The U.S. population is about 308 million. The number of views of Atlantan teen sensation Justin Bieber's "Baby" on YouTube as of Friday? A staggering 284 million and growing by more than one million views a day.
Other music videos with huge numbers: Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (261 million), Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" (147 million) and Beyonce's "Single Ladies" (90 million).
Earlier in the 2000s, after the boy band phenomenon had faded, the music video also began disappearing from the TV airwaves. VH1 and MTV found reality TV ("The Osbournes," "Flavor of Love") far more lucrative, relegating videos to the wee hours. Free downloads began killing CD sales, forcing labels to cut music video budgets.
"Money was suddenly sucked out," said Stephen Hill, BET's vice president of music. "It affected the quality of videos."
Acts focused more on touring and MySpace pages to build audiences. But in 2005, YouTube hit the Web, setting the stage for a revival of the art form by making virtually any video available at your fingertips.
"New artists said, 'Wait a second! I don't need to worry about TV!' " said Jay Frank, senior vice president for CMT's music strategy "I think the lack of money actually sparked more creativity."
A primary example, he said, was OK Go's 2006 ingeniously simple "Here It Goes Again," featuring the four band members doing a choreographed dance on treadmills. "It was not only a successful video, but it made their career," Frank said.
YouTube has also democratized the process, enabling fans to create parody and tribute versions of existing videos. Dozens have imitated Beyonce's dance in "Single Ladies." There are even "literal" videos in which people sub out actual lyrics with literal descriptions of the video itself. (Tears For Fears' "Head Over Heels" featuring a monkey and a priest is especially witty.)
And despite shrinking budgets, acts can make high quality videos on cheaper and cheaper equipment. Bruce Burch, who runs Kennesaw State University's new music and entertainment business program, said this enables bands to shoot multiple videos for the same song or videos for deep cuts targeting super fans. And on YouTube, many videos now run ads, providing a much-needed income stream.
Frugal is the new normal, but there is a notable exception: Lady Gaga, a wacky theatrical artist who has turned elaborate videos into events. Her nine-minute jailhouse romp for her hit "Telephone" debuted not on MTV but on E! Entertainment and has drawn 75 million views in five months on YouTube. (Yahoo! musicologist Billy Johnson Jr. also noted the blatant product placement in the video.)
Johnson recalled video debuts used to real events in the early 1990s. "In college, we'd get together in a room to watch the new Public Enemy video the day it premiered," he said. "We sat in front of the TV and waited for it to come." It's a lot simpler nowadays: fans get Tweets from the artist about the video debut and a link to watch it.
Now back to that 284 million views for Bieber. It's not as scary as it sounds.
"If you've seen my daughter," Frank said, "it's the same people watching it 100 times."
Do you want to see what the fuss is all about? This video breaks no new ground but certainly gives bowling alleys a big boost in cool teen cred:
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