Seeing how big YouTube is today, it is no wonder that YouTube and showbiz have grown interrelated, and many YouTubers squeeze into the mainstream. A perfect example of such tendency is the American band Against The Current from upstate New York. A good example from this side of the Atlantic is the singer-songwriter Emma Blackery from Basildon, Essex.
She originally gained attention with her first YouTube channel, emmaforthewin, posting whatever stuff she wanted but mostly acoustic covers. Later on, she started recording original material.
While having three active YouTube channels (emmablackery for music and comedy, BirdyBoots for gaming, and the vlog Boxes of Foxes), Emma has also released a total of four EPs to date. Among her musical influences, she mostly cites the 90s and early 2000s pop-punk – the likes of blink-182, Busted, Good Charlotte, Green Day, etc., and you can hear it in her music. It is upbeat, intense, and emotional, while the lyrics tackle everyday problems of young people, being direct powerful, and not overly complicated.
Her music did gain her quite some following: her 2013 EP Distance peaked at #18 on iTunes British album chart, while also charting in Australia, Canada, and the US. The follow-up 2014 EP Perfect peaked at #16 on the same chart. The song “Perfect” from the self-titled EP entered the UK Rock and Metal Singles Chart at #8 in November 2014.
She also does quite a lot of touring. For example, this October she has dates in London, Manchester, Glasgow, and Birmingham — just before her 25th birthday (11th of November), by the way.
As with every young artist, the question arises: does Emma Blackery have more to offer, or has she already shown everything she had to show. The most likely answer is there is no answer. See, YouTube musicians don’t really play by the traditional rules.
Having a YouTube background definitely works for musicians — it allows them to communicate directly to their audiences, leaving behind all the possible intermediaries, such as labels, mainstream media, etc. Without being pushed or controlled by the latter, musicians can simply do their thing with regard only to their audiences with whom they are directly connected. The likes of Emma Blackery cannot be subject to your traditional labelling as “one-hit wonder”, “rising talent”, “established artist”, “veteran”, or anything like that, at least for the time being. Such labelling is an unnecessary complication, and, therefore, doesn’t stand.
Given that, what is left for us — the audience — is to enjoy Emma’s music, if we find it enjoyable. If we don’t, we just fix our YouTube preferences so that we never stumble upon any of her videos again. As simple as that.
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