awards?

Tonight (3 November, I find myself writing this now at 2am, after the show finished after midnight here in the UK) saw the first ever YouTube Music Awards ceremony take place. The event was streamed live on YouTube, and was presented by Hollywood actor / musician Jason Schwartzman and comedian / musician Reggie Watts. The ceremony itself was largely unscripted and improvised, and featured live performances by Arcade Fire, Walk Off The Earth, Lady Gaga, Avicii, M.I.A., and Eminem.

Over the last few weeks, YouTube viewers have been voting by posting and sharing the official video links of their favourite nominees to Twitter, Google+, and Facebook; the more shares each nominee got, and for every subsequent share, the more votes the respective videos accumulated.

As I wrote in my previous "K-Pop At The YouTube Music Awards" blog post, we had seen that K-Pop had made quite an impact over the last year, and in doing so had made an appearance among the nominees in four of the six categories.

Both PSY and Girls' Generation were up for the Video of the Year award, with "Gentleman" and "I Got A Boy" respectively. PSY was also in the running for the Artist of the Year award, and his song "Gangnam Style" was nominated for the YouTube Phenomenon award.

"Gangnam Style" was also featured in the Response of the Year award, for Jayesslee's acoustic cover version.

Results

K-Pop At The YouTube Music Awards - Vote For Nominees Before November 3

Pretty much everyone knows about YouTube of course; even my parents, so if you've visited the site at any time recently, it probably hasn't escaped your attention that YouTube are holding their very own awards ceremony on November 3.

This year sees the first ever YouTube Music Awards (YTMA's), and fans of Asian music may be pleased to know that K-Pop has made an appearance in the nominees of four of the six different categories.

In recent years, K-Pop has become hugely popular the world over, and seems to have an ever growing online presence. It has had quite an impact in the mainstream media, thanks largely to PSY's worldwide smash hit song; the infectious "Gangnam Style", released last year. Whether or not K-Pop, or other Asian music can continue to make any more of an impact remains to be seen, but with K-Pop girl group Girls' Generation also making an appearance in the list of potential winners, it certainly is encouraging.



The six different awards categories are: Video of the Year, Artist of the Year, YouTube Breakthrough, YouTube Phenomenon, Innovation of the Year, and Response of the Year.