If the thought of clicking your mouse is too much to bear then Youtube have thought of that too. Leanback (youtube.com/leanback) is the site’s equivalent of a 24 hour TV channel. It takes videos from subscriptions and serves up non-stop programming based on your preferences.

Also in Youtubeland, the long overdue restriction on uploading videos longer than 10 minutes has been changed to 15. As a celebration and befitting of that ubiquitous Andy Warhol quote and the site’s regular carousel of viral celebrities, they asked users to make a video of their “15 minutes of fame” , which will be showcased on the homepage.

Meanwhile, in Kanyewatch, last week was a veritable feast of Jeezy info as Kanye did two things of interest. First, he made an appearance at the HQs of both Facebook and Twitter, looking dapper in a designer suit and gave acappella performances of new songs Lost in the World, Chain Gang and Mama’s Boyfriend from his forthcoming album. You can watch those videos here.

Secondly, he joined Twitter (@kanyewest)! Oh what delights! It sounds like a small thing but in truth, it’s fascinating reading and confirms the many facets of his personality. He confirmed he’s changed the title of his new album from Good Ass Job to.. something else (clever Kanye), he posted pics of his jet plane and his new massive living room projector screen (rich-ass Kanye), offered business advice (The Apprentice Kanye), ribbed himself for his passion for ancient art (humble Kanye), called himself “The King” a lot (modest Kanye), expressed frustration with being able to get what he wants “What do I have to do to get a simple persian rug with cherub imagery?” (tantrum Kanye) and misspelled Silicon Valley as “Silicone Valley” in his first tweet (nervous Kanye).

Let’s face it. Kanye West is a passionate guy and it’s only a matter of time before something happens to rival his caps lock-fueled “I’m typing so f**king hard I might break my f**king Mac book Air!!!!!!!!” blog rant of times gone by. When it does, with the ease of Twitter, it’ll also be fascinating reading.

Kanye’s Power leaks
Rumoured to be taken from Kanye’s forthcoming album titled charmingly Good Ass Job, Power sees the rapper break away from the 808s & Heartbreak autotune era with a track set to soul choir sample.
Listen at the Hype Machine

CEO
Eric Berglund of electronica duo The Tough Alliance makes a solo run under the CEO name and produces Balearic pop in the process. Another great release from Swedish label Sincerely Yours, who recently released JJ and Kendal Johansson.
Check out CEO at The Culture of Me
 
Klaxons’ Flashover
The first new sliver of material from Klaxons’ forthcoming album sounds like first album highlight Atlantis to Interzone without the “nu-rave” bleeps and with more distortion.
http://klaxons.net

“Hello Mr Hudson, we are popular ‘urban’ group- N-Dubz. We wish to appeal to a niche MOR market. Your agent tells our agent that we could cross-polinate our appeal with yours. We’re advised that it will all end up well.”

Actually, no. Nobody would wish for that ridiculous hybrid. Yet, here it is.

What bigger heroine has 2009 offered us than Susan Boyle? She started the year a dowdy spinster. An appearance on Britain’s Got Talent and over 100 million Youtube views later and she ends the year as one of the biggest selling album artists of 2009 worldwide. Let us not forget the performance that started it all.

Other people became known for very different reasons this year. Tom O’ C (aka T O’ Pain) became an accidental rap sensation overnight, Christian Bale was caught on tape freaking out at a film crew member and Kanye had a bad year all round. Firstly, with the South Park Gay Fish parody and secondly with his interruption of Taylor Swift’s MTV award speech, an event which became an internet meme albeit an ephemeral one.

The year’s longest lasting internet meme was Play him off Keyboard Cat which spawned hundreds of video remixes and mashups like this Hall and Oates version while close behind was anything involving autotune including autotuned news reports and ads.

For once-off viral videos, nothing beats David, a young boy whose dazed state after a visit to the dentist was captured by his dad and uploaded to the web. For those looking to get their dance craze on, you should watch the wedding video entrance to end them all and those who can’t get enough of cute kids should check out the floppy-haired five year old playing Folsom Prison Blues or the less innocent but equally impressive redhead kid dancing to dirty rap songs.

Microsoft took one step forward but two steps back in their video campaigns this year. While the waterslide viral video had people guessing if it was real or fake, the subsequent Windows 7 launch party cringefest and the Songsmith ad did nothing to convince us that Microsoft have a clue.

My own personal favourite web bits of the year though are Zander Bleck and the Tuts My Barreh karaoke fail. The former, an over-earnest model turned douchebag singer and the latter, a Mariah Carey fan with poor yet hilarious English translation skills. My vote for cover of the year goes to the Ukrainian band covering Katy Perry’s Hot and Cold in a Balkan style.

Mr. West has a prior history of doing things like this. At 2006′s European VMAs he pulled a similar stunt to protest Justice vs Simian’s Video of the Year win. We all remember his infamous “George Bush hates black people” outburst on live TV or how about his “ I’m typing so hard I might break my fucking Macbook Air!” reply to fans’ disgruntlement at a delayed show.

While Kanye has already issued an apology and appeared on Leno to apologise, naturally the internet is doing what it does best responding and creating video memes of the incident.

Many of the musicians and celebs present at the awards took to Twitter to react with Katy Perry tweeting “F**k you Kanye. It’s like you stepped on a kitten.” Popular Twitter user Graham Linehan and his followers rechristened him Kant and generally people called him self-centered and childish as expected.

The best thing to come out of this though, is the start of an internet meme beginning with the brilliant short video of Obama’s recent healthcare speech being interrupted by the same Kanye diatribe. Something tells me by the time you read this, “Kanye interrupts” could be the next Keyboard Cat viral sensation.

The best of the Kanye interrupts virals after the jump:

Sites that have sprung up featuring loads of images etc based on this:
http://kanyegate.tumblr.com/
http://immaletyoufinish.net/
The Kanye interrupts your website tool.
NME’s best of Kanye interrupts photo gallery
Kanye Apology Generator.

I’ve left out the obviously bad jobs but if you have any good ones, pop them in the comments.

The Horrors remix Memory Cassette
It’s been a good week for the former panto-goth rockers. A Mercury nomination for the excellent album Primary Colours and this uncharacteristic spacey dance remix for good measure.
http://short.ie/horrorsremix

New Beastie Boys track
On the same day that the Beasties’ Adam Yauch announced he will undergo cancer treatment, Too Many Rappers from the forthcoming Hot Sauce Committee Pt.1 with Nas as a guest appeared. Still as good as ever.
http://short.ie/beastienas

Jay-Z with Kanye and Rihanna
The Hova’s upcoming Blueprint 3 album has started to leak material – this time by The Roots’ talisman Questlove via Twitter. ‘Run This Town’ is as pop as Jay-Z gets.
http://short.ie/jayz3

What is the main film review this week?

To enter, find the answer in the magazine then turn to page 17 for details on how to enter by text.

Devo return
The oddball ’80s rockers return with a ninth album and a really rather catchy single called ‘Don’t Shoot’ complete with this excellent video.


Moon trailer
This 2001: A Space Odyssey-indebted lunar psychological drama even has its own HAL called GERTY. Sam Rockwell stars as an astronaut who suffers a mental breakdown in the final days of his three year stint on the moon.

Eminem returns, world yawns
The world has moved on but Eminem’s new video proves he’s missed the zeitgeist with the usual jabs at celebrities like Britney and Jessica Simpson along with politicians like Sarah Palin. Irrelevancy approaches Mr. Mathers.
http://tinyurl.com/eminemade