David Bates

Earlier this week, YouTube celebrated its fifth anniversary. Coincidentally, a couple of days earlier it emerged that Constantin Films – the movie company behind the Oscar-nominated movie about Hitler’s final days, Downfall ­– was actively working with YouTube to remove the vast number of video clips from the film from Google’s video-sharing website  (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/apr/21/downfall-hitler)

“We’re taking a simple approach: take them all down,” Martin Moszkowicz, head of Constantin Films has said. “The important thing is to protect our copyright. We are very proud of the film.”

However, unlike most copyrighted clips on YouTube that are uploaded and then removed, these videos are one of the most endearing and creative memes of recent years. They take a pivotal scene from the movie and  then change the subtitles, so instead of Hitler raging at his generals about their failure to stop the oncoming Allies, he is depicted ranting about the cancellation of his Xbox Live subscription, the relegation of a football team or that Oasis have split.

The genius of these parodies is that by venting apocalyptic fury on trivialities, Hitler’s inappropriate anger renders him infantile and ridiculous. Significantly, these are the minor frustrations of everyday life: the videos are not only parodying Hitler, they are parodying contemporary society. It is too easy to see ourselves (or people we know) as this angry little man who is upset because Twitter is unavailable.

Popular Culture

To most people, ‘popular culture’ is the latest edition of X-Factor, Big Brother or American Idol. However, while there is a popular element to these shows, they are arguably more about mass culture imposed by the elites onto the masses. Despite the reality show traditions of telephone voting, public auditions and ordinary people taking centre stage, they are produced and created by media companies. While they are certainly ‘popular’ in terms of their appeal, they are not ‘popular’ in terms of their origin and some academics have argued that ‘popular culture’ is actually a form of subversion against dominant forms of authority.

However, it isYouTube where contemporary popular culture is perhaps most explicitly realised. Significantly, this is not only through the Downfall parodies, their cousins the ‘literal music videos’ (where song lyrics are replaced by lyrics describing the visuals of the video), or even Rickrolling, but also through the very concept of YouTube which undermines the traditional audio/video mediums of television and film.

Traditional tv and movies have very real economic and distribution barriers to creating videos for mass audiences. YouTube in effect allows anyone with a camcorder or web camera to broadcast themselves to the world. This is no better illustrated than in the most popular video on the site is currently ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ which is little more than a minute long clip of a baby biting his brother’s finger, recorded by his father. Critically, as the third most visited website on the internet, YouTube allows ordinary people to reach huge audiences.

This video has been removed due to terms of use violation

The long shadow of copyright hangs heavy over YouTube. ‘This video has been removed due to terms of use’ is cropping up on embedded videos all over the web, as copyright holders actively seek to protect their interests. However, the decision to remove the Downfall parodies from YouTube illustrates that this is not just a commercial matter, but is the latest incarnation of a long power struggle between establishment forces and the masses over popular culture.

For much of the 20^th century, mass popular culture was produced by large media organisations and expressed through television, music and movies. Other forms of popular culture existed, but these were produced and consumed on a small scale. In contrast, the internet allows ordinary people to create, publish and distribute to a mass audience. This enables an autonomous popular culture to exist outside of and counter to, the mass culture produced by huge media corporations.

As copyrighted material is removed from YouTube, so are corporations muscling in on the website: music videos and tv shows are being legitimately uploaded by music companies and broadcasters. This double edged process of uploading ‘official’ content while also removing unofficial videos, arguably reflects an attempt to maintain control over what defines contemporary popular culture.

However, this battle between ordinary users and big bad media groups is something of a misnomer. YouTube itself is owned by one of the largest corporations in the world: Google and while people can upload videos on its network, YouTube ultimately has control over their distribution and has the power to remove videos from the web. That they are liable for lawsuits for copyright infringement will ensure they will have a cautious attitude to protecting the rights of copyright holders.

If popular culture is indeed subversive and oppositional to dominant power structures, then it is significant that one of the largest expressions of popular culture on the internet is tightly controlled and policed. That there is so much focus on commercial interests rather than censoring messages that upset political or moral sensibilities (as in the past) reflects the relative importance (and power) of commerce in contemporary society.

However, no matter how big YouTube is, it isn’t the only way to upload video. As quick as the Downfall videos are being taken down, they are being uploaded elsewhere. The audience may not be as big but genuine popular culture will always finds a way to express itself.