In past years, it could be said a singer “warbled” his or her way to the top, or sang like a bird to the top. But the question in the 21st century — a legitimate one, to be sure — is whether teen idol Justin Bieber Tweeted his way to the top.
Our pop culture Quote of the Day is from a piece on The Daily Beast by Maura Johnston, American Idol columnist for Fancast.com and the pop critic for NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered, in a post titled “The Making of a Teen Idol:”
This week’s No. 1 album is by the pop singer Justin Bieber, who is probably better known to most Internet-savvy people over the age of 16 as a persistent trending topic on Twitter than as a pop singer…. My World 2.0, is at the summit of this week’s Billboard 200 after selling 283,000 copies in its first week on shelves.
…..Bieber has a definite star quality that makes him simultaneously approachable to teens and annoying to adults. His preternatural swagger has resulted in him doing things like Twitter-taunting John Mayer and matter-of-factly telling reporters that he never gets nervous.
But it’s that swagger, combined with his accessibility, that might actually be what sets Bieber apart from his similarly windblown compatriots….
Bieber, with his YouTube roots and obsessive Tweeting, could be a sign of what’s to come in teen idoldom. As with most Internet-based phenomena, his rise wasn’t wholly organic—Braun, Bieber’s manager, is quite savvy at seeding online outlets with his clients, having also done so with the slackerish rapper Asher Roth in early 2009.But his following is very real, and the self-reinforcing nature of the bubble Bieber has created through the size and fervency of his Twitter following (around 1.67 million at last count) has heightened his profile among both fans and people who might otherwise have no idea who he is.
These are only a few excerpts so read it in its entirety.
Johnston raises an interesting point: the ways that singer have used to expand their audience beyond recorded performances have changed — depending on the era:
*In the early 20th century Broadway and Vaudeville star Al Jolson became a megastar by moving to that new invention recordings — and his career expanded when he appeared in the first sound movie.
*Singers such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland were propelled into big bucks by the advent of radio and the modernization of sound movies away from disks to better fidelity.
*Elvis Presley and others after him in the 50s and 60s HAD to appear on the Ed Sullivan show because even if they were raking it in on their concerts and recordings due to AM radio as dramatic/variety/comedy radio died and was supplanted by disc jockeys, Sullivan’s highly rated show was “the” place to show you made it to the top.
*Michael Jackson helped usher in a new era with the MTV music video.
And then along came You Tube, etc.
All of these are mechanisms to take performance beyond just live performance or recorded audio — out to fans. And Twitter allows a more personal connect.
So what comes after THIS?
You can follow Joe Gandelman on Twitter. He doesn’t have as many followers as Bieber but he probably retweteets a bit more…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.