Youtube Entertainment

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Nicki Minaj surprises YouTube sensations Sophia and Rosie after adorable Super Bass routine

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 12:05 PM on 13th October 2011

Last night’s regular friday night dinner with family and friends seemed to become an entertainment spectacle. What started out as a regular conversation about work and our week’s shannanigans amongst the kids, quickly escalated into a youtube showdown. After telling my friend about some funny ad I saw in class, we started searching for funny youtube clips amusing ourselves with what the next person was going to present.

Earlier in the week a friend posted on Facebook a video clip of two little girls performing Nicki Manaj’s song Superbass.  8 year old Sophia Grace Brownlee and 5 year old sidekick Rosie became the cutest most talked about kids since Justin Beiber after their home recorded perofrmance of Superbass went viral which landed them a cameo on the Ellen Degerneres show and a showdown with Nicki Manaj.

Which got me thinking about the ways in which Youtube has changed the way people communicate in contemporary societies. Axel Burns comments in his article ‘The Future is User-Led: The Path towards Widespread Produsage’ that  despite this phenomenon (such as Youtube) that changed the world, which saw technology change from producer and consumer to user-led content creation, what is even more amazing is the ways in which new generations using the website are equipped with skills, abilities and above all an interest and enthusiasm to use them.

PR Industry watchdog Trendwatching.com has labelled this new generation of users as Generation C, which stands for Content and Creativity. Although this model of content sharing and content creation has become to define this group of users it also contributes to the ‘casual collapse’ of established media and other industry models. Thus, as old media model collapse, their absence presents to Generation C as an oppurtunity to exercise their own ‘control’ over content and as Trendwatch has commented “generate ‘cash’ from its activities ‘

Whilst most people have become aware of this notion of produsage in which the creator becomes the user and self generating content has formed the basis of the World Wide Web, what I want to bring to the forefront is the phenomenon around the ways people use this kind of technology to promote themselves. Kind of the same as a brand paying the site to advertise, similarly Youtube has become a free space for people to promote themselves as a brand.

The first actual celebrity that I can recall that emerged from Youtube was Justin Bieber. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun after he accidently came across his videos on Youtube. Quickly scouting Justin and convincing him to sign, Braun became his manager and the rest is history. Lets just say mention the name Bieber to any teenage girl and you might be getting your ears checked by the nearest hospital.

I feel now that despite Youtube creating a new generation of users, it has also become the biggest communication site for talent. I cant get my head around how many young talented people, can record themeselves singing from the comfort of their homes, and the next minute they can be discovered by record companies or invited to the Ellen Show.

This is exactly how Sophia Grace Brownlee became a celebrity overnight.

Failing to hear the youtube video through my friends Iphone we relocated to the lounge area to use the computer. Realizing that we had developed a crowd my friend somehow transfered the video to the television so we could all view and clearly hear this clip. Tapping into the Interent and using the bluetooth Apple box located on the top of the Television, she had somehow succesffully transfered the video onto the TV. I couldnt believe what was happening, from speaking about this clip, to viewing it on the Iphone, to then relocating to the computer and then watching it on TV it was if we were just basically watching an Ellen episode recorded on the TV.

And before I knew it we had managed to gather the entire dinner party of 50 people to the television to be entertained by these two little girls dressed in pink singing ‘Superbass.’ The irony was that most of the parents had not even heard of who Nicki Manaj was but sat there laughing and giggling at the screen completely amused by the Ellen Show.

Sophia Grace Brown went from a little girl singing in pink for her parents, to acquiring a new best friend- Nicki Manaj, appearing on one of the most watched shows in the world- Ellen Degeneres, enjoying a shopping spree courtesy of Toys R’ Us and became a celebrity overnight all thanks to Youtube.

The rest of the night consisted of who could out do the next person with the funniest youtube clip trying to entertain the crowd.