Fame through YouTube

Amira Said
Lauren Clark
18 November 2010
English 101

Fame Through YouTube

There is no doubt that the increase in technology over the past few decades has made it easier for information and ideas to travel across the world in seconds. It is important in our fast moving society to take a step back and consider, is the value fame being defaced? Since the early months of 2005, people have been able to upload and view videos online through YouTube. YouTube is a venue where users can share videos with mass amounts of people, including close family and friends, and the general public. YouTube is accessible through any device with Internet, and over the past five years has become one of the most visited sites for entertainment. Because the site is so accessible, and so many people use it, ordinary people can become famous by solely uploading a video, no matter how ridiculous it is. Through the use of YouTube people can become famous with such little work, and almost no substantial talent.

There are endless cases of ordinary people adding a series of videos to the ‘Tube and instantly becoming superstars. These “average Joes” easily become multi-millionaires after being invited onto popular televisions talk shows and for some, ending up with their own TV series. It seems to be the more views a user gets on their videos, the more the media is attracted to them, and without doing any work, they are offered contracts from music, television, and book companies.

The hit teen sensation, Justin Bieber, was just an average Canadian pre-teen before YouTube swept him away. Now, the sixteen-year-old has performed with the most popular artists in the music industry, made top charts with his songs, and became a company of his own, all in a matter of three years. In 2007, Bieber’s mother posted a video of him singing “So Sick” by Ne-Yo for a local singing competition. If Bieber had been born just a few years previous, his talent would’ve probably never made it out of Stratford, Ontario (Shaw). In the article, Justin Bieber: digital discovery, social media sensation, the author Gillian Shaw says “The early YouTube entries are of the "sharing with Grandma" genre -- hardly the type of audition you might think would launch a recording career.” An employee of the company that manages the Twitter website said this in reference to Bieber: “You can't get any more influential than this. People hang on your every word, and share your content like no other (Shaw).” Justin Bieber owes his whole career to YouTube.

Another astounding YouTube fame story has derived from Justin Bieber, but this one, stars one of his young fans. The mother and siblings of three-year-old Cody videotaped her crying over her love for Justin Bieber and posted the video on YouTube. Not long after it was posted, the video reached a million views and has been increasing steadily since. Young Cody literally did nothing but cry about Justin Bieber and say a few funny phrases, and because of her video, ended up on national television. Cody and her whole family, a short time after the video was posted, got invited to the Jimmy Kimmel Live show where they were surprised by a visit from Justin Bieber himself.

YouTube sensation, Bo Burnham, ironically has a song called “Welcome to YouTube,” that aired on national television, in which he describes the phenomenon and attributes his fame to the site. He satirizes about the absurdity of many famous YouTube celebrities, although he is among them. Burnham is a twenty-year-old comedian and singer-songwriter from Massachusetts who began uploading videos of himself singing and playing piano in 2007 (Jean). His videos currently have over 70 million hits (Jean). While not much is up for debate when deciding if Burnham has talent, because his songs are as clever and catchy as they come, the teen’s straight shot to stardom may have been too easily handed to him. In his satirical song “Welcome to YouTube,” he amusingly says “Before YouTube I was just a skinny white kid … Now, not much has changed but now I have a sh*tload of money (“Welcome to YouTube”).” The comedian himself knows he must attribute his fame to the site.

Chris Crocker is a very controversial, famous YouTube-er recognized for his video “Leave Britney Alone!” which currently has around 35,246,000 views. In the video, the emotionally chastises tabloids and gossip columns for criticizing Britney Spears during her hard times. His open flamboyantly gay character can hardly be considered talent worth national recognition but yet again, the fame has just been handed to him as he is now commonly asked to host television award shows and appear on many different series. Crocker also seems to have the idea in his head now that he deserves the same respect as all celebrities, when he would be nowhere without YouTube.

Not all famous YouTube video sharers go on to sign contracts and get attention from top-name companies. Some are left unnoticed but once they start to accumulate hits on their videos, many have been able to just sit back and watch themselves rise to stardom. Fame should be an exclusive status to obtain. The easier it gets to become famous, the less value fame has. According to the author Michael Strangelove, who wrote Watching YouTube: extraordinary videos by ordinary people, YouTube supports cultural collaboration because it encourages companies to support ordinary citizens. He also goes on to say, “The fame it engenders cannot be attributed solely to the creative activity of a single individual (Strangelove 186-189).”

Before YouTube, the process of becoming famous was a long and intricate endeavor. You would have to audition, attract companies, and use a good business strategy to make something out of yourself and even then you had to start small. Now, it’s easy for a Hollywood career to begin with a homemade video that had no original intention of attracting big names. The once almost unattainable, but rewarding if achieved, status has been devalued by the ‘Tube. While this ordeal cannot be blamed on YouTube, because all it does is provide a place for the sharing of videos, something should be done before fame has no significance. With a few exceptions, the entertainment that YouTube videos bring to web surfers should be restricted to the ‘Tube. A massive number of hits on a video should not have the authority to launch the creator’s professional career.



Works Cited

Jean, Currie. "Obscure people who have become stars through YouTube videos." Helium. Helium, Inc. Web. 17 Nov 2010

Shaw, Gillian. "Justin Bieber: digital discovery, social media sensation." Gazzette 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 17 Nov 2010.

Strangelove, Michael. Watching YouTube: extraordinary videos by ordinary people. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2010. 186-189. Print.

"Welcome to YouTube." Bo Burnham Official YouTube. Web. 17 Nov 2010.