Last month, teenage skater fans propelled Avril Lavigne to an historic first in the annals of pop music. Her music video Girlfriend became the first YouTube clip to top 100 million viewings, and as of this afternoon it had been played 104,781,455 times, to be precise. It's hard to know what to make of such a detailed tally of fanaticism, except to say that it's pretty damn massive.

Despite the YouTube ass-kicking Ms Lavigne is inflicting on her fellow rockers, the truth is that the real force in online video is not professional musicians, actors or comedians, but everyday guys and girls with a digital camcorder and far too much time on their hands. According to a recent study by UK-based media analysts at ScreenDigest, the online video consumption habit of Britons, Germans and the French overwhelmingly skews to user-generated fare. More than 90 per cent of all online video streams and downloads viewed in these European countries involve complete unknowns and barely-knowns – in other words, Europeans are tuning in to you and your friends hamming it up.

The quantity of bad amateur video we are watching is truly astounding. According to the same study, French and German net users will have watched 11.1 billion and 11.7 billion user-generated video streams respectively, by the end of the year. Britain beats them both by a wide margin, with a projected viewing tally of 15.2 billion amateur videos. The UK tally is expected to grow to more than 21 billion viewings by 2012. What does this say about Britons' viewing preferences? That British telly is so crap we'd rather tune in to The Credit Crunch Song by Antan Debt (as 199,000 of you have) or the Boxman President Dance (tally: 59,500)? TV executives ought to be asking themselves this question. Their uninspired programming is likely to be overtaken in the ratings by no-budget amateur YouTube fare by the time the Olympics roll into London.

What makes this unlikely ratings grab so baffling is the incredible lack of talent on display on YouTube most days. Don't get me wrong. There is quality first-run video programming on YouTube – Italian Spiderman still gets my vote. But the majority of YouTube wannabe celebs, it is clear, were never meant to be seen performing outside their bedrooms. Even their grandmothers would cringe at some of the video blurbs they're producing. But therein lies the appeal. While bad TV may be bad for humanity, bad YouTube is sweetly redeeming. I know you agree. Why else would you watch video of the poorest production quality in a tiny box 15.2 billion times unless there was something innately compelling about the experience?

And what exactly is that compelling quality? At the risk of sounding like Sarah Palin, it's courage. Yes, we all have the ability now to reach a global audience of viewers by reciting our favourite fart jokes. But it takes a special nerve to attract a significant audience and then endure a barrage of is-that-the-best-you-could-do? comments from them. For example, just as Ms. Lavigne was crossing the 104 million mark, two aspiring female musicians were vying for your attention too with original songs of their own on YouTube this week. It was Jennifer Rafferty vs Clara Belle. Never heard of them?

In the past week, Ms Rafferty has succeeded in attracting 39,000 viewers to her music video for The Signs, a syrupy sweet tune that contains the line, "One day MySpace will be your space too." The video employs something of a YouTube formula: there's a girl on her bed, an acoustic guitar and a plush frog. She scores 449 viewer comments. Ms Belle, meanwhile, scores a little more than 17,000 viewers with her music video for Oh Well..., a song, she explains, that is "about the battle of being a female, the pain I refer to in verse 2 is about waxing legs etc... nothing too deep."

It's a bit unfair to rank the two head-to-head, given that Ms Belle's instrument of choice is a ukulele, so I won't. I find these two musicians to be notable nonetheless. They embody the true spirit of the YouTube DIY stardom phenomenon. They courageously perform to the masses, and the masses respond, not always favourably. Simon Cowell would blush at some of the comments, which range from the creepy -- "IN SERBIA WE CALL GIRLS LIKE U…" (you get the idea) – to the withering – "maybe u shud go the whole hog and get a banjo and a kazoo." But, it must be said that there are far more positive comments than negative, and the two are building a loyal following, one grainy video at a time. And, from the look of it, their audience is set to take off.

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Bernhard Warner, a freelance journalist and media consultant, writes about technology, the internet and media industries. He can be reached at techscribe@gmail.com

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