YouTube Decade Shows You the Most Popular Videos From 10 Years Ago
If you’re the type of person who lives for Facebook’s "On This Day" notifications and religiously checks Timehop to see what you were tweeting about seven years ago, YouTube Decade might be your next nostalgia-related obsession.
According to Lifehacker, the site compiles the most popular videos uploaded to YouTube on that day exactly 10 years ago. Since it shows you the top video in each of eight different categories—music, comedy, film and animation, entertainment, news and politics, pets and animals, sports, and gaming—the site offers an intriguing snapshot of what was going on in the world at the time. For instance, on September 4, 2009, Mumford and Sons released the video for “Little Lion Man,” which helped catapult the band into the mainstream music scene, and actor Jon Voight appeared on national news to share his opinions on federal politics.
YouTube Decade also reminds us that some things never change. The top video in the “pets and animals” category on this day in 2009 is footage of a yellow Labrador retriever playing with a baby; 10 years later, we still can’t get enough quality pet-and-baby content. The top comedy video is a clip from a 1991 episode of Mr. Bean during which Mr. Bean makes a unique sandwich. The trend of rediscovering our favorite childhood shows lives on, though younger audiences now take to social media to reminisce about more recent programs like Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh and Disney Channel’s Lizzie McGuire.
YouTube users know that it’s all too easy to accidentally spend an entire afternoon watching viral video after viral video, and YouTube Decade is no different: You can work your way backward through the calendar, exploring the top videos from each day prior. Though you can’t move forward in time—the site includes a countdown clock to let you know how many hours, minutes, and seconds you’ll have to wait to see tomorrow’s collection of videos.
To keep you busy while the countdown clock ticks away, find out which viral video is most popular in your state here.
[h/t Lifehacker]