To Find A Star

I've talked a lot about how technology can benefit the listener on this blog, but one of the ways technology really helps in the business is for the actual musician. Before the rise of the internet, getting publicity for a new singer or band to get an album put out was hard work, and it took a lot of time and money. You needed to get into the recording studio, pop out a solid single or EP, get yourself on the Ed Sullivan Show or an equivalent and hope to high heaven that the public liked what they heard. Or, you would slip some radio DJ a couple hundred bucks to play your song a couple of times, enough so that the people listening would start to go, "Hmm, what's that?" and go out and buy the song. It was a tricky business, publicity.

Now, not that payola isn't still an issue (an a big one, to all sorts of smaller labels that can't afford to be paying Z100 to play their artists' song ten times a day), but the internet makes it 100x easier for smaller bands and artists to make their way.

Just look at MySpace. Their music site has given so many musicians - and a couple of very, very famous ones - the chance to get their music out there to be listened to. For example, Lily Allen started on MySpace, posting a couple of songs, including her big hits Smile and LDN. She made so many "friends," got so much online hype that she garnered up huge publicity and huge demand for her debut album. Gnarls Barkley's massive hit "Crazy" also came into the limelight on MySpace - people were listening online, and suddenly so was everyone on the radio.

YouTube has also helped many people find their 15 minutes of fame - and for some, that 15 minutes has blown into actual celebrity. Esmée Denters, who posted a number of videos on her account of her singing popular songs, like JT's "What Comes Around," got massive numbers of views, and eventually grabbed the attention of Justin Timberlake himself, who asked her to open for his worldwide tour, and signed her to his record label.

The danger of this, of course, is the number of two-bit "music stars" coming out of this. One immediately springs to mind (and she has a pretty large cult following, so I might get in trouble for this), and that's Julia Nunes. Oh God.

By now, you guys all know how I feel about the Beatles. So that this has gotten such praise? It's embarrassing. Even a bit offensive. Every time I hear this, with its annoying ukulele and nasaly singing, I get a little bit angry. Because she's getting a record contract, and other more talented people are not, and it's just because there are thousands of fans out there that just eat this right up. Come on, people! I know, I know, to each their own, and "Everyone should have a chance to express themselves" and "Let the girl sing if she wants to" and "I like it so shut up who cares what you think" and "Oh yeah and you could do better?" and "It makes me happy so why are you being mean???" but this is just really bad.

And that's the downside of the whole internet fame. This Nunes girl will get her 15 minutes, and if she's lucky, a top 100 hit or two, but then she'll fade into obscurity, playing little gigs in small town bars until she retires and gets a desk job somewhere, or maybe a place on a reality TV show. Maybe that's harsh. But isn't that the truth? With so many "celebrities" popping up every other day, the actual meaning of "celebrity" has shrunk. Anyone can have those 15 minutes - everyone can have some sort of celebrity. Fame is no longer some special thing, it's actually pretty readily accessible if you have a computer with a microphone or even just a video phone.

Finding that "true star" is so much more difficult now...sure, anyone can have a top 10 hit nowadays if you have a six-pack and a smart record producer, but so few people have that infamy, that long-lasting quality that people will remember in 50 years. I have to wonder who the definitive celebrity is in this era. The 50s had Marilyn and Audrey, the 80s had MJ and Madonna, and the 00s have...Beyoncé? Britney? Every Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe can be a star, so the "wealth of celebrity," so to speak, is thinning. What's being famous when everyone is?

Our real lives, our real personalities are being hidden behind both a cyber wall and the wall of the protective public. Maybe Perez Hilton knows every detail about Britney Spears' life, but she's retreated emotionally so far away from the outside world that we don't know who the real person is anymore. So I'm going to throw it out there and say that in this time of growing exposure, with the paparazzi at every pseudo-celebrity's door and TMZ finding out gossip the second it happens, we are actually growing more and more insular and anonymous as a society.

Just something to think about on your Sunday afternoon.