You may not know who he is yet, but Justin Bieber is a 16 year old Canadian R&B singer, and he’s trending very hard right now on Twitter (see the stats here, courtesy of What The Trend).
Regardless of whether an artist best described as a cross between Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus makes you want to scream in girlish delight or horror, the Bieber phenomenon reads like a social media fairy tale. He was discovered on YouTube by a record company executive after Bieber’s Mum uploaded videos of him singing to the site, ostensibly so that farflung friends and family could see her boy in action. This early online hype led to a bidding war between Usher and Justin Timberlake to sign Bieber (Usher won), and he went on to record 2009’s second best-selling debut album in the US, just behind the all-conquering Lady GaGa.
From these seemingly humble beginnings, Bieber now has 1.8 million fans on Facebook, his videos attract 5 million views apiece on YouTube and the widget below gives you an idea of how his teenage fanbase uses Twitter as an extension of playground popstar adulation.
That’s the official story anyway. Whether Bieber’s rise to fame is down to serendipity, or just the same kind of hothousing of talented children that’s already given us Beyonce Knowles, Venus and Serena Williams, Britney Spears and, erm, Jimmy Osmond, is a moot point.
Bieber’s current record sales are good, but not astonishing. What is phenomenal, however, is the level to which his fans’ use of social media to share their enthusiasm for Bieber, leaves an enormous footprint over Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and turns a Canadian hit into a global sensation. The excitement may not last, but chances are the blurring of boundaries between official and fan promotion is here to stay.
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