Rebecca Black – Friday
‘Friday’ was released on February 10th, 2011. It has sparked a considerable amount of controversy, as Rebecca Black’s mum paid $2000 for the music video in which the ‘artist’ had to be autotuned, the lyrics were terrible and the video itself was poorly edited and uninteresting. Within little over a month, it has gained 45,715,568 views.
Roughly 90% of the ratings were ‘dislikes’. It has gained a lot of popularity for the poor quality it is, even surpassing Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Charlie Sheen on Youtube.
A singer with next to no talent has achieved millions of views. This case shows that on the internet, money buys success. Videos will gain popularity for their extremities and not necessarily for their qualities.
Justin Bieber – One Time
Justin Bieber became famous after his mum started uploading home videos of him singing cover songs of celebrities that he admired. Unlike Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’, Justin rose to fame because he had fans. It may have also been the fact that he covered already famous songs, in a manner that fans considered as ‘perfect’. The lyrics to his songs are cliché, there is no visual interpretation of the lyrics in his video.
Yet fans love his songs and they love his singing voice. His main fanbase are young gullible teenagers. In a few months, he achieved a worldwide status. Covering already famous songs is guaranteed to get you a few hundred views, but it’s the fact that he posted so many cover videos on YouTube – and his fans spread it around. It’s so easy to spread videos around the internet.
Greyson Chance – Paparazzi
Greyson’s brother posted a video of him singing ‘Paparazzi’ at a year 6 annual school performance. In under 2 weeks, it gained millions of views and Greyson was invited on to the Ellen Degenerous Show and was signed to Ellen’s new record label ‘ElevenEleven’. Already on Youtube, the teen star is being compared to Justin Bieber: one person’s fame is making another person famous.
This is another example of a cover song having made someone famous, which begs the question: is the internet making people popular or is it just the songs sung? If it wasn’t for Youtube which so many people use, Greyson wouldn’t have had the amount popularity that he does now. He probably would’ve been nothing more than a popular kid in the local community. However, he’ll always been known as the ‘Paparazzi kid’ for his debut video on Youtube.
Willow Smith – Whip My Hair
All the music video was about was Willow whipping her hair back-and-forth. However, as with Justin Bieber and Greyson Chance, it has recieved a lot of likes and comments such as her being alike to Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj in style. Although the song is not interesting, or meaningful, it’s catchy to alot of people and like alot of dance music, has caused a spark of people to whip their hair, to emulate the music video.
Matty B
Just when you thought that celebrities couldn’t get any younger, Matty B, aged 8, has over 211, 000 subscribers to his Youtube channel. He posts videos of himself rapping to other celebrities. His music is mostly popular with teenagers. Most of his views for the video are in America, he first became famous when he was seven. Like Greyson Chance, he may be making fame off what other celebrities have already done, which is highly unoriginal. However, since almost every Youtube user has the urge to see if he can outperform celebrities or at least give an entertaining performance, they click on him.
Even though his voice is auto-tuned to the maximum, he still has admirers on his channel. The internet has given the youngest people a place to get recognised, it has given them opportunities in an industry that relies on talent and experience.
