In today's world, it's sometimes hard to find raw talent among all of the auto-tuned music. So, I decided to share six of my favorite YouTube Music stars, all of whom have earned their place among the greatest musicians, as young and talented innovators.
1. Pentatonix
After winning the third season of The Sing-Off (a competition between a capella groups,) this group of five members took off with their music careers and have since become one of the most well-known singing groups all over the world. Known for their amazing ability to recreate the layers of famous songs using just their voices, Pentatonix has released 3 Christmas albums and 3 regular albums, featuring many covers of famous songs and a few popular originals. They use YouTube as a platform to help them release singles, and they give sneak peeks from their upcoming albums. They’ve recently released their cover of Hallelujah after the late Leonard Cohen passed away, and the video has now surpassed 67 million views.
Seriously, go check them out!!!
2. Lindsey Stirling
Lindsey made her debut on YouTube after posting videos of choreographed violin songs. Overall, she is one of the most talented musicians I have ever heard. She has released two albums, all original compositions of violin fused with upbeat electronic riffs. If you’re looking for energetic and exciting tracks to listen to, I highly recommend Lindsey’s albums, Shatter Me, and Brave Enough:
3. Kurt Hugo Schneider
Kurt produces many artists on YouTube, but he also shoots one-shot collabs, in which YouTube stars do a music video for a cover of a famous song- in one take. Some of his more famous collabs have over 10 million views. A few of my favorite covers are Never Be Like You (featuring AJ Rafael and Diamond White) and Send My Love (featuring Sam Tsui, Madilyn Bailey, and Alex G):
4. Peter Hollens
Not only does Peter Hollens have an amazing voice, but he also does a capella covers of songs by layering his voice over and over and photoshopping himself into music videos, so it looks like there’s more than one of him in a shot at once. He is particularly fond of doing covers of movie soundtracks, and one of my favorites is a cover of Ed Sheeran’s See Fire:
5. Paint
Although Jon Cozart doesn’t do real covers of songs, he does all originals that I find particularly hilarious and satirical, such as rap battles between the two presidential nominees and his famous After Ever After Disney cover in which he displays the lives of Disney princesses after their story ends on the big screen. Two of my favorites are a gem called 2016 SUCKS Song featuring Grace Helbig and Harry Potter in 99 Seconds:
6. Todrick Hall
This extremely talented human being (a.k.a. Todrick Hall) does covers similar to Peter Hollens, but he choreographs complicated sequences on a screen in beautiful ways that you just have to watch in order for to understand. It’s just too amazing to put into words. My favorite is the Taylor Swift mashup, which has just over 5 million views:
He has also done amazing mashups of Rihanna, Beyonce and Lady Gaga. Along with these mashups, he has also applied pop songs to various movies such as Peter Pan and Titanic, creating videos that are hilarious and brilliant at the same time.I highly encourage you to go check out all of these amazing people, and let me know if you have any favorite YouTubers that I should feature in another article!
