Since the ridiculous success of Justin Bieber, tons of ordinary people now have the opportunity to become famous just by having a huge following on Youtube. Fame is accessible rather than a fantasy, and it can happen to anyone who has a web cam, a decent pair of vocals, and a memorable face. For my internship at MTV’s international music website, MTV Iggy, I wanted to write an article about ordinary people who have the potential to do extraordinary things just through the assistance of the Internet. I found some pretty remarkable people, and the surging amount of creativity and talent that is broadcasted on Youtube is absolutely stunning.
Of the ten people I found on Youtube (some of which you have undoubtedly heard of), my favorite is a guy named Jack Conte. He is probably amongst the most musically talented people alive today, and I was shocked about his relatively modest following and the fact that I had never heard of him until I did some digging. He can play almost every instrument — not just familiar with the basics; he plays them all extremely well — and his voice is incredibly passionate and powerful. He is also a very talented songwriter and film editor, and he videotapes himself singing and playing multiple instruments, and then edits the videos and sound bites to create one complete song (in what he has coined a VideoSong). He is literally a one-man band, with a sound like Incubus and as complicated as Radiohead. His channel on Youtube has a little under 50,000 subscribers, which in the world of Internet fame is pretty minimal. Here are are some of my favorite Jack Conte songs, and check out my full article on The Top Ten People Most Likely to Become Justin Bieber (including a sixth grader Greyson Chance who’s piano rendition of Lady Gaga’s Paparazzai at a talent show has over 27 million hits, you have to check it out).