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| My Space |
How My Space Changed the
Virtual Landscape at the Start of the Twenty-First
Century.
Jennifer
Lorraine Fraser
"The future of Myspace is about
what you’re going to do. About who you’re going to become,"
……….Justin
Timberlake
The story of My Space is dramatic
and dynamic. It is constantly shifting its identity and changing its course. The
constant theme of My Space is that it
is a forum for strangers to become acquaintances, then ‘friends’ and to build
their own ‘e-universes’ around common cultural likes and dislikes. It is not
afraid to rebrand and sell itself when the going gets tough, as when other
social networking sites have a greater presence in the lives of those who
prescribe to the hipster culture. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-20075451-2/myspace-sells-to-specific-media-for-$35-million/
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/bought-for-580m-sold-for-35m-murdoch-cuts-his-myspace-losses-2304660.html
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| http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/07/print/main1983044.shtml |
Branding Interactivity Affinity
Buzz Enthusiasm Friends
Loyalty
Play
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| http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20057544-36.html |
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| http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-01-08-myspace-teens_x.htm |
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| link |
The first profiles that were on
My Space were Independent rock
musicians from Los Angeles and New York scenesters.[5] The social media
port became a place of resistance to the Hollywood norm of celebrity culture.
There, youth were able to access a multitude of bands who would have been left
unknown. They were able to share their finds with like-minded individuals from
all over the globe. My Space was the
quintessential public space of our time. “My Space profiles are often created to
project an image the user would like others to perceive.”[6] This image is
primarily made known through what types of bands the user listens to, and what
cultural entertainment they have in common with their fellow friends and
followers.
Youth were “consuming content and discovering pop culture.”[7] Unprecedented fanbases were growing at dramatic speeds, and more independent music festivals were popping up all over the globe, and smaller festivals began to get a lot of recognition, such as Coachella and Lollapalooza. More and more people began to discover never-before-heard of artists and this practice became a signifier of cool in our society. The industry was taking notice. In 2005, Robert Murdoch bought My Space, and this resulted in the company creating their own record company, My Space Records.
DeWolfe describes
this venture as being a kind of a hobby regardless of the fact that their first
signed band Hollywood Undead
surpassed expectations and sold approximately 500,000 of their first album
streamed from My Space.[8]
Bands were leaving the race of being signed to the best of the music companies and doing it on their own through My Space. Kelli S. Burns has outlined in her e-book, Celeb 2.0, bands such as Artic Monkeys, REM, Black Eyed Peas, Outkast, Foo Fighters, Coldplay and performers such as Madonna, Lil’ Wayne Soulja Boy, 50 Cent all utilized My Space to connect with their fans and create a much larger and well-known fan-base than they had when being tied to the marketing divisions of large faceless companies. The musicians were now able to present their identity their way on their own terms.
At the height of My Space, Billy Corgan of the
band Smashing Pumpkins, decided that it was more lucrative to offer one song at
a time through the forum, then to spend a ton of money creating an album that
would only be played for one or two songs.[9]
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| http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_50/b3963001.htm |
Youth were “consuming content and discovering pop culture.”[7] Unprecedented fanbases were growing at dramatic speeds, and more independent music festivals were popping up all over the globe, and smaller festivals began to get a lot of recognition, such as Coachella and Lollapalooza. More and more people began to discover never-before-heard of artists and this practice became a signifier of cool in our society. The industry was taking notice. In 2005, Robert Murdoch bought My Space, and this resulted in the company creating their own record company, My Space Records.
 |
| http://www.myspace.com/hollywoodundead |
Bands were leaving the race of being signed to the best of the music companies and doing it on their own through My Space. Kelli S. Burns has outlined in her e-book, Celeb 2.0, bands such as Artic Monkeys, REM, Black Eyed Peas, Outkast, Foo Fighters, Coldplay and performers such as Madonna, Lil’ Wayne Soulja Boy, 50 Cent all utilized My Space to connect with their fans and create a much larger and well-known fan-base than they had when being tied to the marketing divisions of large faceless companies. The musicians were now able to present their identity their way on their own terms.
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| http://www.myspace.com/smashingpumpkins |
To End is To
Begin
Although, My Space was constantly
growing in the early part of the 2000’s by 2008 it had been passed in usership
by Facebook, and dramatically lost visitors throughout the next few years. In
2011 Murdoch sold the company to Specific Media and Justin Timberlake[11], and now we find
ourselves once again, at the beginning. As I began my research into My Space, the social forum was in the
spotlight. Monday January 9 2012, My
Space was re-introduced to the techy world by Timberlake. The next day, the
story was the top headline of all of the Tech 2.0 publications. With high hopes of re-branding[12] and re-grouping their online content, Timberlake and his partners, with the inclusion of Panasonic, have followed in the trailblazing footsteps of the My Space of past, and are re-introducing the social media site as one that will hopefully overtake their nemesis Facebook. This will be done by their newfound form of online entertainment, without forgetting its musical roots My Space is now going to be a live streaming format of video and television programming. As Timberlake described in his conference two weeks ago, "We're ready to take television and entertainment to the next step by upgrading it to the social networking experience …. Why text or email your friends to talk about your favorite programs after they've aired when you could be sharing the experience with real-time interactivity from anywhere across the globe?"[13] My Space encompasses the fluidity of our fragmented times. There is a common reading of creativity today which posits that “everyone is an artist.”[14] Today, it should be read as “everyone is an advertiser.” One forum where people have become the media that promotes the consumption of mass culture has been and will continue to be My Space.
Bibliography:
Greenwald, Bill. MySpace is Reborn
at Panasonic Press Conference, Unleashes Justin Timberlake,
PCmag.com, January 10 2012, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398677,00.asp
accessed January 21, 2012
Rolling Stone Music, Justin Timberlake Debuts Myspace TV, January
10 2012, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/justin-timberlake-debuts-myspace-tv-20120110#ixzz1k9DhrpKo
January 21, 2012
Gabbay, Nisan. MySpace Case Study: Not a purely viral
start, Startup Review: Analyzing Web Success. September 10 2006. http://www.startup-review.com/blog/myspace-case-study-not-a-purely-viral-start.php
accessed January 21, 2012
For Further
Reading: Click the following links!
[1] Burns,
Kelli S, Celeb 2.0: how social media
foster our fascination with popular culture, Greenwood Publishing Group.
Santa Barbara, California. 2009 p.109
[2] Burns,
Kelli S, Celeb 2.0: how social media
foster our fascination with popular culture, Greenwood Publishing Group.
Santa Barbara, California. 2009
p.109
[4]
http://www.startup-review.com/blog/myspace-case-study-not-a-purely-viral-start.php
accessed January 21, 2012
[8] Keen, Andrew Interview with DeWolfe
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/26/keen-on-chris-dewolfe-what-i-learned-from-the-myspace-failure-tctv/
accessed January 21, 2012
[11] Greenwald, Bill,
MySpace
is Reborn at Panasonic Press Conference, Unleashes Justin Timberlake,
PCmag.com, January 10 2012, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398677,00.asp
accessed January 21, 2012
[13] http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/justin-timberlake-debuts-myspace-tv-20120110#ixzz1k9DhrpKo
January 21, 2012
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