(Roughly) Daily

The internet runs on an attention economy. Those with the most views, clicks, retweets, likes, and friends win. That’s why Petit Tube is so wonderful: it presents only the least-viewed videos on YouTube. It’s a bare-bones site, streaming video after video (1:30 long tops), with two buttons: “cette vidéo est bien? and “cette vidéo n’est pas bien?” Thumbs up or thumbs down.

To say Petit Tube curates videos is probably an overstatement. Real estate tours with corny music aren’t popular for a reason. But even they have their charm, and you’ll also find the occasional gem of found poetry…

Consider this, for example: a Chinese youth orchestra’s rendition of “Scarborough Fair” (up to over 500 views as of this post, surely as a function of it’s featured place in the rotation on Petit Tube)…

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Read more about this celebration of the wonderfully weird at Studio 360‘s “Introducing the least viral videos on the internet,” and then dive into the wonder that is Petit Tube… where “with 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, Petit Tube [is unlikely] run out of material anytime soon.”

* Napoleon

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As we ponder popularity, we might recall that it was on this date in 1965 that Bob Dylan was booed off stage at the Newport Jazz Festival during his first public performance with electric instruments (and a band that included Michael Bloomfield and Al Kooper)… The cat-calling began with his opening number, “Maggie’s Farm,” and continued through three more songs, after which Dylan left the stage. As a peace offering to Pete Seeger and other aggrieved organizers, Dylan returned later to do two acoustic numbers… but the die was cast; thereafter, his career was electrically-powered…

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For a sense of just how far things have come, check out Johnny Winter’s version of “Highway 61,” taped at a 1992 tribute to Dylan (on the occasion of 30th anniversary as a recording artist):

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