Once upon a time, YouTube was a low-key dumping ground for poorly made home movies and (the eternal) cat videos.

Now it forms part of everyone’s entertainment portfolio. We use it to get our news, music, occasional movies and web series.

When MTV stopped playing music and music videos, YouTube was there to pick up the slack. Musicians who initially viewed the platform as the enemy realised that they could simply upload “official” music videos.

Instead of attempting to sue YouTube, they became affiliate partners.

Lifehacker writes that this has turned YouTube into a default music player for hundreds of millions of people, as reflected by the service’s most-watched videos.

The current top five are almost all music videos, with the exception of a kid’s cartoon from Russia we’ve never heard of.

The list below provides a mildly depressing overview of what people are listening to and watching today.

Proceed with caution:

#5 PSY – GANGNAM STYLE (3,27 billion views)

#4 Masha and The Bear – Recipe for disaster (3,4 billion views)

#3 Wiz Khalifa – See You Again ft. Charlie Puth (3,97 billion views)

#2 Ed Sheeran – Shape of You ( 4,03 billion views)

#1 Luis Fonsi – Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee (5,91 billion views)

Will we ever be rid of Despacito?

Do we want to be rid of Despacito?

Questions for the ages, really.

[source:lifehacker]