Bill Wurtz
Bill Wurtz | ||||||||||
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Background information | ||||||||||
Origin | New York City[q 1] | |||||||||
Genres | Jazz-pop[note 1] | |||||||||
Occupation(s) |
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Instruments |
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Years active | 2002–present | |||||||||
Website | billwurtz | |||||||||
YouTube information | ||||||||||
Channel | ||||||||||
Years active | 2013–present | |||||||||
Genres |
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Subscribers | 4.56 million[2] | |||||||||
Total views | 533.5 million[2] | |||||||||
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Last updated: February 3, 2021 |
Bill Wurtz (stylized in lower case as bill wurtz) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and online video creator based in New York City. He is known for his distinctive musical, comedic, and narrative style which includes deadpan delivery and singing paired with colorful surrealist, psychedelic, and non-sequitur graphics.
Wurtz first published material on YouTube in 2013. He set up a website in 2014, presenting a catalog of music and videos he had created since 2002. Wurtz proceeded to upload edited versions of his videos on Vine, where he gained his initial popularity. He experienced breakout success on YouTube with his animated videos, History of Japan (2016), and History of the Entire World, I Guess (2017). Wurtz released music videos regularly from 2017 to early 2019. Through 2019 and 2020 Wurtz was inactive on YouTube, revamping his setup for video creation, but returned to the platform in 2021 with a new visual style of 3D animation.
Notable projects and videos
Vine videos
Wurtz was first known for his presence on the short-form video-sharing website Vine,[3][4] where he first gained a following in 2014.[5] He began by taking short videos he had previously published to his website and re-editing them to fit Vine's six-second restriction.[5] Before transitioning fully to YouTube, Wurtz was uploading a video to Vine nearly every day.[6] He received early attention in 2015 for the short video "Shaving My Piano", which was covered briefly in The Verge.[7] On April 11, 2016, Wurtz won the Shorty Award for "Tech & Innovation: Weird" at the 8th Shorty Awards; during the awards ceremony, attention was given to one of his Vine uploads "I'm Still a Piece of Garbage".[8] His acceptance speech for the award was notably curt, as he walked up to the mic, said "Thank you", and immediately walked off the stage.[9] He has stated in a video on his website that this was directly inspired by an acceptance speech given by André 3000.[10]: 0:00:36
History of Japan
Alongside interest on Vine, Wurtz achieved wider popularity in 2016 with History of Japan, a nine-minute YouTube video that outlines Japan's history.[11] The video covers key events of its history: "Buddhism, internal conflict, alliances with Britain, World Wars I and II, the dropping of atomic bombs and its post-war economic miracle".[12] It showcases Wurtz's quirky visual and comedic style through a mixture of fast-paced narration and animation, intercut with short musical jingles. The video was described as "an entertaining new approach to education".[13] It went viral on social media after its release on February 2, 2016, and under a week later, received over four million views by February 8.[12] It particularly received considerable attention on Tumblr[3] and Reddit.[11] As of September 12, 2020, the video boasts over 60 million views. Writer German Lopez for the news website Vox called it a "strange", "pretty good – and suprisingly funny" video. Nevertheless, Lopez noted the poor coverage of Japanese war crimes committed against Korea and China in the 20th century, particularly the Nanjing Massacre and the use of Korean sex slaves, and attributed this omission to the video's short runtime.[14] Wurtz has responded to these criticisms on his questions page, suggesting to viewers to look for other YouTube channels that cover these topics.[q 3]
History of the Entire World, I Guess
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Wurtz is best known for History of the Entire World, I Guess, a 20-minute follow-up to History of Japan released on May 10, 2017.[15] Expanding greatly on the subject matter – the video took over 11 months to produce, including almost 3 months of research[6] – it briefly covers the topics of natural history and human civilization spanning from the Big Bang to the near future.[16] Like its predecessor, the video features short "jazzy" musical interludes, which were compared to Thundercat's album Drunk.[17]
History of the Entire World, I Guess was the top video on the YouTube trending page on the day of its release, receiving 3.2 million views on its first day, and on Reddit it became the most upvoted YouTube link of all time.[4][18] It became an Internet meme[19] and was listed at eighth place on YouTube's list of the top 10 trending videos of the year.[20] As of December 19, 2020,[update] it has over 110.5 million views. Writer German Lopez for the news website Vox praised the video for not heavily focusing on western and US history, and successfully covering other areas in world history which may be neglected in US schools, such as powers in China, Persia, and India.[21] It has been called a "must-see"[17] and is considered to be Wurtz's magnum opus.[5][22] In 2020, Thrillist ranked the video at number 40 on its list of best YouTube videos of all time.[23]
Music videos
Following the production of the history videos, Wurtz turned his attention to releasing music videos. Between August 21 and December 25, 2018, he released a new song and music video every two weeks, for a total of nine.[q 4] Having taken up to fourteen weeks to make videos before this point, Wurtz characterized the new schedule as a breakthrough, a "training exercise to increase the quality in ways I never would have found otherwise".[q 5] Wurtz has since decided to create a music video for every new song he releases, despite it slowing down his songwriting considerably.[q 6]
Wurtz's song "Just Did a Bad Thing" and the accompanying video spawned TikTok videos of people lip-syncing to the opening lines; in the platform, #ididabadthing became the top hashtag of March 2019.[24][25] Following this, Wurtz would only post four more videos before his break, ending with "Might Quit," a song seemingly about quitting YouTube. After the "Might Quit" video was released, Wurtz would not post any new videos to YouTube for nearly two years. He stated that he was working on content, but took longer to create them since he was in the process of learning new video editing and 3D animation software, including Blender.[q 7][q 8][q 9] On January 18, 2021, Wurtz released the music video for a new original song "Here Comes the Sun," utilizing the software he had been learning.[26]
Style
Wurtz has developed an absurdist, surreal style on both his music and animation.[27][28] Eddie Kim wrote for MEL Magazine that Wurtz "refuses to mimic anyone else's animation or musical style, but it's not weird for weirdness' sake alone", comparing him to Thundercat and Louis Cole and highlighting Wurtz's pretty pop melodies, unexpected chords and multi-layered rhythms.[5] Geoff Carter of Las Vegas Weekly stated: "Merge Don Hertzfeldt, Jenny Holzer and Thundercat and you might get someone a little bit like Bill Wurtz".[17] Nick Douglas of Lifehacker summarized him as "somewhere between comedy and education and vaporwave."[29]
Music
Wurtz's music has been classified as jazz-pop, incorporating elements of lo-fi music, smooth jazz, funk and easy listening.[5][1] Despite this, Wurtz tends to reject genre categorization,[q 10][q 11] and does not consider himself to be a jazz musician.[q 12] Overall, his music evokes malaise, self-deprecation, and a "blurring of the lines between irony, parody and honesty".[30] This is often paired comedically with dire circumstances or sobering undertones.[31] In an interview with Genius, Wurtz stated that "it's a good... songwriting technique to write about something bad with a good sounding melody, because if you can get people to feel good about something bad, then you're bulletproof in life."[32]: 0:00:46 Wurtz's voice has been described as "silky tenor with range and energy".[5] Artists who have expressed admiration for Wurtz's music include indie musicians Daði Freyr[33] and Sidney Gish,[34] fellow YouTube musician Adam Neely,[35]: 1:25:50 DJ and producer Porter Robinson,[36] as well as Australian singer Sia.[37]
'[Music] theory' may be fun, but it's made of liquid and has a tendency to melt. The music comes first and then you figure out how to describe what happened, although fully describing it can never be done. One of the classical composers said 'We will never understand music, but music understands us readily and instantly'.
Bill Wurtz, interview from Bass Guitar magazine[38]
Wurtz has claimed to be "wholly self-taught" as a musician.[38] He has also stated to have perfect pitch.[q 13][q 14] Wurtz has professed a cautious approach to music theory, insisting that the sound and feeling of music should be prioritized over attempts to conform to theory.[38] A writer for the student newspaper The Harbinger identified the song "I Wanna Be a Movie Star" as an example of Wurtz's subversion of typical approaches to composition, with a mixture of unusual time signatures[note 2] at the risk of sounding "either incomplete or too long". Instead, the song manages to "feel completely natural" and "pop-ish", despite most pop music conforming to common time.[31]
Wurtz has used different programs to edit his music, including GarageBand from 2009 to 2010,[q 16] and long-discontinued Logic Express 9 until at least 2016.[40]
Videos
Wurtz's videos are typically in a lo-fi,[41] neon[3] aesthetic, and have been described as surreal[28] and psychedelic.[6][13] They range from "nonsensical" shorts to animated music videos,[41] and often involve deadpan humor, dancing stick figures, vaporwave-like transitions[5] and neon, sans-serif text on-screen.[27] Wurtz often follows similar patterns in his videos such as multi-layering,[6] including screenshots of built-in macOS applications such as TextEdit,[42] along with clip art images,[41] and showing himself playing "air drums", overlaying images where the drumheads would be.[43] He has stated the low-budget quality arose out of a necessity to publish videos regularly and evolved naturally.[6]: 0:35:27
At Vidcon 2018, Wurtz was asked why his style is so different from other YouTube musicians. He explained that rather than taking inspiration from other creators on the platform, he simply relies on his own experience. "My secret is just live under a rock, and stay there," he said.[44] He states on his website that one of his most important goals is to "go my own way and deliver things that challenge and defy… expectations".[q 17] Wurtz has struggled with perfectionism and is actively trying to overcome it by creating schedules and setting deadlines for himself.[6] In response to a fan question he explained that in the process of doing this he has "been forced to become an expert on carelessness".[q 18]
Wurtz is decidedly against running advertising on or accepting sponsorships for his videos, despite admitting an "enormous" pressure to do so.[5][41] He has explained that advertisements make him "uncomfortable"[6] and that he thinks they "suck".[41] As a result, all of Wurtz's videos and music are available for free on his website.[45] Wurtz does receive direct fan support, which includes crowdfunding on Patreon,[4] streams on music streaming services, and merchandise sales,[41][6]: 0:44:15 but does not heavily promote any of these revenue streams.[6]
From his first video up until early 2019, Wurtz used Final Cut Express 4, a program that was discontinued as far back as in 2011.[6][46] In 2019, he switched to the more modern software Final Cut Pro X.[q 19][q 20] Wurtz also taught himself the 3D animation software Blender, which enabled him to create significantly more complex and realistic graphics for his videos.[q 21]
Website
While Wurtz has a larger audience on external platforms like YouTube, he is the most active on his own website, billwurtz.com.[45] Despite being launched in 2014, it has been compared to a late 1990s website due to its simple design.[41] Apart from containing all of his released songs and most of his videos dating back since 2002,[5] the website also features many other types of content not available elsewhere. This includes a questions page, as well as an anagram page, where Wurtz allows fans to request words or phrases out of which he creates anagrams.[47] Additionally, Wurtz has posted audio clips of musical improvisation both with vocal and vocal with music usually being piano or keyboard,[48] jazz covers,[49] original instrumental tracks,[50] as well as vlog-style 'reality' videos depicting his creative process.[51][5]
Questions page
Bill Wurtz maintains a section on his website to answer anonymously submitted questions. Wurtz used to have an Ask.fm page,[52] but he discontinued it and created his own questions page to allow for complete anonymous questions and to avoid ads.[q 22] His answers to questions are considered an aspect of Wurtz's creative output; the style of his answers have been described as "verging on the poetic"[41] and "earnest, if somewhat loopy-sounding".[5] The first question was posted on May 10, 2015,[q 23] and the list of questions and answers has been updated nearly on the daily.[q 24] One such answer, highlighted in by the website Ok Whatever, addresses a question concerning Wurtz's personality:[41]
10.9.18 7:48 pm how the heck are you so gosh darn wacky i'm just trying to be reasonable[q 25]
Reality page
Wurtz continuously keeps an audio journal, frequently recording himself explaining his thoughts, frustrations, and breakthroughs. Following his History of Japan project in early 2016, Wurtz proceeded to take three months off to take the recordings saved up to that point and turn them into videos, adding elements such as text and screenshots to the audio.[q 26] These are now available on the "reality" section of his website. The earliest available video is based on an audio recording from November 16, 2010, and as of August 2019, a total of 251 videos have been released. Wurtz has confirmed that he is planning to create "1000s more" in the future.[q 27] Wurtz has justified the reality project by stating that it is "a way of coaxing [himself] into success at a mountain-movingly hard project" and that it keeps him "calm and organized". He also expressed that "first hand documentary materials should surely be of very high value".[q 28]
Collaborations
Wurtz is primarily known as a solo multi-instrumentalist, rarely recording with other musicians in the past. However, since 2019, Wurtz has appeared on two videos involving the LA-based cover band Scary Pockets, playing drums in a funk cover of the song "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League on March 11, 2019,[53][q 29] and "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals on April 1, 2019.[54] Wurtz has expressed a desire to start collaborating more,[q 30] stating that he "has become insanely sick of himself" and that he is "desperate to collaborate with as many people as possible".[q 31]
Awards
Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
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2016 | Shorty Awards | Tech & Innovation: Best in Weird | Bill Wurtz | Won[8] |
Discography
Music videos
Since May 2014, Wurtz has published numerous full-length music videos, following the same format of his shorter videos. He has made them available on his YouTube channel:
Year | Name | Views (millions) |
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2014 | "New Canaan"[55] | 0.6 |
"I Like"[56] | 0.3 | |
"Hey Jodie Foster"[57] | 0.1 | |
2015 | "I'm Crazy / It's Raining"[58] | 1.2 |
"You're Free to Do Whatever You Want to"[59] | 1.7 | |
"I Don't Wanna Go to School"[60] | 9.4 | |
2016 | "Alphabet Shuffle"[61] | 6.7 |
2017 | "I Wanna Be a Movie Star"[62] | 3.7 |
"Outside"[63] | 5.5 | |
2018 | "La De Da De Da De Da De Day Oh"[64] | 11.4 |
"And the Day Goes On"[65] | 6.7 | |
"Hello Sexy Pants"[66] | 2.9 | |
"Hallelujah"[67] | 1.7 | |
"I'm Best Friends with my Own Front Door"[68] | 2.6 | |
"Mount St. Helens Is About to Blow Up"[69] | 6.7 | |
"The Moon Is Made of Cheese (But I Can't Taste It)"[70] | 3.0 | |
"When I Get Older"[71] | 2.1 | |
"Long Long Long Journey"[72] | 2.5 | |
"Slow Down"[73] | 1.9 | |
"Christmas Isn't Real"[74] | 2.0 | |
"Just Did a Bad Thing"[75] | 7.3 | |
2019 | "At the Airport Terminal"[76] | 2.4 |
"Might Quit"[77] | 10.8 | |
2021 | "Here Comes the Sun"[78] | 4.6 |
Other songs
Wurtz has published many other full-length songs not accompanied by music videos. They are all available on his website,[79] and some are also available on streaming services. Songs include:
2009
- "The Song Song" (released August 10, 2009)[80]
2010
2011
- "Murder Your Demon" (January 14, 2011)[88]
- "How Am I Spost" (May 22, 2011)[89]
- "Home Again" (May 23, 2011)[90]
- "No Place like Home" (June 16, 2011)[91]
- "Do the Thing" (June 20, 2011)[92]
- "I Love You" (June 20, 2011)[93]
- "Go to the Store" (June 24, 2011)[94]
- "(What) Love Is" (July 11, 2011)[95]
- "Do What You Want to Do" (July 15, 2011)[96]
- "All U Need Is Love" (August 2, 2011)[97]
- "The World" (September 2, 2011)[98]
- "Home" (September 9, 2011)[99]
- "I Guess I've Got to Listen to Bob Marley" (September 23, 2011)[100]
- "Stupid Song" (September 26, 2011)[101]
2014
- "Textin on my iPhone" (February 12, 2014)[102]
- "Rabbit Snakes" (February 26, 2014)[103]
- "The Future Song" (March 5, 2014)[104]
- "Icy James" (March 12, 2014)[105]
- "We Could Just Get High" (March 19, 2014)[106]
- "I'm in Bryant Park" (March 26, 2014)[107]
- "Tuesday" (April 2, 2014)[108]
- "It's Gonna Be Alright" (April 23, 2014)[109]
- "Write a Song on the Count of 3" (May 28, 2014)[110]
- "I'm Confused (I Love You)" (June 4, 2014)[111]
- "This Is a Song for my Next Album" (June 11, 2014)[112]
- "Goo Soup" (July 9, 2014)[113]
- "I Wanna Sail You Away" (July 23, 2014)[114]
- "I Can Play" (September 3, 2014)[115]
- "The Road" (September 17, 2014)[116]
2017
- "In California" (May 30, 2017)[117]
- "I Love You" (June 6, 2017)[118]
- "Got to Know What's Going On" (June 20, 2017)[119]
Furthermore, Wurtz has published a myriad of shorter songs or jingles on his website ranging from a couple of seconds to up to a minute in length.[79]
Notes
- ^ While commentators have assigned genres to Bill Wurtz's music,[1] Wurtz has expressed no interest in these attempts, stating '[I] don't respect genre names'.[q 2]
- ^ The Harbinger displays the most prominent time signature in the song as 18
8; Wurtz, however, considers it to be 9
4,[39] composed of alternating 4
4 and 5
4.[q 15]
References
Bill Wurtz's questions page
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (September 14, 2017). "If I came to new york would I be in close proximity to where you spend a lot of your time?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
yes
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (June 14, 2016). "is there a genre of music you don't feel confident you could actually pull off, like if someone was all "bill i am paying you 400 bucks to make a heavy metal song" or so, or do you think you could tackle pretty much anything?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
i don't respect genre names, and that's one of the reasons i absolutely never record songs for hire
- ^ Wurtz, Bill. "[...] Why have you glossed over the atrocities Japan has committed, which are major events in Japan's history? Examples include the Rape of Nanking, the South Korean Comfort Women, and the human testing conducted on Chinese civilians.[...]". billwurtz.com. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
i think there are some other channels that have the type of video you are looking for
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (November 3, 2018). "I am humbly grateful for your uploads every two weeks, even surprising me ahead of schedule; honestly, I wasn't expecting long, long, long, journey until Thursday or Friday. This one has been my morning alarm and have given me wings each time I listen to it [...]". billwurtz.com. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
i would probably call it the 2-week song schedule
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (October 14, 2018). "it's ok if you don't finish the video by Tuesday [...] we (the fans) get brand new content from you bi-weekly, which feels great, remembering that it used to take 8–10 weeks to get a single music video. but what about you bill?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
that's not true [...] this is a training exercise to increase the quality in ways i never would have found otherwise [...] it's the biggest breakthrough i've had since the 5-day schedule in early 2014
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (June 11, 2019). "[...] keeping up with making the videos to go with the music is going to slow down the whole songwriting process, yes? [...]". billwurtz.com. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
[...] ah but have you considered if you had the same passionate drive i do for videos
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (November 19, 2020). "On your wiki article it said you are learning blender what are your thoughts on blender 2.9". billwurtz.com. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
like a hole in the head, do i need another catastrophic upgrade transition. i am using 2.8 and will be there for the next several years until i am ready to rip my life apart once more
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (November 13, 2020). "you say that you're working on learning to do 3D graphics, but there's a 3D spaceship and a 3D toaster in andthedaygoeson, and a 3D building-thing in mightquit (as well as probably others). how is what you're doing now different from either of those?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
[...]all of my 2D software tools were discontinued, or changed so much that they became unrecognizable to me. so this was a good excuse to migrate to a completely new system, with completely new methods. so far, this has either ruined my life or saved it. i will keep you updated.
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (August 18, 2019). "Why haven't you made a video for 5 months?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
[...]it occurred to me that now might actually be the most fine time to go ahead and do what is known as the 'finalcut transition', which long story short means i have to entirely abandon the primary video editing software i have used for the last 5 years. the reason for that is because it was discontinued in 2011. [...] i always used to say, 'there's never a good time to re-learn everything i know'[...]
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (June 14, 2016). "is there a genre of music you don't feel confident you could actually pull off [...], or do you think you could tackle pretty much anything?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
i don't respect genre names [...]
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (December 2, 2018). "do you think music genres help or hinder the art of music?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
they are a fun and useful source of hopeless confusion and ambiguity
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (January 21, 2019). "Would you consider your style to be a sub-genre of or a derivative of jazz?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
no
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (December 27, 2018). "do you have perfect pitch? meaning you can name chords and notes instantly just by hearing them". billwurtz.com. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
yes except sometimes the very first one of the week might take up to 3 to 4 instants
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (January 5, 2017). "do you think your composing process would be different if you didn't have perfect pitch?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
absolutely not
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (December 24, 2018). "any examples/moments of 5/4 time signature in any of your released songs?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
the main lines of movie star, i consider to be alternating 4/4+5/4
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (March 13, 2019). "do you use garageband? [...]". billwurtz.com. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
i used it during 2009 and 2010 only
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (April 18, 2016). "Why not take requests for Patrons that pay more than $25? A custom song for those who want it, and it pays for the electricity". billwurtz.com. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
one of the most important things i aim to do is go my own way, and deliver things that challenge and defy the expectations. if that is not what you are interested in, then you should not be supporting me
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (October 17, 2018). "i'm not sure if you're a perfectionist or a bit anything goes. which is it?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
i have a deeply rooted and incapacitating perfection problem, and in the process of overcoming it i have been forced to become an expert on carelessness. [...]
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (August 18, 2019). "Why haven't you made a video for 5 months?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
[...] it occured to me that now might actually be the most fine time to go ahead and do what is known as the 'finalcut transition', which long story short means i have to entirely abandon the primary video editing software i have used for the last 5 years. [...]
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (January 2, 2018). "Will you upgrade to final cut 10?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
i wouldn't consider that an upgrade, that would be more like switching to something entirely new. but i am still probably going to do it
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (November 19, 2020). "On your wiki article it said you are learning blender what are your thoughts on blender 2.9". billwurtz.com. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
like a hole in the head, do i need another catastrophic upgrade transition. i am using 2.8 and will be there for the next several years until i am ready to rip my life apart once more
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (January 17, 2017). "why did you opt for your own question page (your own domain) rather than a site like ask.fm ??". billwurtz.com. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
the reason i thought ask.fm was good was because you don't have to sign-up just to ask a question. so i used ask.fm, and it worked great. but then about a year later, someone finally told me that that's not true, you actually do have to sign up to ask a question. so i made my own. and as with most things on the site, i like this much better because i can make it exactly how i want and there's no ads
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (May 10, 2015). "where has the fun gone (at bottom of page)".
i will check
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (June 30, 2019). "do you answer these questions as they come or is there enough that you have to divide them into answerable chunks?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
usually 1 answer session per day
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (October 9, 2018). "how the heck are you so gosh darn wacky". billwurtz.com. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
i'm just trying to be reasonable
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (March 14, 2019). "have you been recording 'reality' material and are therefore three years behind?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
it's been a part of my life for at least 8 years. none of it was ever edited/produced until 2016 when i took 3 months off of all other content to only produce reality content 2010–2016. since then, i have never been able to find a way to produce it in any sizeable quantity without it taking away devastating amounts of time from the production of other content (videos/songs, etc). in addition, i wouldn't want the production to be fully up to date, because one of the things that makes the reality section more compelling is the fact that it is edited years later when i know how the story is going to turn out. so i can make much stronger use of foreshadowing that way
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (August 22, 2019). "Are you ever going to do more reality videos?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
1000s more
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (April 7, 2019). "what made you want to start doing the audio journal reality things?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
as a way of coaxing myself into success at a mountain-movingly hard project. in other words, if i do actually succeed in moving a mountain, the first hand documentary materials should surely be of very high value. [...]
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (March 11, 2019). "YOOOO that scary pockets arrangement was fuckin fire!!!!! ... do you know which genius was responsible for it (the arrangement not the tour)?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
the arrangement happened amongst the group within a very short time frame (about 45 minutes for the arrangement and recording)...
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (October 17, 2018). "Hey Bill ever thought of collaborating on a song with someone else". billwurtz.com. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
i never thought about it before but i am thinking about it now
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (March 11, 2019). "Can we expect more collaborations like the one with scary pockets? Maybe opening up the door for the Bill Wurtz "real" big band?". billwurtz.com. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
suddenly within the past year i've become insanely sick of myself. and i am now desperate to collaborate with as many people as possible
Other sources
- ^ a b Ring, Julian. "These Viral Musicians Are Still Making Great Songs". Pandora Blog. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
- ^ a b "About billwurtz". YouTube.
- ^ a b c Feldman, Brian (May 11, 2017). "Bill Wurtz Returns to Teach the History of the Entire World, He Guesses". New York. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
- ^ a b c Gutelle, Sam (May 11, 2017). "Bill Wurtz's "History of the Entire World" Gets 3.2 Million YouTube Views in Its First Day". Tubefilter. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kim, Eddie (October 12, 2018). "Meet Bill Wurtz, the Internet Musical Genius You've Never Heard Of". MEL Magazine. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Klein, Ethan; Klein, Hila (December 1, 2018). The H3 Podcast (podcast). The United States: h3h3 productions. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
- ^ Sheffer, Sam (July 13, 2015). "Why can't I stop watching this video of a piano being shaved?". The Verge. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
- ^ a b Lee, Ashley. "Shorty Awards: The Complete Nominations List". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
- ^ Gordy, Stefan; Wurtz, Bill (April 12, 2016). Bill Wurtz accepts the Shorty Award for Best in Weird (video). Shorty Awards. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
- ^ "201604121847.mp4". billwurtz.com. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
- ^ a b Gaudette, Emily (May 10, 2017). "Viral 'History of Japan' Video Finally Has an Update on the Entire World". Inverse. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
- ^ a b Moran, Lee (February 8, 2016). "WATCH: Trippy Video Teaches The Entire History Of Japan In Just 9 Minutes". HuffPost. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
- ^ a b Strange, Adario (February 6, 2016). "Psychedelic history of Japan turns learning into an acid trip". Mashable. Archived from the original on February 9, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
- ^ Lopez, German (May 18, 2017). "The most bizarre, entertaining history of Japan you'll ever watch". Vox. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (May 10, 2017), history of the entire world, i guess, retrieved May 14, 2017
- ^ "The (almost) entire history of the world in under 20 hilarious minutes? This video is your answer". Scroll.in. May 18, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
- ^ a b c Carter, Geoff (April 23, 2020). "What to binge on YouTube, the original "quick bite" video service". Las Vegas Weekly. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
- ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (May 11, 2017). "History of the Entire World, I Guess could have been the best online video of 2005". The Verge. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
- ^ Hathaway, Jay (May 17, 2017). "Viral 'History of the World' video turns into a meme bonanza". The Daily Dot. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
- ^ Spangler, Todd (December 6, 2017). "YouTube Reveals 2017 Top Viral and Music Videos". Variety. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
- ^ Lopez, German (May 7, 2018). "Watch this bizarre, hilarious history of the whole world". Vox. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
- ^ Shamsian, Jacob (May 18, 2017). "This 20-minute animated video explains the entire history of the world – and the internet is obsessed with it". Insider. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
- ^ "The 100 Greatest YouTube Videos of All Time, Ranked". Thrillist. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
- ^ Scheetz, Cameron (August 20, 2020). "Follow the Old Town Road: 20 songs that got a boost from TikTok fame". The A. V. Club. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ^ Lee, Dami (August 2, 2019). "TikTok turns one: its first 12 months, as told through TikToks". The Verge. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ^ Wurtz, Bill (January 18, 2021). "here comes the sun". YouTube. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
- ^ a b Shi, Diana (July 9, 2017). "Watch This Absurd Animation Where a Little Man Climbs a Mountain to Avoid Taxes". Vice. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
- ^ a b Muncy, Julie (May 1, 2018). "This Surreal Inspirational Cartoon Will Have You Ready To Face Anything". Gizmodo. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
- ^ Douglas, Nick (May 15, 2018). "Where to Waste Time Online". Lifehacker. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ^ Manning, Walker (January 31, 2018). "Bill Wurtz Is The Musician Our Generation Deserves". The Odyssey Online.
- ^ a b Vroman, Ben (February 14, 2019). "REVIEW: Although unorthodox, Wurtz creates captivating complex pieces". The Harbinger. Algonquin Regional High School. Archived from the original on August 7, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
- ^ Reneau, Steven (January 11, 2019). "Bill Wurtz Breaks Down The Meaning Of "Mount St. Helens Is About To Blow Up"". Genius. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
- ^ "Get To Know… Daði Freyr". DIY. May 27, 2020. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
- ^ Beriss, Ben (January 25, 2019). "WBRS brings indie spirit to campus". The Brandeis Hoot. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
- ^ Neely, Adam (July 12, 2018). "MUSICA ANALYTICA 2 | Livestream with 12tone, Sideways and 8-bit Music Theory". YouTube. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
- ^ Bein, Kat (July 16, 2018). "Porter Robinson Shouts-Out Mat Zo, Nina Las Vegas and More of His Favorite Artists to Celebrate His Birthday". Billboard. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
- ^ Furler, Sia [@Sia] (November 10, 2018). "Get into this weirdness" (Tweet). Retrieved September 8, 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ a b c McIver, Joel (April 2, 2019). "WURTZ CASE: YouTube sensation Bill Wurtz has a secret weapon – bass – but not the way you'd expect. He reveals the method behind his three million subscribers". Bass Guitar. No. 168. p. 32. ISSN 1476-5217.
- ^ Bill, Wurtz (September 22, 2020). "9/4 Movie Star 9.22.20 8:16 AM". billwurtz.com.
- ^ Hale, Kirby; Wurtz, Bill (February 2016). "What editing software do you use? I'm very new to your videos and I always ask that question as I'm into the editing field". Ask.fm. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
[...] for the music i use logic express 9, which also doesn't exist anymore [...]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Pandell, Lexi (January 16, 2019). "How Bill Wurtz's Videos Make the Internet a Better Place". OK Whatever. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
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- ^ bill wurtz, La de da de da de da de day oh, retrieved January 31, 2019
- ^ Winters, Miranda (June 23, 2018). MIRANDA SINGS & THE EXPO HALL (video). Retrieved October 26, 2018.
- ^ a b "billwurtz". billwurtz.com. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
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- ^ "scarmble". billwurtz.com. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
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- ^ "reality". billwurtz.com. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
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- ^ Scary Pockets (March 11, 2019), Don't You Want Me – Funk cover feat. Bruno Major & Bill Wurtz, retrieved March 12, 2019
- ^ Scary Pockets (April 1, 2019), You Get What You Give – New Radicals – funk cover ft. Laura Mace & Bill Wurtz, retrieved April 1, 2019
- ^ bill wurtz (May 6, 2014), song: new canaan, retrieved November 13, 2018
- ^ bill wurtz (June 25, 2014), song: i like, retrieved June 19, 2019
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- ^ bill wurtz (June 5, 2015), song: "you're free to do whatever you want to", retrieved June 19, 2019
- ^ bill wurtz (August 10, 2015), "i don't wanna go to school" full song, retrieved June 19, 2019
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- ^ a b "billwurtz". billwurtz.com. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
- ^ "the song song".
- ^ "dance the".
- ^ "2010".
- ^ "eat bread (feel sure)".
- ^ "the trees".
- ^ "i'm about to graduate from school".
- ^ "fever".
- ^ "dream of evil".
- ^ "murder your demon".
- ^ "how am i spost".
- ^ "Home Again".
- ^ "no place like home".
- ^ "do the thing".
- ^ "i love you".
- ^ "go to the store".
- ^ "(what) love is".
- ^ "do what you want to do".
- ^ "all u need is love".
- ^ "the world".
- ^ "home".
- ^ "bob marley".
- ^ "stupid song".
- ^ "textin on my iphone".
- ^ "rabbit snakes".
- ^ "the future song".
- ^ "icy james".
- ^ "we could just get high".
- ^ "bryant park".
- ^ "tuesday".
- ^ "it's gonna be alright".
- ^ "write a song on the count of 3".
- ^ "i'm confused".
- ^ "this is a song for my next album".
- ^ "goo soup".
- ^ "i wanna sail you away".
- ^ "i can play".
- ^ "the road".
- ^ "in california".
- ^ "i love you (2017 version)".
- ^ "got to know what's going on".
External links
- 21st-century American musicians
- American indie pop musicians
- American male singer-songwriters
- American male jazz musicians
- American multi-instrumentalists
- American YouTubers
- Comedy YouTubers
- Internet memes
- Jazz-pop musicians
- Living people
- Male YouTubers
- Music YouTubers
- Musicians from New York City
- Surreal comedy
- Video bloggers
- Vine celebrities
- YouTube animators
- YouTube channels launched in 2012
- Shorty Award winners