Youtube Music

Above is a picture of a Julia Nunes show I went to a few years ago at Ramapo College. The venue was very small and a lot more people showed up than expected, so everyone who couldn't get in sat out and listened in the hallway. When Julia realized this halfway through the show, she came out and played a few songs for us in the hall.
None of this would have happened if it weren't for YouTube. You see, Julia was just a college student with a ukulele and a camera. She played some songs and threw them up on youtube to show a few trusted friends. Someone working for youtube found one of these video, featured it on the front page, and she grew a following. That following continues to grow, years later, and she now has almost 200,000 subscribers.

YouTube has changed the entertainment landscape in many ways, but Julia Nunes is a great example of how it's changed music. Because of the site, people are getting discovered who otherwise would not. There are many other examples or this, such as Pomplamoose, a talented duo who's production and editing is enough to make my head spin.

They, like Nunes, are now so successful that they can tour and make a living on their music alone, thanks to the following they've grown on YouTube. They were even featured in a Hyundai Sonata commercial

Then there are more famous cases of the site helping to launch a career, such as Justin Beiber's... I'll forgive YouTube for that one.

An intro to my homeland.

(Courtesy of the Ning)

I'd like to take this time to tell my (very few) readers the story of a true community – one that was born and sustained through media – Nerdfighteria. Nerdfighteria is the community that came out of the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers. Vlogbrother is run by brothers Hank Green, runner of ecogeek.org, and John Green, Young adult author. This project was started in 2007 when the brothers decided to embark on a project where they would not communicate to each other through texual means (such as text messaging, emails, etc.) and communicate mainly through videos. After 2007, they decided to continue making videos, while decreasing world-suck and never forgetting to be awesome... I'll allow them to explain.


I found myself becoming a part of this community just over three years ago, when I stumbled upon one of their videos while browsing YouTube. Nerdfighters are not just a group of passive fans, we come together at sites like http://nerdfighters.ning.com/ to colaborate and significantly decrease world-suck. We nerdfighters are all about being silly and embracing our inner child:


But that's not all we're about. We're also a group of deep-thinkers:


And detectives:


If you're still wondering about just how we decrease “world-suck,” John and Hank created the Project for Awesome, where nerdfighters take over YouTube with videos promoting charities they're passionate about, and even get together to put on a live show.


I have never been able to declare anyone my hero, it seemed like too much to put on a single person. But in retrospect, it is not easy for me to say that John, Hank, and my fellow nerdfighters, are my heroes. This community has changed me in many ways. I've has the Vlogbrothers as a constant in my life for three years, through some tough times. Also, I was never much of a reader until I became a nerdfighter and decided to read one of John's books – it was not long before I had read all four. Nerdfighteria has also allowed me to remember to be awesome even when it's not easy, and provided me with a long-term media experience unlike any other.

Best Wishes,
Jesse Adubato
DFTBA.