by Natalie Ferraro
YouTube is host to singing cats, Thai prisoners dancing to Brittney
Spears, and other ridiculous videos you forward to your friends and
co-workers. It's also a place where serious musicians are selling
albums and gaining fans all over the world. Meghan Tonjes tells
Natalie Ferraro about Internet culture and becoming a heavy hitter in
the online-indie-music scene.
My friends and I hit Ace of Clubs to see Meghan Tonjes play a
show. She's in town for the 789 YouTube gathering in Central
Park. She drove from Detroit to New York, dropping in on other
YouTube celebrities along the way, recording collaboration videos and
guest staring on Blog TV shows. A smorgasbord of buzz leading up
to the meet and greet that helps young YTers network with
YTpro's.
Meghan walks through my front door, greeting me with the sassy cheeky
smile I know so well from her videos. She's followed by another
well known YouTuber, MissSarcastic, who's RL (real life) name is
Melissa. I live with Laura Johnson (Caramella from the
Glamazons), so the four of us take a seat in the living room knowing
way too much about each other for this only being our first RL
meeting. We exchange a series of "hey, I've heard of you's"
then head out to my favorite plus size boutique, Lee Lee's Valise, to
try on pretty dresses and gab like ladies of leisure.
We jump on the C train at 110th. Meghan is about my size only
much taller. A lot of her fans are like me, drawn to her,
compelled to support her, to be a part of her success as if it were our
own. We get cozy on a two seater and start chatting. I only found
her channel a few months ago, right before Perez Hilton blogged and
tweeted about her acoustic guitar cover of Lily's Allen's It's Not
Fair. A few days later 100,000 people hit the video. "I've
been on YouTube for 3 years consistently putting up cover songs every
Request Tuesday, but it's just in the past 6 months things have really
started blowing up. I remember only having 30 subscribers for so
long. I'd like to thank my gays." Perez isn't the only
Fairy Godmother to blow magic up Meghan's skirt. With over
500,000 subscribers and his videos averaging 200,000 hits, Michael
Buckley (What The Buck?) received a copy of Be In Want in the mail
(Meghan's first album released this last Valentine's day) with a cute
note that he read on his live BlogTV show. A few hours later, she
had 2000 subscribers and hundreds of comments to the tune of "buck sent
me". I'm overwhelmed by this culture of community, of asking for
help, helping others, paying it forward. I asked Buck what he
thought about this.
"It's very hard in any business especially the music business to get
your name out there. I thought it was awesome that she sent me a copy
of her CD and a personal note- it never hurts to ask and you really
need to "pimp" yourself out there! I popped in her CD for the first
time during my live show on BlogTV, was blown away and have been
singing her praises ever since!"
We transfer to the F train at West 4th. At this point I'm
wondering why not follow traditional routes to pursue music? It's
seems like a lot of work to be your own PR chick, answering every email
and comment, sending out your own CD's with personalized notes.
"I never considered myself a musician. I picked up a guitar at 19
and said 'hey, I'll do that". YouTube seemed a good place to get
immediate feedback, immediate personal connection. It's a place
filled with banter, people know what I'm doing and thinking." It
does make it easier to build that trust between audience and
performer. Especially when you're not Pop Music Barbie, running
around with the Hollywood cool kids, luring your fans in with how hot
you are and how cute your clothes are and whether you kissed Robert
Pattinson or not. "The way I look plays a part. It's easy
to block a user or ignore a lame comment, and now I do tour and play
shows. It's not the traditional route, but what I'm doing is
working. I'm selling CD's. I'm getting great
messages. Someone lost a parent and brought their computer to the
funeral to play one of my songs. I'd love to be signed to a
label, but I enjoy being in control."
She goes into the most amazing story about fashion and shopping at Lane
Bryant since she was 11. Then has a Torrid rant "Why is everything
polyester blend!?!?" It was a site to behold.
"Project Lifesize started in July 2008 using quotes people had posted
on my music videos like 'you're so fat' giving people a taste of what I
was dealing with. Some days it's like 'God I'm so ugly". I
know people think it, but saying it really screws with your head.
I wanted to create a solution. I saw all these 'I'm gay' 'I'm a
nerd' acceptance channels on YouTube. I wanted to be surrounded
by the plus community, a selfish way of getting friends, I
guess." Project Lifesize has since gained 1000 subscribers and
partnered with YouTube and one of her PL fans has asked her to be a
part of a plus clothing line! "It's crazy to me how I'm doing
things I was told I could never do".
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A former plus model and member of the pop girl groups, the Glamazons and +plushus; Natalie Ferraro is a sucessful indie singer/songwriter living between New York and LA, blogging at lovenati.com, and making pretty dresses.
