EXTRA BLOG: Another Rebecca Black?

In my blog post on September 30, I explained the media company behind Rebecca Black. In short, Ark Music Factory, founded by Nigerian artist Patrice Wilson, is approached by aspiring young singers and Ark offers to write and produce a song and music video for them for a fee. While Rebecca Black is the most popular of the artists, several of their other customers have millions of views on their music videos as well. After establishing Ark Music Factory, Wilson then went on to create another production company called Pato Music World, or PMW Live. As explained on his Wikipedia page, Pato is his stage name and he is certainly the mastermind behind all these YouTube videos. The extremely simplistic themes, lyrics, and content of the videos are all due to him. "Friday" by Black took the internet world by storm and that time period seemed to last forever.

Just when it all seemed that this YouTube trend was decreasing just a little bit, another video pops up of a 12 year old named Nicole Westbrook singing about an upcoming holiday.

After being posted a week ago, the video has accumulated over five million views. Despite all the negative comments and reviews it is receiving (over 90,000 dislikes compared to just over 10,000 likes), Wilson and PMW Live are accomplishing exactly what they described they would to their customers. However bad and ridiculous this song may be, this 12 year old girl has more of a singing career and fame than millions of young adult aspiring artists. Wilson's previous artists, such as Black, have received record deals, tour deals, and interview opportunities after using his services.

Of course the song is absolutely atrocious. She certainly does not move around very much in terms of choreography and the lyrics are not difficult by any means. Wilson himself makes an appearance in the video as he is ridiculously dressed as a turkey and he enjoys a Thanksgiving meal with a table occupied by 12 year olds. Videos like these receive a lot of laughter and ridicule from most of their viewers with a few taking it way across the line and submitting death threats.

This is just another example of the great relationship between YouTube and aspiring young artists. These young people are indeed exposing themselves to a great deal of criticism and harrassment, but Wilson's track record has proved that his method of exposing these singers is successful. Westbrook is only 12 years old and the video is only a week old. There is no telling what television, tour, or record opportunities she may receive because of this. Critics who are uneasy of YouTube are silenced yet again. There is no viewer who sees this video as professional entertainment. This is simply a foot in the door for a young singer. Consumers know that publicized concerts and reputable CDs are their way to obtain professional quality content. YouTube is the arena for amateurs. Viewers laugh and cry at the errors and shortcomings of the people in the posted videos. People will continue to laugh for a while at Westbrook, but we'll see who is laughing last when she probably ends up hosting her own show on Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel in a few months.