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Swedish college defends ‘YouTube lessons’ after minister’s criticism

A college in Sweden has defended its decision to offer a class on YouTube as part of its programme for upper secondary school students.

Published: 11 February 2018 17:41 CET

Swedish college defends 'YouTube lessons' after minister's criticism

File photo: Richard Vogel/AP/TT

The Thorén Innovation School, a group of upper secondary schools (gymnasium in Swedish) located in six Swedish cities, now offers a specialisation on the video sharing site as part of its aesthetic subjects line, reports TT.

The move has drawn criticism from Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education Anna Ekström, according to the report.

In response, the school said that a large number of studies have found that all types of work will see increasing automation in coming years and that new types of companies and professions will develop.

As such, the way education is seen should also be developed, the school's parent company Thórengruppen wrote in an article published by Dagens Samhälle.

The company also said that young people have, to a large extent, replaced watching television with using media forms such as YouTube, which could lead to new forms of jobs related to online media.

In an earlier opinion article, Ekström described the initiative by the school group as “ridiculous”, “a marketing ploy” and “out of touch with reality”.

“It is not reasonable to present to young people a life in which success on the jobs market is dependent upon getting many followers on Instagram,” she wrote.

READ ALSO:

'Take On Me' tops a billion YouTube views: What makes 80s Norwegian hit so enduring?

A-Ha performing in 2015. Photo: AFP

The song combines synthpop with acoustic guitars, keyboards and drums and is indisputably the band’s signature tune and one of the most evocative pop songs of the decade.

That is complemented by a memorable music video which combined live action sequences with black-and-white pencil sketch animated overlays, in what was then an innovative technique called rotoscoping. It won six awards at the 1986 MTV Music Video Awards.

Perhaps the combination of both music and visuals has driven Take On Me into the realms of YouTube royalty. The official video, originally released in 1985, was recently restored and upgraded to 4K resolution to improve visual quality, Warner Music Norway wrote in a press statement.

In any case, A-ha now join a small list of artists with music videos that have tipped the 10-figure mark for total views on the social media website.

While South Korean rapper Psy’s 2012 hit Gangnam Style and Despacito by Luis Fonsi (2017) have famously garnered monstrous numbers of YouTube views, it’s arguably harder for songs which pre-date widespread use of the Internet to rack up those kind of figures.

Take On Me joins two Guns N’ Roses songs (November Rain, Sweet Child o’ Mine), Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit in an elite club of just five songs from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s with over a billion views.

Numb by Linkin Park was the first pre-YouTube video from the 2000s to reach a billion views.

“Obviously the video is unique and it has some features that stand up and stand the test of time,” he shared. “It’s hand drawn which makes it what it is,” A-ha guitarist Magne Furuholmen told Billboard last year.

“The song also seems to resonate with people across time. It’s just very fortunate to have such a big song in our catalogue,” Furuholmen said.

“We probably spent a few years talking it down, trying to get people to focus on new stuff we’re doing. At this point, certainly speaking for myself, I’m just surprised and proud that the song has done so well and still finds an audience,” he added.

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