| In a sense, privacy is dead for Troye Sivan. He admits to sharing everything about his professional and social life with his 3,757,567 Twitter followers, his 4,081,531 YouTube subscribers, his 2,125,534 Facebook followers, and his 4,068,003 Instagram followers. In almost 9 years, Sivan has gained a massive following of fans that track his every move, his every word and it was all due to one video posted on YouTube. He has said that he still can't wrap his head around the YouTube phenomenon, but is still thankful for it helping him gather more followers and give him a sense of personal connection to his fans.. Troye's first experience with Youtube was his performing at a Perth mall. A cousin of his later sent Troye a link to said performance, which bewildered the young aspiring singer as Youtube was in its mere infancy, nowhere near the worldwide levels it has reached today. However, at that time in 2007, according to a case study conducted in Simon Fraser University based in Vancouver, British Columbia, YouTube made up 10% of all the traffic on the internet. It was clear that the Youtube platform was on the way to becoming a leader in video sharing. Because Troye's first foray into YouTube was through the recording of his music covers, it gave him a headstart in advancing his YouTube career. In 2007, 22.9% of all videos uploaded to the site pertained to music, 5% percent more than the next popular category, entertainment. Due to the majority of focus being put on clips involving music, it was very easy for a young 12 year old Troye to gain an audience and grow from there. Even though he had a break in movies like X-Men and Spud, in which he starred alongside John Cleese, music was his calling and it still is. His first YouTube video was a cover of "Tell Me Why" by Declan Galbraith and from there, he posted more and more covers and soon, he became a prominent YouTuber to follow because of his skill and how personal he treats his channel. His channel began with music and soon, it evolved into his own medium for personal video diaries. Nowadays, Troye has shifted his YouTube channel towards a more personal viewpoint, allowing fans to take a look into his thoughts and social life. | |
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| Currently, Troye's personal video logs make up almost 70% of the content of his channel and its dedicated video log playlist, created by Troye himself, drew 5.7 million views as of April 28, 2016. Even though Troye's focus has currently turned towards music production, touring and the promotion of the Blue Neighborhood album, its dedicated playlist only drew 2.7 million views, a substantial decline compared to the video logs. What it's telling of is two things: how much of Troye the person is portrayed to his 4 million subscribers and how much more people are interested in finding out about Troye the person. With this focus on personal items, there's still a sense of community and intimacy created through the release of these types of videos. Loyalty is built up amongst subscribers and Troye admits to that. Early in his YouTube career, when scrolling through comments, he would start to recognize the usernames of commenters and through there, a bond is created between artist and fan. It is this creation of a friendship through online means that fosters not only the popularity of said artist, but it also fosters the creation of new fans that see the intimacy as a huge positive in their experience as part of the fandom for Troye Sivan. To someone like Troye Sivan, he does not think he is famous. He's just doing what he wants to do and that's sharing with the world his experiences and his music. That's all. Even though the numbers suggest that he is a popular icon, even though his origins marked him as a future star in the making, that does not take away from how humble Troye is for his success. He owes it to his fans for his surge to stardom and fans owe it to him for being a role model that can appeal to anybody. That humbleness is what makes Troye so popular. That humbleness is what make me warm up to him. At the beginning of this research, I have no idea who the man was, but after seeing his videos, after seeing his interviews, I see that he's human. He's not a character at all. He's just like us the viewer. He's being himself. He's human. He's relatable. Because of all these qualities is why he has such a good reputation amongst everybody, from fans to movie stars, from artists to countries. All he is doing is simply expressing himself. |
EntertainmentMay 16, 2016
Fostering Troye Sivan's Fandom Through YouTube
A look into Sivan's immense popularity through the video sharing platform
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