As I was writing an essay for my ‘Music in Popular Culture’ subject, I stumbled upon an online video that I found quite interesting. William Pharrell released a music video some time last year for one of his hits, Happy, and it received much response from his fans and the media due to how unique of a video it was.

It was a “never-ending” music video, which played on and on and wouldn’t stop till you closed the window. It held the title as the world’s first 24-hour music video, and it’s great because you can actually control the time of the day. Initially I wondered why he did that – does he want to deliver a message of some sort or is it simply for publicity purposes? Maybe both, but either way, the video managed to leave a mark as the first music video of its kind. Which, is pretty cool.

Quite a lot goes on in the video, and it is mostly people dancing and lip-syncing to his song. It isn’t too interesting in its narrative structure but what stands out is the fact that it is a video much unlike the others on YouTube. In fact, this one has a webpage all to itself.

Before I began classes in this studio, I used to think of online video as simply one that lived on YouTube. Need a tutorial on how to use Adobe Illustrator? YouTube’s got you. Want to keep up with your favourite artists? YouTube’s got you. Looking for something to keep you entertained while waiting for your girlfriend to get ready? YouTube’s got you.

On the contrary, YouTube may be one of the most popular platforms for online video, but there is more to that than what is on YouTube. You’ve got webpages like the one for Pharrell’s music video, you’ve got Vimeo and DailyMotion, you’ve even got social media services like Instagram and Twitter. The possibilities are never-ending.