Justin Bieber rose quickly from YouTube to world wide fame due to the strength of his talent and accelerating media. Others are sure to follow faster and faster.
Two years ago almost no one knew who he was, now he’s had an ongoing run of Top 40 hits, a platinum album, and a throng of adoring teenage fans. Justin Bieber is the 16 year old poster-child for the modern version of a meteoric rise to fame. He was discovered from his videos on YouTube, and his managers helped him build a rabid radio, internet, and video following. 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 national television. The thing is, Bieber’s story may be remarkable now, but it won’t be for long. Besides his considerable talent, the pop star was the beneficiary of some powerful trends: the viral nature of YouTube videos, the ability for memes to spread rapidly through social networking, and the self-referencing and amplifying attention of the major media. We’ve seen rises to fame before but the speed at which they happen are accelerating. The forces that turn an unknown into a celebrity have strengthened in the past decade, and will continue to swell in the years ahead. Other performers that can tap into these powers will experience the same sort of exponential rise in fame. In other words, ladies and gentleman, the Biebers are coming.
Viral marketing, self propagating news cycles, internet memes – these are all symptoms of the same phenomenon: accelerating media. Attention breeds more attention. The free exhange of information on the internet allows one person’s interest to spark another person’s interest with a speed and power that has never been seen before. There are the cute examples: millions of people watched an English boy bite his brother’s finger on YouTube. However, viral information exchange also played an important role in the 2008 US elections, the recent protests in Iran, and the ongoing ‘War on Terror’.
Here we compare Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Oprah on Google Trends. Notice that Gaga has a much higher volume, but that Bieber is rising quickly, outpacing Oprah in just a few months time.
The effect extends beyond the internet. 24 hour TV News channels fill their time by referencing their own work, getting experts to discuss the impact of the news they just reported – they amplify the importance of each news tidbit until it becomes a media frenzy (i.e. Balloon Boy). Radios play the same Top 40 music – reinforcing sales for albums that already have sold well. All these different systems interact with each other creating a feedback loop that allows a talented young Canadian to turn into an overnight sensation.
Bieber, or his managers, are poised to make millions due to this feedback loop. Yet that’s a paltry sum compared to others who harness the forces of accelerating media. Online social network games have become a billion dollar industry. Farmville on Facebook gained more than 11 million players in less than two months. MafiaWars has had a similar rise on various social networks and there are many more games coming up. How is accelerating media responsible for the success of these games? Well, with social networking, we have become the media.
That’s right, part of the power of accelerating media arises as each and every connected individual becoming a micro-feed of news, opinions, and content. Instead of each nation having a few major TV channels and news networks, the world now has billions of individuals disseminating information. And they’re all connected, or they will be. Right now, language barriers still prevent populations from easily sharing their media in a meaningful way. That’s quickly changing, and universal translation tools will soon break down these last barriers and create a global network of interconnected users.
In other words, the web that helps strengthen accelerating media is itself going to become more powerful in the upcoming years. Bieber is an example of how a Canadian singer quickly accelerated into becoming a pop sensation in English speaking parts of the world. Imagine what will happen when language barriers fall down and social networking becomes a greater part of our lives. The next Bieber could be singing in Portuguese in some small town outside of Rio or he could be making people laugh in Chinese in a bar in Beijing, or he could be moving hearts in a play for the deaf in Zaire. This new Bieber won’t have a following of millions, his fans will top out at over a billion.
Somewhere the next Bieber is about to go from singing in his room to starring on MTV.
Those little funny videos on YouTube aren’t so funny anymore. The same trends that make them popular are fueling billion dollar industries, making millionaire muscians overnight, and shaping politics everywhere. Mobile phones and the internet have amplified the world’s interconnectedness. New technologies like smart phones, brain computer interfaces, and augmented reality are going to increase it even further. So get ready for the consequences (and opportunities) of accelerating media. Anyone or any idea could blow up into a global phenomenon. This process only takes months today, it could take just minutes in the future. Positive feedback loops and the viral spread of attention are the defining forces of Media 2.0. Those who want proof need look no further than this.
[image credit: Kevin Aranibar via WikiCommons, Google Trends]
[screen captures: Justin Bieber (KidRauhl)]
[source: Justin Bieber (KidRauhl), MSNBC, Zynga, Farmville, Bloomberg]
Comments
fag….
he is the best in the whloe world he is going to marry me soooooone to marry bad i would kill anyone to marry him lol
justin bieber is awesome
Isn’t my boyfriend, AMAZING!!
<3 Xxx
yea sorry, that never going to happen, set your bars higher.
I Love you Justin Bieber! Ur the Bomb! Love all ur music, listen to it 24/7
I Love you Justin Bieber! Ur the Bomb! Love all ur music, listen to it 24/7
I Love you Justin Bieber! Ur the Bomb! Love all ur music, listen to it 24/7
very sad, come on what happened to all the good music and talent go check out Jan Lisieck, he’s so much better looking and talented.
I love you Justin Bieber! Ur the bomb! Love all ur music liten to it 24/7
I love you Justin Bieber! Ur the bomb! Love all ur music liten to it 24/7
I love you Justin Bieber! Ur the bomb! Love all ur music liten to it 24/7
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!!! YOU ROCK AND WILL YOU MARRY ME??????????
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!!! YOU ROCK AND WILL YOU MARRY ME??????????
Sorry, but he is marrying me
Hahahah,, <3
JUSTIN BIEBER isn’t marrying any of you, come on think about it he’s looking for people that are actually famous
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!!! YOU ROCK AND WILL YOU MARRY ME??????????
WE GET THE IDEA I LOVE HIM 2 BUT IM NOT GONNA REPEAT IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!!!!!
WE GET THE IDEA I LOVE HIM 2 BUT IM NOT GONNA REPEAT IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!!!!!
This chick has a pretty voice.
This chick has a pretty voice.
This chick has a pretty voice.
love how you say chick, that’s the greatest diss! lol
U LIKE HER DO U EVEN KNOW HER
hmmm great and cute kid…
@JP
The entire industry of music, acting, and fame has always been associated with the attributes you mention, but SH is not here to debate those issues. For whatever reason, actors and singers have always garnered more of the world's attention than geeks working on robots or chemistry, and accelerating media has not changed that.
Aaron is commenting on a trend of accelerating media that is impacting the speed and voraciousness of the rise people and ideas to widespread fame. That is what this story is about, and in that sense I think there is something very interesting going on. This trend is directly related to the accelerating technology that underpins much of the unfolding future that we are documenting here daily at the Hub.
I think this is actually pretty sad… I find it a little contradictory/interesting that this story was featured here. There are many people on YouTube (kids and otherwise) with talents that are not in the “teenage drama/lust/entertainment” category and thus receive no “upward graph trend” or attention what-so-ever. For example kids building robots or air cannons, or other science/educational related stuff. The popularity of this garbage serves the wrong example of “what's important to people” and the fact this kind of stuff gets all the attention is constantly discouraging others from seeking real career's or focusing on useful life skills. This article isn't demonstrating some “from YouTube to success” story, it's demonstrating young people's attempts for attention, fame, and popularity – which perhaps a small percent will obtain, but the rest of us will still have to be the ones doing the real work: designing the lights, engineering the sound, setting up the stage, building the website that sells the tickets, connecting the video cameras to the production trailer, editing the video – etc. etc.
“Besides his considerable talent”
lol that funny, it is supposed to be funny I hope
I think that is absolutely nasty, concidering that justin is the one that has a platnum album, swarming the US and Uk with his TALENT!
And, it makes me laugh, how you can critasise him, and he is the one that is famous and your the one that isn’t.
Fame is not proof of talent. Though I’d agree he probably is talented for his age.
I LOVE U JUSTIN BIEBER
WE GET THE IDEA I LOVE HIM 2 BUT IM NOT GONNA REPEAT IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!!!!!
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
I LOVE YOU JUSTIN BIEBER
i love you
i love you lol