Before going to bed last night I received a tweet that caused me totake pause and shake my head…Susan Boyle had received a makeover. Amuch needed “tune up”, as a voice so angelic coming out of such an“unlikely individual” was an oxymoron so surprising that it catapultedher to almost instant stardom. And of course, we all like love beautiful things…
What was “really” wrong with Susan before?
Chris Lau, a fellow blogger here at Blogging Idol, who I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for, just wrote a postabouthow Social Networking platforms like YouTube can really make thedifference in getting the word out and propelling “unknowns” tostardom. Twitter as well,I have written,should not be taken over by “the beautiful people” as it’s 140character paradigm allows “the rest of the world” to connect in a waythat up to now, only those in certain circles, whether it be due toinherited fame, fortune or some other mix of circumstances. Chris madereference to Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers that our very own Shane Schick recently referenced in his typical engaging and thought provoking style.
We all know Susan Boyle now, not because of the raw talent shepossesses – if it were that alone, she should have been singled outlong ago. About 10,000 hours ago based on Chris’ calculation of timeshe has spent practicing her “calling”. In fact, if she was “abeautiful person”, who had appeared out of nowhere on a talent showlike she did, I don’t think she would have made as big a wave as shedid, at least not as quickly.
Twitter and YouTube were the causal “circumstances” that lit the jetfuel behind our Susan Boyle. I found out about Susan on Easterweekend, early Saturday morning. It came to me across my TweetDeck enhanced Twitter stream. When I hit the YouTube video then, I was the ~32,000 person to do so. And now lookwhere that viewcount is. ~3.2 Million. In a week.
So last nightthis morning at around ~1:30AM I saw the tweet come through. Bytomorrow it will be the buzz at the water cooler. Probably on the 6:00news, or battered around on the radio stations. I’m sure the latenight or morning show circuit is next on the list, if it has notalready started. But what are we really so excited about? That we have“transformed” Susan Boyle to something “easier on the eyes” and reducedthe visual aural disconnect that occurred at that moment whenwe first heard her angelic voice?
In a world where “the geeks” have been vindicated, an AfricanAmerican is in charge of the most powerful nation on this planet…wheretechnology as an “enabler” and the Internet as the new playing fieldgives “everyone” equal opportunity for success and attainment of onegoals and dreams.
Does the world still belong to the “beautiful people”? I’ll betrying to make sure “my Twitter Stream” isi free of any such filter. What about yours? Any “filters” you can throw away? Whether Digitalor Analog?