Gone are the days of recording a demo and sending it to a record company then waiting months (and in some cases years) to get a reply. Now you can just do it yourself, thanks to the internet.
YouTube, MySpace (when it was still popular) and Facebook are now places where talent is spotted, and in the age of digital downloads, it looks like it’s going to stay that way. From Justin Bieber and Charice to Lily Allen and Sandi Thom, the internet has produced quite a few stars whose music we enjoy today.
Justin Bieber
Arguably, Bieber is the most famous and in a way the most successful internet sensation in recent years. The 17-year-old Canadian singer has a following that makes the Jonas Brothers jealous. Bieber was also “found” on YouTube thanks to his mother posting videos of him singing covers of popular songs, such as So Sick by Neyo. Usher liked what he saw and quickly signed him up. His album, My World, which had the single Baby, sold over a million copies and got nominated for a Grammy. He now has a movie on his life (too early, I think) and is on a world tour. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz9Czmsni2s
Charice
The power of YouTube and Oprah Winfrey. Charice Pempengco is from the Philippines and her amazingly powerful voice took everyone by surprise. Charice has had more than 13 million hits on YouTube, leading her to appear on The Ellen Degeneres Show and Oprah. Oprah told Charice: “You are a force to be reckoned with. That voice comes from something bigger than yourself.” Quite an endorsement. This led to her sharing the stage with Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli, and thanks to David Foster she was featured in his Hit Man: David Foster and Friends album. Her debut album, Charice, was on the Top 10 chart last year and she even appeared on Glee.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=49IgOCn48ms
Take U to Da Movies
The video to a song by the little-known Sudanese/Australian rapper, Bangs – in which he displays his bling, sings the praises of regular cinema visits and helpfully highlights Sudan on a map of Africa – has had more than 5 million views on YouTube, and led to several offers from major labels. “Bangs is the biggest thing to come out of Sudan since malaria,” reads the top comment on the video’s YouTube page. Quite.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmJbJs-9ST0
Lily Allen
In what already feels like the pre-Jurassic age (MySpace), Lily Allen was a fledgling songstress in prom dresses and trainers, totting up followers on her MySpace page with the help of her cockney-laydee vocals and mouthy opinion-spouting. Her followers eventually ran to tens of thousands – a fan-base that ensured her debut single, Smile, climbed swiftly to number one in July 2006.
www.myspace.com/lilymusic
Susan Boyle
Just nine days after the Scotswoman had opened her mouth in front of Simon Cowell to produce an extraordinary rendition of I Dreamed A Dream, a clutch of her audition clips had been watched more than 100 million times. Her first on-camera interview, with her local newspaper, the West Lothian Courier, also went viral, and was named YouTube’s Most Memorable Video of 2009.
www.youtube.com/user/susanboylemusicuk?blend=2&ob=4
Sandi Thom
Who is she? You may well ask. Well, back in 2006, the Aberdeenshire-born singer-songwriter was vying with Allen for ubiquity after she performed a series of concerts in her basement flat in Tooting, south London, which were webcasted as a canny marketing ploy. It worked – major label interest followed, and her song I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) was re-released in May; it reached number two. In a cautionary tale of the ephemerality of internet-generated fame, however, her second album barely troubled the charts, and she was dropped by her label in 2009. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q1-y0NYi9Q
OK Go’s music videos
The LA-based four-piece have made such a name for themselves online with a series of elaborate, quirky music videos that they now have their own channel on YouTube. White Knuckles, which sees the white-suited band members construct a playground out of upturned plastic dustbins for an assortment of dogs, has scored more than 9.3 million views; End Love, in which they perform a series of robotic dance moves that even Beyoncé might envy, has had almost 4.5 million views.
www.youtube.com/user/OkGo
Greyson Chance
This is the boy who sang Paparazzi better than Lady Gaga and scored himself numerous fans and an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show. Another YouTube success story with over 28 million views. Even Lady Gaga was so impressed that she called during the Ellen show and told him he must “work really hard, be focused, and stay away from girls. He is now signed to Ellen’s label, eleveneleven Records.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxDlC7YV5is
Soulja Boy
He created the dance craze of 2007 and had everybody dance to his song Crank That (Soulja Boy). Thanks to his YouTube and MySpace channels, the single spent a total of seven weeks on top of the Billboard 100 chart. Soulja Boy started his own record label, Stacks on deck, in 2004, and released his first album independently under it. He’s now signed with Interscope and two albums later he has had hit songs such as Kiss me Through the Phone and Pretty Boy Swag.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUP1RqnpGYA
Sean Kingston
The guy from Beautiful Girls fame, was also discovered through MySpace after bombarding Tommy Rotem of Beluga Heights Records. Rotem signed Kingston to the label in a partnership deal with Sony. That was in 2007 and Beautiful Girls went on to top the Billboard chart for three weeks. Four years later Kingston has had hits with Fire Burning and a collaboration with the biggest YouTube breakthrough artist, Bieber, for Eenie Meenie.
www.myspace.com/video/vid/11616957 - Sunday Tribune