A Little Help From My Friends
By Michael Wirth
2021-06-22T04:00:00Z
In the previous installment of “Social Media and Celebrity” I discussed the number of social media influencers who use their fame as a springboard into other careers, citing Jake and Logan Paul and TikTok and radio personality Corey B as examples. And while finding success on social media takes hard work and dedication, as well as a near-endless supply of ideas on which to make content, there’s also a certain amount of luck that goes into it, especially when trying to elevate a career in a given industry.
Even with all of the talent in the world, it still takes hard work to make it into the big time. And even then, success isn’t a guarantee. Sometimes luck plays a crucial role in launching a new career. Which is why social media is such an important aspect in making new celebrities. You never know who’s going to be watching your TikTok video, or which of your videos will be pushed to some big shot music producer’s Explore page on Instagram.
Untapped Talent in the MAGCon Era
Ever since Usher discovered Justin Bieber on YouTube, social media has been a great place to find unsigned talent. Take international superstar Shawn Mendes, for example. In 2014, Mendes began posting covers of popular songs on YouTube and started to build up an audience impressed with his musical skills. He then joined Vine, a social media app that allowed users to create 6-second videos. Though Vine only lasted for four years, in that time Mendes was able to amass millions of followers through his posting of music covers and quirky videos.
During this time, Mendes joined with a group of other Vine stars and began MAGcon. MAGcon, short for “meet and greet convention,” saw these stars touring the country and selling tickets to give their fans an opportunity to meet them in person. Mendes only lasted with the group for a couple of months, mostly due to the immaturity and lack of appreciable skills the other MAGcon stars portrayed. But since signing with Island Records in 2014, Mendes has released four full-length studio albums as well as numerous #1 hits, which is pretty astonishing when you consider he began by singing along to his guitar for YouTube.
From TikTok to Top Ten
When Vine officially shut down in 2017, it left a void in social media that was quickly filled by Musical.ly, which later rebranded itself as TikTok. TikTok allows users to post longer videos, up to three minutes for some users, and so offers more versatility than Vine. And this versatility worked in favor of Chase Hudson, who is known better by his online name LILHUDDY.
Hudson began posting videos to Musical.ly when he was 14 years old, and his charisma and talent garnered him a quick following. In 2019, he began the Hype House, a collective of popular TikTok users, similar to the MAGcon group. However, the Hype House was a true living situation, in which the stars shared a home and frequently collaborated on each other’s videos. Through his association with the Hype House and his publicized relationship with TikTok queen Charli D’Amelio, Hudson caught the attention of Interscope records in late 2020. A month later, he released his first single, “21st Century Vampire,” which was shortly followed up with “The Eulogy of You and Me,” a single that was co-written and produced by Blink-182’s Travis Barker.
Both of these men have proved that diligence and hard work, as well as an attitude of perseverance, can lead to big things later down the road, but they couldn’t have done it by themselves. Through their associations with other popular creatives, Mendes with MAGCon and Huddy and the Hype House, both men were able to attract the attention of agents, and eventually get signed to their own record deals. While this type of catapulting fame is rare in the social media industry, it’s by no means unheard of, and in fact it could just be the next wave of finding talent in the future.