What if there was YouTube back in the days of vintage Rock ‘n’ Roll? Would Elvis still be the King or would he just be one of the many like him?
The road to success has evolved over the years with websites such as YouTube.
There was a time when playing at rundown bars was the only way to get noticed.
Now, a camera and a computer can get your name out for the world to see.
“You get swallowed up by a sea of everyone who wants to make it, in the past it was much more difficult, you go out and do live music but you only reach the people that are at your live concert,” said Aaron Garner, professor of music theory at Delta College.
With the avalanche of aspiring musicians wanting to be noticed, there’s an abundance of people getting undeserved recognition.
“There’s just more of it, now everybody is a sensationalist. Remember that guy, this guy was not very good, he sang that song ‘looking like a fool with my pants on the ground’ and so there’s that kind of thing on the YouTube where it’s just so ridiculously bad that people, they want to capitalize on that and think it’s funny. There’s definitely more crap out there because of that,” said Garner.
Back in 2011, Rebecca Black became an unfortunate internet sensation when her song “Friday” received more than 100 million views in just over 30 days.
She went on to appear on talk shows including The Tonight Show, and hired a manager as she attempted to start a singing career.
Fortunately, she was a one-hit wonder and now the song Friday is just something we accidentally look back on and think to ourselves: This is what’s wrong with society.
“I think there’s a lot of s*** out there, I think people sort of buy into that and want the fame, it’s definitely misused because it gives everybody the opportunity to be a musician,” said Garner.
With the number of musicians on YouTube, and I use the word musician lightly, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle.
YouTube isn’t ruining music entirely; while it does allow false talent to seep through, it also gives true talent a chance it wouldn’t have otherwise.
Perhaps the most notable is the infamous Justin Bieber.
Some will say that YouTube still owes us all apologies for giving us the Biebster, but the fact of the matter is Bieber rose to stardom and captured the hearts of teenage girls all over the world.
His rise in worldwide popularity is something rarely seen, and this is coming from a non-belieber.
It nearly resembles that of the King himself, but that’s where any similarities between Bieber and Presley end, I can’t stress that enough, the comparisons end there!
“You’re instantly accessible, so sure it gives people the opportunity that have talent to get there work out there and for free,” said Garner.
However, there’s the few Justin Biebers, and then there’s the thousands of Rebecca Blacks that remind us even though someone is singing with instruments behind them, it doesn’t make it music.
You know the people that audition for American Idol that have no business being anywhere near a microphone?
YouTube gives those people an outlet to further their going-nowhere fast singing career.
Music should be played by people with actual talent, not by someone who is looking for their 15 minutes of fame.