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We have always been deeply social creatures. We have always sought collective experiences. But we've never been able to instantly decide, by the millions, what trend we're going to rush to embrace, and then ride a cultural tsunami together.

We've always had this in one way, shape or form, but YouTube, Twitter, and the 2-4/7 gossip cycle enable the Biebers of the world to accelerate to superstardom faster than ever before.

While this particular teenager may be gifted, which he is, and may be managed by smart people, which he also is

last year he became the youngest singer to top the American Billboard Charts since Stevie Wonder in 1963.

, his emergence from YouTube is proof of the changes in the music industry and the wider world. "Five or six years ago there was no direct link between an artist and the fans," he says. "There was always mediation by a journalist, or a DJ, some sort of gatekeeper. There is now a completely direct route. Even parents are taken out of the equation too."

He says the lessons of Bieber's success are already being learned by the music business. "Record label talent scouts do look at YouTube. If you want a pop icon for your roster then trawling the clubs of Camden isn't the way to do it any more.

Justin Bieber, an artist that defines what it means to be a modern artist,

"Kids made Justin. They made the fan pages, they spread the Twitters, they put up videos. I'm a good marketer, but not as good as them."

affordable-housing apartment. "It was awful," Mallette says, laughing. "But we had a roof over our head and heat and food most of the time. It's quite different coming where we're coming from to being driven around in limos."

while his voice may change, Justin never specialized in the kind of high pitched soprano sounds that hobble other guys after their voices break.