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Amanda Chamblee

Dr. Dietel-McLaughlin

FYC 13100

28 October 2010

Bieber Fever: Fame is Just One Click Away

This is the year 2010. We have 3-D movies, virtual videogames, cell phones that know

what time zone they are in, computers that allow you to talk to someone face-to-face even if they

are half way across the world, social networking sites, and personalized media. Personalized

media is the newest thing sweeping the nation and it has had some big influences in the lives of normal people, as well as transforming everything that mainstream production is and has to deal

with. Through personalized media, we have been introduced to stars like Justin Bieber, who one

day was some normal teenage boy living with his single mother, and the next day a singing

sensation. How does it happen? It happens through a strategic and clever plan of manipulating

personal media in an effort to gain a following. What it boils down to is that personalized media

has made it easier for nobodies to become somebody, normal people with a little talent to

become stars, and in effect, it has changed what mainstream media really is.

Justin Bieber is a prime example of how to use personalized media effectively to become

famous. He got himself discovered by using YouTube to post videos of himself singing. In fact,

it was his mom who started it all. Justin was in a few talent contests when he was younger and

some of his relatives who could not be there wanted to see his performances. His mom recorded

them and posted them to YouTube for his relatives to view; and before you know it, his videos

started becoming very popular (Bartolomeo). A cute little 12 year-old boy with a talented voice

and a social medium that could make his videos spread like wild fire, became the next singing


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sensation of the moment. It is not even a question about talent or popularity at this point, because

both can easily be proved. For example, nonbeliebers who seem to think he is not talented, can

be proven wrong by all the talent contests he has placed in. In fact, the talent show which jump-

started his career, he ended up placing second in. Also, some nonbeliebers may claim he is not

that popular, he is just followed by a group of screaming teenage girls; however, they can also be

proved wrong by looking at his record sales. Justin has had much success in a short amount of

time and it is evident in his ongoing run of Top 40 hits, a platinum album, and a throng of

adoring teenage fans. His first album went on sale in November 2009 and went platinum just two

months later. By Christmas, he was singing for the Obamas at the White House on nationaltelevision (Saenz). Besides that, he has amassed 162 million views on his YouTube channel,

2.6 million fans on Facebook and 1.7 million followers and counting on twitter (Bartolomeo).

He even passed up his discoverer, Usher, on the charts as his My World 2.0 returned to No. 1

with 102,000 sales, according to Nielson SoundScan, and Ushers Raymond v Raymond (Jive)

fell one spot to No. 2 with 92,000 [sales] (Sisario). No matter what anyone says, Justin Bieber is

talented, ingenious, and most definitely famous. The question one is left with, however, is: How

much does media really affect ones chances of getting noticed?

Now, the fact that Justin is talented is great and all, but it takes much more than that to

become famous. Justin needed a lot more than raw talent alone to reach mega stardom[he

needed] effective marketing and networking and this is where his strategic plan comes into play

(Duffy). His approach was ingenious; post videos on the web under the titles of popular songs,

which he sang his own versions of, have them come up in search engines everywhere, appeal to

the audience as a talented prodigy perhaps, and have people start to watch his videos. One person

watching can start a trend because people follow other people, hence the viral nature of


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YouTube videos, the ability for memes to spread rapidly through social networking, and the self-

referencing and amplifying attention of the major media (Saenz). Then before you know it, you

have a huge following. After you have that established, you are ready to move onto the next

thing: getting signed. Now what record company would not want to sign the biggest sensation on

YouTube? If he is already popular without being a celebrity, then when he is one he will be

overwhelmingly more popular. So eventually, he ends up getting signed and his manager has the

same kind of idea of how to grasp more fans; build a rabid radio, internet, and video following

(Saenz). Now Justin Bieber is still currently working on these last three steps and they are what

make up his career as a celebrity. The first couple steps, however, make up the strategy used togetting the start he needed in the first place.

Justin Bieber is not the only person who got a start using personalized media; Lady Gaga,

Greyson Chance, and Susan Boyle also got their shots at fame through MySpace, YouTube, and

television. Lady Gaga, or Stefani Germanotta, was first discovered through MySpace. She was

19 years old and very smart about using social networking sites to get noticed. She eventually

got in contact with Island Def Jam Music Group, which was the company Justin Bieber also got

signed with (Duffy). Once signed, her managers appealed to YouTube where they designed her

music videos specifically for YouTube because of its viral nature. This was important for

furthering her career because eventually MySpace became unpopular and overlooked. The Next

YouTube sensation was a 12-year-old boy named Greyson Chance. One of his piano

performances, which covered Paparazzi by Lady Gaga, caught like wild fire on YouTube and

even got noticed by Ellen DeGeneres. He was then invited onto her show to perform live and he

even inspired her to start her own record label called eleveneleven. His performance received

around 25 million views (Duffy). Lastly, Susan Boyle made her first appearance on Britains Got


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T alent and shocked the world. No one expected such an amazing singing voice to come out of

such an unusual individual. Her lack of normality and sameness is what gives her such a unique

performance. Susans special needs are what set her apart from other contestants on the show as

well as captivate the audience. After the audition, her video was uploaded to YouTube where her

fan base made it certain that she was loved. With 2.5 million views of the performance, and 100

million views of other performances and interviews, she easily rose to the top and was named the

most watched YouTube video of the year with over 120 million views (Duffy).

Even after all of this evidence about stars rising to fame through personalized media, one

can still argue that these people would have eventually been discovered anyways because of their talent. This would mean that personalized media really had nothing to do with it at all, it might

have just made the process faster. However, I would argue against that and here is why: Antoine

Dodson. This man does not clearly or adamantly posses a talent of any kind, especially not

singing. In fact, the only talent he seemed to posses and what actually sparked his getting

noticed, was his temper and how he displays himself to the public in a news interview about his

sisters potential rape. His puzzling language and surprisingly funny mannerisms are what

sparked the YouTube video of his interview accompanied by a remix of his interview into an

actual song. This song can now be purchased on iTunes and the money goes back to his family

so they can buy a better house outside of their poverty stricken neighborhood (NPR Staff). A

ringtone was also made as a result of this event. Clearly media plays a huge role in this situation

because his interview would have never been seen by so many people if it was not uploaded to

YouTube. Antoine also recognizes this and completely agrees with it as well as its power to

change his and his familys life by posing an opportunity for [his] family to get out of the

hood (NPR Staff). Also, his popularity grew even more when technology was used to warp his


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original interview and turn it into an actual song, which is pretty catchy to those who like rap.

With the use of synthesizers, he was able to perform this song live during the BET Awards. He

also has a website where he sells merchandise quoting his interview as well as a fan line where

he can talk to rape victims and try to console them and give them advice (NPR Staff). So even

though he cannot really sing, and he does not seem to posses any spectacular talent, he is now

famous because of YouTube.

With all of the commotion YouTube and other personalized media is making about

certain people, it is no wonder why mainstream production would be looking into it as well.

Keen labels this whole technological movement as Web 2.0 and in Web 2.0, we can smash theelitism of the Hollywood studios and the big record labels. Now in reality, these big companies

and record labels still exist, but with the influence of personalized media, we can disguise our

own influence as being that of the major record labels. For example, the people made Justin

Bieber popular on YouTube because he was what they wanted. He is the young, fresh vision of

music right now and the record labels made him famous because it was what the people wanted

and they knew they would make money off of it. So in essence, the record labels are now giving

us what we wanted and already had in the first place because technology personalizes culture so

that it reflects ourselves rather than the world around us (Keen). Saenz would agree with this by

saying with social networking, we have become the media. Again, he is reiterating the

important role the audience now plays in deciding who will be performing in front of them. It is

up to us to decide what is popular and therefore, what should be promoted. If people like

something and respond to it well, then they are going to demand it. If a manager was smart, then

he or she would realize that popularity is decided by the people and not by the record company,

therefore, he or she will appeal to the wants of society.


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With the new technologies at everyones fingertips, we have obviously established a new

way of getting discovered. When compared to the traditional way, we see that there are many

huge differences. The traditional way of getting discovered is a very grueling process. The patron

seeking stardom would first have to find someone with equipment, if not acquire his or her own,

that would agree to manage him or her and help with the process. Lets take a look at Taylor

Swift for example; she does not completely follow the traditional way, however, she shows what

a struggle it can be to get noticed without using personalized media. She had a guitar and a great

voice but lacked the equipment to properly record her music so that it could be submitted to

producers. So in an effort to get her discovered, her parents moved the family near Nashville,Tennessee to make things a little easier (Gregorious). Completely uprooting your family for a

shot at fame is an expensive consequence of the traditional way. Once the Swift family was in a

better position to further Taylors singing career, she had to play for many gigs and small shows

with hopes that a producer or someone important was in the audience listening. This took around

three years for her to actually get noticed by the right people (Gregorious). After being

discovered, she had to officially get signed by a record label and then after that her songs started

surfacing on the radio. Other singers, however, experience a bit of a different encounter with

producers. They usually have to record a demo and submit it to a producer who would hopefully

realize his or her talent and potential. Although this process might be equally as effective as the

newly established process by Justin Bieber, it is definitely a lot more time consuming as well as

expensive. Paying for equipment or spending money to reserve time in recording studios adds

up. All Justin had to worry about was recording his performances by video and letting YouTube

take effect and quickly surface his videos to the right people. Taylor, on the other hand, had to

find a way to get her music noticed by the right people, move her entire family, and find a record


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label to sign her. While others have to find a way to record their music so that it is professional

enough to be submitted to a producer through a demo C.D. This process takes many months if

not even years for it to be successful, and it calls for people who have the resources or money to

achieve the resources needed to start a career. Therefore, for all those who think the traditional

way is better, we can safely say that both ways are equally effective, yet the new way is better

because it is cheaper and less time consuming.

In conclusion, the power of new personalized media has had major effects on society and

the lives of individual people who know how to use it effectively. Technology has made it easier

to spread information rapidly across the nation; and looking into the future, once languagebarriers can be crossed effectively, there is no reason why this cannot spread to international

levels. With an international base, cultures can come together and find similarities in

entertainment as well as music and be able to share information and advancements more easily.

Also, technology has allowed for advancements in the promotion of music as well as individuals

producing the music. This is a very good thing because it allows the audience to get more of

what they want and in the long run, this keeps them happy and faithful. Lastly, it has

dramatically changed the lives of certain individuals. It brought one young boy and his single,

struggling mother back to hope, one family undergoing a traumatic situation out of the poor

neighborhood they were trapped in, and one woman who felt separated from the world into the

arms of many loving and adoring fans. This is what technology can do in the year 2010; this is

personalized media. Who knows where it will take us in the future, but no matter where it does,

we will always be looking up.


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Works Cited

"Antoine Dodson: Riding YouTube Out Of The 'Hood'" Online posting. NPR : N ational

Pub lic R adio . NPR Staff, 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.

.

Bartolomeo, Joey. "Boy Wonder." P eople Magazine 19 Apr. 2010. P eople.com . People

Magazine. Web. 5 Oct. 2010.

.

Duffy, Timothy James. "The Rise of the Bieber: How Pop Stars Become Famous Using the

Web | Techi.com."T

echi.com . 8 June 2010. Web. 5 Oct. 2010..

Gregorious. "Taylor Swift Biography." H ub pages . Web. 20 Oct. 2010.

.

Keen, Andrew. "Web 2.0." Web log post. T he Blog . The Weekly Standard, 15 Feb. 2006. Web.

10 Oct. 2010.

.

Saenz, Aaron. "Justin Bieber and the Rising Importance of Accelerating Media." T he F u t u re

Is Here T oday . Singularity Hub, 16 Mar. 2010. Web. 5 Oct. 2010.

.

Sisario, Ben. "Bieber Knocks Usher From Billboard's Top Spot." T he N ew York T imes 14

Apr. 2010. Arts Beat . The New York Times. Web. 10 Oct. 2010.

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