YouTube Rewind 2011




It's basically a Watchmojo list with Rebecca Black as your host. As annoying as her voice is, this list had a lot of strong videos on it like Lonely Island's awesome parody songs and even covers from talented young Filipinos like Maria Aragon. Sadly, we couldn't stand hearing Rebecca Black's voice for over a couple of minutes so we had to put this video in last place.



YouTube Rewind 2010: Year in Review




It really says something about how unlikeable a person is when they're absence in a video makes it a lot better. Still, nothing special about this video so it gets a pretty sorry spot on the list.



YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind | #YouTubeRewind




This is where things get interesting because YouTube actually made an effort to make this one good, sadly, we think they did a bit too much. This is a perfect example of a video that looks amazing on paper but falls short if it wasn't managed well. It takes a lot to make Will Smith look bad but thanks to some really bad editing and video directing, it turned a video with so much potential into a cringefest. This video was so bad that we audibly said “Oh no” when Baby Shark came on. Everything just so over-the-top and fake that it made it so hypocritical to watch them discuss real-world issues.



YouTube Rewind 2019: For the Record | #YouTubeRewind

 


The main criticism we read from everyone was that it felt like YouTube didn't really try to make a good video this year. Instead, they just sort of backtracked as to not waste money and effort on something that their audience might possibly hate. We can't really blame them but us fans are pretty disappointed and worried for the future of YouTube Rewind.


YouTube Rewind: The Shape of  2017 | #YouTubeRewind




This video was actually shot really well. Cinematography and choreography were spot on and we even had Niana Guerrero to rep the Philippine content creators for a second or two. That said, we barely knew anyone on the video, which is a testament to how diverse YouTube has become but at the same time shows you how they tend to play favorites with advertiser friendly content creators. This Rewind also had Logan and Jake Paul in it so that’s automatically puts it down a few places.


YouTube Rewind: The Ultimate 2016 Challenge | #YouTubeRewind




We think that the idea for bringing in WIll Smith came from the success Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had here in 2016. This video probably had the best choreography ever just because of how visually compelling each scene is individually from the Water Bottle Flip Challenge to Pineapple Pen Guy party bus, everything was pretty lit and almost everyone seemed to have a good time. 



YouTube Rewind: What Does 2013 Say?




This is the first video to feature the music of DJ Earworm so there's a noticeable change in how the video was tackled. First of all the cast of the video got A LOT bigger, which started the thread of making YouTube Rewinds "mashups" of different kinds of content and trends.


2013 is also the first instance of Talk Show hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon being featured by YouTube, which shows a lot about how YouTube was inserting itself into mainstream consciousness aka TV of early 2010s.


But, it was really worrisome to most YouTube viewers at the time was the clear censorship and favoritism of YouTube when it came to featuring only advertiser friendly content. Heck, they didn’t even include FilthyFrankTV, the guy who came up with “Harlem Shake.”





Here’s another video that actually includes all the other content creators that YouTube didn’t really like being associated to.




Rewind YouTube Style 2012




This was YouTube Rewind's first attempt at making the annual roundup into something much bigger. PSY’s Gangnam Style completely took over YouTube and radio stations that year so the entire theme of the video was centered on that. We also got a bit of Carly Rae Jepsen, Walk Off The Earth, fetus Kassem G and other OG YouTubers that's always welcome.


YouTube Rewind: Turn Down for 2014 | #YouTubeRewind




This was definitely that start of YouTube becoming more culturally diverse. The video took a lot of influence from the different cultures their content creators like Bilingirl Chika. HolaSoyGerman, Lily Singh, to name a few, belonged to. They were also featuring more YouTube channels, of course with people like PewDiePie being the face. This video also reminded us of how hot Michelle Phan was and the fact that the first Frozen movie was six years ago. 



YouTube Rewind: Now Watch Me 2015 | #YouTubeRewind




People often refer to this one as the last good YouTube Rewind. We think that this partly had to do with 2014 being one of the best years YouTube has ever had because the platform actually felt like it supported the growth of smaller channels as long as they had quality content.


The bus was actually on the ground this time.


WatchMojo.com's YouTube's 2019 Rewind: Fixed




WatchMojo.com actually responded to the comments that YouTube copied their format by making one of the most savage response on how to fix YouTube Rewind. We really recommend that you watch it because it does a really good job tackling really serious topics like ones we've written about before in a non-hypocritical and genuine way.