The music industry has perpetuated some of the largest fandoms in the world and the Internet community, especially among younger audiences. The popularity of various bands/musicians has skyrocketed due to media sharing sites and social networks on the Internet. One of the first musicians to fall under the classification of a social media success is Justin Beiber.
Justin Beiber’s rise to fame and sustained popularity was nearly entirely a byproduct of effective social media use. Beiber’s videos on youtube eventually garnered a number of views and amassed a fairly substantial collection of videos online. His popularity continued to climb steadily (and almost exponentially) on youtube as more and more people began to discover, watch, favorite and subscribe to his video channel. He was initially ‘discovered’ on youtube by thousands of fans before his popularity reached individuals in the music industry. Beiber’s rise to popularity shows, to a certain extent, the power of consumers/fans. Although Beiber’s videos on Youtube were a success, he was essentially ‘unknown to the professional music industry.’ Once he signed a deal with a music label, his popularity continued to grow, in large part due to his existing fan base.
The fandom which previously online existed online, now had an opportunity to enter the physical world. Beiber’s introduction into the professional music industry, provided fans with the opportunity to meet together for the purpose of attending a concert, or show. Yet, his initial online popularity spawned not only physical excitement – ie. teenage girls screaming as he walked by – but also generated more members being part of the online fandom community. It has been argued that Justain Beiber is more influential in social media than United States President Barack Obama or the Dalai Lama. Beiber’s continued interested in his online community has increased his online following which has reached over 30,000,000 followers on Twitter, and over 3,000,000,000 views on youtube. He continued to generate interest in his online persona by maintaining an online relationship with his fandom. He continues to upload videos to his youtube channel – mindful and grateful for his initial supporters. He has also become a model for handling media controversy through social networks, and most importantly continually maintains and open two-way communication channel with the public. This interest in fans and enemies alike has sustained Beiber’s popularity even as his average audience ages.
Fandoms revolving around Beiber express themselves both online and in the physical world. Numerous tumblrs have been spawned that either support or condemn the young musician, facebook pages have been dedicated to him, blogs written about him…and the list continues. Yet, as Justin Beiber’s mainstream popularity wanes his fandoms remain, bolstered by Beiber’s online interactions with the community.
Another recent phenomenon is the rise of British boy-band One Direction. Although they haven’t reached such a mass Twitter or YouTube following, they followed a similar path of success as Justin Beiber. One Direction was relatively unknown, apart from their appearance on Xfactor, in the professional music industry – yet they had thousands of followers. Their ‘agent’ Simon Cowell insisted that their online popularity would soon result in their official introduction to American audiences at the discretion of music agencies. Their widespread popularity reached critical target audiences before the American music industry asked to bring them to the states. Increasingly musicians and other artists are relying upon initial online popularity to launch their careers.
Yet, their fandoms do not stop there. Especially among teenage and young adult females, One Direction has been a source of much discussion and debate. In particularly nearly one-third of tumblr users have at one point either mentioned One Direction or have created pages devoted to them. Twitter, in particular (like Justin Beiber) provides members of the and with a way to communicate with their audience. Each members has approximately 7,000,000 followers each, which while it isn’t the massive following of Justin Beiber, it is still a sizeable community to foster online participation. Whilst these fandoms did not arise overnight, their popularity can largely be attributed to the almost cult-like following of fans.
Materials have been marketed with One Direction or Justin Beiber trademarks that sell for a significantly marked-up price that a similar item without their brand. Yet, these items continue to sell on the market. Their fandoms have brought an online presence largely into the physical world, as any other musician who arose through traditional routes.
I enjoyed reading your discussion of how teenage musical artists and bands, like Justin Bieber and One Direction, can “unofficially” rise to stardom with a nudge from social media. I definitely agree that social media, whether that be Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, or another site, can play a massive role in contributing to a singer’s early popularity and then helping that celebrity maintain his or her celebrity status throughout his or her career. There is something to be said about using Twitter, for example, to follow a celebrity, communicate with him or her, and overall connect with that person on a more personal level. Social media humanizes celebrities and makes them seem more relatable, which in turn, augments their popularity and fan base.
What I would like to point out is that social media does have the power to achieve all of these effects, but only, I would argue, with the right person. I don’t think that any band or singer seeking fame could do so, even if they possessed enough talent and used social media to their advantage. I think an ordinary person’s rise to stardom is perhaps a more complicated process, requiring that person to sing the right songs, look a certain way, have the right age, and perform at the right venues at the right time. While social media can certainly help push this process along, I think there are several other factors that must be accounted for when evaluating the reasons behind Justin Bieber or One Direction’s rise to fame. You state that Bieber’s “rise to fame and sustained popularity was nearly entirely a byproduct of effective social media use,” but to me, it seems that his effective social media use only helped promote his image after he had already met a series of other criteria: he was cute, blonde, young, strumming away at the guitar and playing the piano, and singing love songs. Similarly, One Direction is not necessarily a famous band because its members can sing and use social media effectively; they first met the criteria of being an attractive boy band with British accents, and then social media pushed them along.
Katie, I completely agree with pretty much everything you are saying regarding the effective use of social media to augment a physical presence and promote an individual/group’s popularity.
I definitely believe that an individual must have appeal in other aspects than just social media to become popular – particularly for a skills such as music. It is possible that individuals become ‘social media’ famous simply for their excessive use of social media in online forums. This is similar to the whole ‘facebook famous’ aspect of college life, where you ‘know’ certain individuals through their massive online presence but may have never met them in person.
Some research has indicated that Beiber’s rise to fame and sustained popularity was pretty much solely a byproduct of effective social media use given his physical appearance/personality and existing talent. For a musician of similar appear, I’m arguing that Beiber has succeeded where others have failed given his use of social media (though other factors, may very well be involved). Do you agree with that assessment, or are there some other factors that you believe helped Beiber rise to fame where a musician of similar appear and talent remains relatively anonymous?
I agree! 🙂 I think it’s interesting to trace back his popularity. I would be interested in trying to find a more quantitative way of measuring his success in the entertainment industry. I think it is mutually agreed that his success is due to a range of different factors with social media being one of the larger ones, but I think it comes down to each individual to decide the extent to which he or she perceives each factor contributing to his popularity.
What components other than effective use of social media are necessary — or are you arguing that that is the only necessary component to become a Beiber?
I’m arguing that it is a single necessary component to ‘become a Bieber.’ There are, of course other essential ingredients to online and in-person success, such as physical appeal, musical appeal, emotional appeal etc. However, all of those ingredients may not sustain popularity without successful use of social media