{"id":1811,"date":"2009-08-04T19:38:43","date_gmt":"2009-08-04T19:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owenstrachan.com\/?p=1811"},"modified":"2009-08-04T19:38:43","modified_gmt":"2009-08-04T19:38:43","slug":"want-country-music-stardom-upload-a-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/08\/want-country-music-stardom-upload-a-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Want Country Music Stardom? Upload a Video"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"taylorswift\"Seeking worldwide musical fame?\u00a0 Upload a video to YouTube.\u00a0 Actually, please don\u2019t.\u00a0 Veronica Ballestrini<\/a>, budding country music star, didn\u2019t take my advice, and she\u2019s on her way to a record deal:<\/p>\n

In a video posted to YouTube in January 2008, Veronica Ballestrini \u2014 then 16, blond, precocious \u2014 sits on a wrinkled couch wearing a pink Abercrombie & Fitch zip-up hoodie and clutching a guitar. \u201cToday one of my fans messaged me, and he thought I should do a Taylor Swift song,\u201d the singer said, then began a committed, occasionally imperfect version of Ms. Swift\u2019s \u201cTeardrops on My Guitar.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s a hilarious last line, by the way.\u00a0 Please let it never be said of me that I am both \u201ccommitted\u201d and \u201cimperfect\u201d.\u00a0 That\u2019s condescension at its funniest.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the wannabe Taylor Swift<\/a> has made her mark:<\/p>\n

When she first began recording music at age 13, \u201cI had no idea about anything, nothing about the industry or radio or singles,\u201d Ms. Ballestrini recalled last month, on the phone from Peoria, Ill., during her first tour of country radio stations. \u201cBut I did know I needed a lot of fans.\u201d And so from her Connecticut home Ms. Ballestrini set about cultivating an audience online: MySpace<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, YouTube, Twitter<\/a>, DigitalRodeo and more.<\/p>\n

A year and a half later, all the screen time has begun to pay off. Last spring she recorded a proper video for \u201cAmazing,\u201d a single of her own, and uploaded it. After a couple of weeks it was picked up by CMT.com<\/a>, the digital arm of Country Music Television, and shown on CMT Pure Country, the network\u2019s all-video digital channel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s how another budding star has cultivated her fan base:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy iTunes sales have far exceeded my chart position on radio, so if it\u2019s not radio play, what is it?\u201d Ms. Lee continued. \u201cI answer back every person who writes me. I\u2019m active on Twitter. People are finding me through YouTube.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

******************<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the whole piece.<\/a><\/p>\n

Social media has changed much of our culture.\u00a0 One of the personally interesting developments to me is the way in which musicians and artists can launch their careers on their own at essentially no cost.\u00a0 This has obvious weaknesses, but it has significant strengths as well.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s inspiring that a singer with legitimate but undiscovered talent can record a song, upload it, and eventually land a record deal.\u00a0 This is of course quite rare, but it\u2019s remarkable nonetheless.\u00a0 Social media is a force.\u00a0 It\u2019s good for Christians to think about how to use it to push the gospel and glorify the Lord, especially in fields like music and the arts where funds are often scarce.\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope that stories like this inspire legitimately talented Christians to share their gifts with the world.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeking worldwide musical fame?\u00a0 Upload a video to YouTube.\u00a0 Actually, please don\u2019t.\u00a0 Veronica Ballestrini, budding country music star, didn\u2019t take my advice, and she\u2019s on her way to a record deal: In a video posted to YouTube in January 2008, Veronica Ballestrini \u2014 then 16, blond, precocious \u2014 sits on a wrinkled couch wearing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[398,961,1095,1237,2107,2779,2784,13302,3012,3138],"class_list":["post-1811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-abercrombie-fitch","tag-country-music","tag-digitalrodeo","tag-facebook","tag-myspace","tag-taylor-swift","tag-teardrops-on-my-guitar","tag-twitter","tag-veronica-ballestrini","tag-youtube"],"yoast_head":"\nWant Country Music Stardom? 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