It seems that when all else fails (in getting a spot of attention in the limelight of the mass media that is,) it's time to try the internet. With the increasing accessibility of the computer these days, almost anyone can extend his or her reach into the possibilities that lie in "infinity and beyond!" - in the words of Buzz Lightyear, and radically change their whole life. Well if you haven't guessed it by now - despite the title of this post - the topic of interest this time is the rise of the YouTube stars.
Take Esmee Denters for example. A lovely girl with an incredible voice, it didn't take long for her to get attention amongst the YouTube community. She posted videos of herself singing covers of popular hits like "What Goes Around Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake, "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield and "Because of You" by Ne-yo, just to name a few. And poof! She got spotted by an artist manager by the name of Jonathan Berhane, introduced to Billy Mann and signed by none other than Justin Timberlake himself by early June, 2007 - as the first artist on his Tennman Records label. Then, she even got on Oprah to tell her tale of YouTube success. For those interested, her album's out in March this year.
Here's a video of her singing if you're interested (this was prior to her getting signed).
Now, everyone wants to be the next Esmee Denters, having seen the power and reach of that tiny little box in their room.
So there's Justin Bie, a small boy with a big voice. In the words of one of the commentors in one of his videos, “For crying out loud, someone give the kid a record label already.” You’ll see, or rather hear, the justification for that statement here:
And it looks like he went the same way Esmee Denters did, if this video is anything to go by - Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel paid a visit.
There's also Alyssa Bernal, a girl with a striking resemblance to Vanessa Anne Hudgens; or you could look up Cathy Nguyen. I'm probably missing out some of the more known YouTube stars here (because I don't spend all my time on YouTube, contrary to popular belief, haha.)
Seeing this, no wonder the Powerful Effects Theory regarding the media, where the audience is considered to be a passive listener is mostly defunct. It seems more to me like the audience is leading the media in the way they would like to go now, wouldn't you agree? :)
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yeahh i definitely agree. in fact there is direct audience participation where u can leave comments and this makes it even more powerful. Also, the number of hits a video receives can be seen. these can help to generate a lot of hype and attention, as can be seen in the case of esmee denters..
ReplyDeleteOf course with many great things like this comes many conspiracy stories!
ReplyDeleteFor instance I have a friend who is something of a youtube producer, he makes youtube videos and uses advertising on his youtube account to fund his life pretty awesome..
he often talks about the conspiracies behind youtube he has many graphs he has made that show weeks where he has logged off and his views that week almost double!! OH NO CONSPIRACY!
He believes this is a way of drawing him back into youtube to make more videos as it makes the site more popular.. but then if the site was not popular there would be no public drive to the media and it would be very much controlled again..
The inner non-conformist in me (what am I talk about inner, I have a mohawk for crying out loud!) says that if we the public could not innfluence the media then the world would fall into chaos!!
Hope that never happens..
Yay for youtube, its the glue of the media world!
I think it takes two hands to clap.
ReplyDeleteI think youtube is a powerful way for the audience to voice their opinion. There are even segments on radio and talkshows where the hosts introduce the most popular videos of the week. Even famous talk show hosts like Ellen Degeneres acknowledge the rising popularity of some of these "undiscovered talents" by inviting them on to the show, what more the record labels. It's like voting on AI, the higher the number of views the closer your are to stardom! After all,if the audience likes it, who are the record labels to say other wise, right?
ReplyDeleteWait...
ReplyDeleteThen there are singers (no specific examples, sorry) who were actually signed with agencies/companies and used youtube to 'pretend' to be unknowns.
I think the internet has in a way evolved to be a platform, a forum, for promoting the underdogs--be it artistes or social consciousnesses.
Ling