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 Rebecca Black's song Friday is popular for all the wrong reasons.  Filmed for the sole purpose of having someone see it and having her earn actual fame for her talent (a la Bieber), it was shared via social media so much for how bad it was that it blew up.  Her internet famo turned into television appearances and actual fame.  But is this an actual trend? I'm going to post another link in a second...

I actually thought this was just the next iteration of Rickrolling. I guess people actually like the song?

Interesting thing about Rebecca Black. Her Mom actually put up the money ($2,000 or so) for her to record the song and video to dissuade her daughter from seeking a career in the music industry. Funny how things work sometimes.

Last summer, a news report appeared on local tv in Huntsville Alabama that was so over the top, someone thought to put it up on YouTube.  Someone thought they could autotune it and turn it into a song.  a few weeks later, Antoine Dodson had the #3 song on the iTunes R&B chart.  There are dozens of covers of the song, which the Gregory Brothers (the autotuners) encourage at the end of the video.  How has social media changed what we think about fame? Antoine, like Rebecca Black, ended up doing national TV appearances, and eventually made enough money from selling his song to buy his family a house.  

Another product of social media - insta-internet star! BTW, Rebecca's Black's video is now up to over 159 million views and the song was covered on Glee!

Now I see how people on youtube make money...I didn't know they paid per view...makes sense.

I think that this is one of the great benefits of social media. People have a chance to make something of themselves without spending millions of dollars in advertisements. It's not just about celebrity status, but more importantly, people can create businesses or help causes using these cheaper tools.

Please see my discussion board post for more about this article! By Jesse Washington, Associated Press When the personal computer revolution began decades ago, Latinos and blacks were much less likely to use one of the marvelous new machines. Then, when the Internet began to change life as we know it, these groups had less access to the Web and slower online connections - placing them on the wrong side of the "digital divide."