Missing what moves us

Understanding a YouTube phenomenon

SmartBrief on ExecTech | 05/26/2009

Susan Boyle is a creation of the Internet. Her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" on her first appearance on "Britain's Got Talent" was breathtaking, but her performance during the semifinals was cringe-inducing in places where her voice wavered and rasped. The beaming judges, however, said she nailed it, and the audience was wild for her. The world had already voted long before she sang, not by calling the show's official voting line, but by watching her on YouTube in record numbers -- an audience she never could have reached otherwise. This may be the most enchanting example yet of the democratizing power of the Internet. --Caron Carlson

[It's not about democratizing, or talent. It's about transcending image.]