You've heard of YouTube, right? Of course you have. You haven't been living in a cave since 1996, after all... have you?
Anyway, YouTube's been around for a few years now -- long enough for millions of people to use it on a daily basis. Some to upload videos, others to simply watch videos uploaded by others.
I've been a YouTube member for a couple of years now (SpinyMcSpleen3264 -- natch), but thus far, I've only gone so far as to write comments to other people's videos. However, yesterday, I decided to actually upload something.
Not a very long, complicated thing... it doesn't even break a minute in total duration. But, no one else seems to have done it and I thought it was nifty (or, at least, interesting) enough to merit recognition.
See, on HomestarRunner.com, in the Strong Bad Email, "mascot", SB provides a score (musical, that is) for the fight-song of his made-up Crazy Go Nuts University (or, CGNU, for short). I was incredibly bored last night, so I went on a "rando"-clicking spree on the website ("rando" having the meaning here of "select for me a random toon and play it"), at the end of which, I happened across "mascot".
I've seen this particular SBemail before and was aware of the musical thing at the end -- you mouse-over the notes on Strong Bad's computer screen and they make their respective pitches. So, being incredibly bored, I decided to see if I could crash "mascot's" SWF file by playing all of the notes as quickly as I could. I swiped the cursor back and forth over most of the notes, but, rather than crashing the toon, I found that I could make a new song out of the CGNU theme. So, I recorded it, made some video-cels, and put it on YouTube.
My first-ever video, bogarted from HomestarRunner.com. Still, considering how many copyright-infringing Super Mario 64 gameplay videos there are on the site, my little contrivance seems innocuous, really.
Anyhow, I've strayed from the point somewhat.
The thing about YouTube is that people's original videos have become what is known as "viral" (like a biological virus which wreaks havoc, then dies away -- videos are widely-circulated, sometimes for a month or more, then they become tiresome or even annoying and then abandoned). Sometimes, millions of people will watch the video (number of views occasionally total in the tens or hundreds of millions, but that's only because of the same people watching multiple times or someone writing a programme that accesses their video hundreds of millions of times).
But, the real reason for this entry (which has become a bit longer than I anticipated) is that some people have used YouTube to become famous.
Take, for example, the most recent teen idol, Justin Bieber (there's a name I never thought I'd type here).
"A feminine-looking boy with a strange German name," says I.
"Total heartbreaker!" say millions of 12-14-year-old girls.
Somehow, he sang a song for a webcam and became a cultural icon inside a week. What followed, then? Album deals, TV appearances, live performances, bio-pics, magazines, cross-country tours, agents, lawyers, late-night TV punchlines, "Ken"-dolls with his likeness, school supplies of most kinds -- general celebrity.
Perhaps, one wracks one's brains wondering how he managed a career-launch via YouTube -- not two sentences ago, I, myself, stated that "somehow, he sang a song, et cetera". The reasoning is actually rather simple when you get right down to it. It's Paris Hilton Syndrome, again. People saw the video, thought he was "hot", and its popularity for that reason brought it to the attention of television executives who decided to capitalise on it.
But, on the other side of the coin, there's another example which involves actual talent. A few years ago, a housewife from Scotland by the name of Susan Boyle auditioned on a UK talent programme, singing operatically. Sans the school supplies and dolls, her case was extraordinarily similar to Justin Bieber, however the PHS was not a factor. Some would say that she only became famous because her story was "inspiring" -- a plain British housewife going on television and singing an uplifting song about... something (I can't actually remember what it was offhand). However, I like to think that Susan Boyle became a household name because she has actual talent.
Why? Because I'm considering uploading footage of me improvising on the piano. I'm certainly not going to be the next Justin Bieber (the only "hot" that applies to me is during the summer), but if I shoot for being the next Susan Boyle, I may stand a chance.
Another odd thing about YouTube. I upload one 40-second video and suddenly, I'm a philosopher.
Well, maybe not suddenly...
