YouTube stars

This past week in class we've been talking about the power of youtube. Whether it be a "macaca" moment or "vlog" bullying, youtube has been proven to have the power to completley change someones life. David Karpf argues in his paper that we underestimate the effect YouTube can have on politics, citing the "Macaca Moment". His study claims that while YouTube has a significant influence on politics, it is only a tool used by political organizations and not the center or direct result of campaigns. This got me thinking about the influence of YouTube beyond politics, and its ability to make an average joe an instant celebrity, simply by making a video. Mostly, these people enjoy their 10 minutes of fame, being exploited around the internet, whether thier videos are funny and shared on facebook or moving and emotional. I know my friends and I have exchanged countless YouTube videos of rediculous people who became semi-famous for a week or two. The "celebrities" fade in and out. One week they could be getting hundreds of thousands of hits, and could be circulated across the globe, and the next they could be back to reality, the same as they were before their youtube stardom. However, in some cases, these YouTube stars last a little longer than usual, and can gain attention from other media sources as a result of their YouTube videos. This article talks about how Youtube jumpstarted the careers of several extremely successful celebrites. LonelyGirl, whose videos we viewed in class, went on to land a role in the popular tv show "Greek". And most notably, Justin Bieber found his big break when his mom posted a video of him singing popular R&B songs and was discovered by a producer in Atlanta.

These are the success stories of talented and trained performers, but as I mentioned before, there are other YouTube stars out there who are either completley serious in posting videos that others find hilarious, or just post videos that they find funny and become instant hits. I have two recent examples of videos which have become insanely popular, and have resulted in stardom and other opportunities for their stars. The first is Antoine Dodson, who I am sure most of you have heard of. He was first seen on a news segment because an intruder had broken into his sister's home and tried to rape her. He was famously quoted saying "Hide ya kids, Hide ya wives, because everybody's gonna get raped" which subsequently has become a famous line and has made him into an internet sensation. His famous quotes from that video have been made into a music video, "The Bed Intruder Song" which he has been performing in various shows across the country. He also was featured on a commercial for a sex offender traffic application for Cell phones. His original video can be viewed here. Another recent "celebrity" is Keenan Cahill, a 15 year old who is most known for posting videos of himself in his bedroom, lip-singing along to his favorite songs. Recently, he was featured on the popular late night television show "Chelsea Lately" where he was given the opportunity to recreate one of these videos with famous rapper 50 cent. That can be viewed here. Although these two Youtube stars will probably be forgotten about in a couple of weeks, their stories just go to show how popular an everyday person can become by simply posting or even being featured (in Dodson's case) in a video on youtube.