Singer Psy's 'Gangnam Style' and the children's song 'Baby Shark' have been cited as pivotal moments in the 20-year history of the world's largest video platform, YouTube.
The New York Times (NYT) selected 18 'biggest moments' on YouTube in celebration of its 20th anniversary on the 23rd. The NYT highlighted the first video uploaded by one of YouTube's co-founders, Jawed Karim, titled 'Me at the zoo,' along with the emergence of Canadian singer Justin Bieber, who became a global star after posting on YouTube, and U.S. comedian Conan O'Brien's grants appearance on YouTube as important moments.
'Gangnam Style' was included as a 'significant moment' as it was the first video to surpass 1 billion views on the internet. The NYT noted, 'Psy is a South Korean singer and rapper who released the music video for his song ‘Gangnam Style’ in July 2012, and by the end of that year, it became the first video to surpass 1 billion views on the internet.' It also added that Psy mentioned in a 2022 interview, 'The song was written by the same person, the choreography was created by the same person, and the performance was done by the same person. Everything was the same, so what made that one song so special?'
The NYT remarked on 'Baby Shark,' saying, 'The conquest of the world quietly began when SmartStudy, a children’s content production company based in Seoul, uploaded the song's video to YouTube under the Pinkfong brand in Nov. 2015.' It continued, 'Pinkfong remixed the song and added new beats, and the addictive version of 'Baby Shark' was released in June 2016. By November 2020, this video became the most viewed video in YouTube history, maintaining its No. 1 spot with 15.8 billion views to date.'
The NYT also recognized MrBeast's 'Squid Game,' which has 200 million followers, as one of the 18 important moments. MrBeast's most popular content was the video titled, 'Playing real-life Squid Game for $456,000!' released in Nov. 2021. It featured a survival game where actual money was at stake, modeled after the Netflix original Korean drama 'Squid Game,' written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk.