Friday, February 17, 2012

Power of the People

by Natalie Bell




It's Friday, Friday, Friday. Just those four words make almost anyone think of Rebecca Black's music video on YouTube. A year ago most the nation would say "Rebecca Black, who?" Now she is well-known across the world. Her Friday video went viral immediately and earned YouTube's top watched video of 2011; to date there are over 23 million views. She has been invited on talk shows, her song has been performed by Justin Beiber as well as the Jonas Brothers in concert, and she even performed live at one of Katy Perry's concerts.

So what catapulted Rebecca to stardom? Well friends, it is all of us. When we see something we like we share it with each other, and social media has made this easier than ever. Send a tweet and it reaches countless numbers of people, all of whom send it to another countless number of people. This pattern continues over and over and over. . . until a normal Joe Schmo is all of a sudden known around the world. Whether or not we share videos because the performer is incredibly talented, extremely funny, or painfully entertaining, videos get passed and a star is born. Four times as many people have "disliked" Friday compared to "liked" the video, yet Rebecca Black is known by thousands of people because of the song.

In decades before it was up to the media to decide who's who and who's not. In order to be famous you had to have that "special something" that others did not. Now not having that "special something" is what can make you a celebrity. Quirkiness and flaws sell. Instead of being simply the audience, social media has made us common folk both the audience and the medium. We now are able to choose who we hear about and how often. In the words of Miss Black, "we we we so excited" to see who will be the next viral star.