1 Jac Vanek (myspace.com/jacvanek)
The E-Famers
Issue #31
Has MySpace created another medium for stars to be born? Meet some of the social networking site’s brightest, new VIPs.
By Kelly Mellott
Published: March 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
It’s early afternoon, and Jac Vanek, a pretty, petite 19-year-old, stands waiting in line for her vanilla latte at the Urth Caffé on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. Her platinum-blonde hair is pulled back in a messy ponytail and her baggy sweatpants hang loosely on her thin frame. A smudge of black eye makeup stands testimony — Vanek hasn’t showered, she just woke up, and it had been a rough night. But you just might recognize this party girl, if not by name then perhaps by her default picture. Yep, that was a MySpace reference, and Vanek is undeniably one of MySpace’s reigning scene queens (the underground music world’s very own Paris Hilton).
She’s not famous — she’s e-famous, a true MySpace celebrity, a member of the new breed of A-listers, complete with fans, gossip, and VIP passes. And even now, without the perfect image she’s known to have in her online photos, Vanek is still often recognized in the real world. It’s not a Paris Hilton–esque paparazzi craze, but there’s something to be said for Vanek and the Internet elite. These seemingly average young people are redefining celebrity, and the possibilities are endless. Anyone with access to the Web can create a MySpace profile — they’re free, easy, and internationally accepted. So MySpace celebrity status like Vanek’s could be within anyone’s reach. Though Vanek’s charismatic, outgoing personality and tendency to party with some of the biggest names in pop-punk, like Gym Class Heroes, the Audition, and Silverstein, probably helped, the UCLA design and media arts student and freelance photographer did nothing special to attract attention to her online profile.
“It was never an intention of mine,” Vanek says. “It kind of came out of nowhere. Everyone on my friends list is someone I know personally. I never ‘mass added’ myself to anyone and I never asked people to ‘whore me’ out to get more friends. I never did anything out of the ordinary to try to make people notice me. I have a regular MySpace page like everyone else.”
Regular or not, Vanek’s profile page has been viewed millions of times to date and, along with her popularity on other sites like Livejournal and Buzznet, this “typical” American teenager has interested and influenced thousands of people around the world. And though this is somewhat of a new phenomenon, Vanek is not the first of her kind. Perhaps even more recognized are the aspiring models Tila Tequila and Forbidden, who have been seen, scantily clad, gracing the pages and covers of magazines like Maxim and Playboy. But what places Vanek and her peers into the recent wave of MySpace celebs is a desire to promote their art, music, and businesses — all while fully clothed.
“Personally, I’m not a fan of taking my clothes off,” Vanek says. “But I think girls like Tila and Forbidden are very smart businesswomen. They’re models. And they have used their Internet popularity to land business deals they wouldn’t even dream about without MySpace. I mean, look, Tila has modeled for dozens of companies and hosted a TV show. Forbidden landed a centerfold for friggin’ Playboy! It’s not my thing, but that’s huge. So I say more power to them. They’re milking their Internet fame for all it’s worth and getting pretty far doing it.”
Vanek has taken the same idea to a different level in order to pursue her biggest passion: photography. Though still in college, the blonde ambition has already shot for Atticus Clothing and had her work featured on two album covers, June’s If You Speak Any Faster and Someday Never’s The Natural Trend of Breathing. With the ability to reach a large audience and talent to back it up, Vanek has a huge opportunity to make her name much sooner than most budding photographers her age. Her dark, often eerie imagery is stylish without being cliché or overdone.
“A big thing that I think singles me out is my passion for self-portraits,” Vanek says. “I love having complete control in front of the camera and behind the camera. I have this vision in my mind and by being the model and photographer, I can capture that image perfectly.”
Vanek has used MySpace as a platform to promote her work simply and almost effortlessly. She has a blog on MySpace in which you can purchase her prints. “I also have links to all of my sites on the Internet on my MySpace page, so whoever is looking at it can learn all about me as a person and photographer,” she says. “That way, bands and companies can see all of my work and decide if they’re interested in me without me doing a thing. I would credit a large portion [of my recognition] to the Internet. No one would know who I was without it.”
Similarly, other MySpace celebrities have used their Web popularity as a way to get exposure of more than just their pictures. Jeffree Star, 21-year-old Hollywood-based musician, knew that getting people to listen to his songs would be easy thanks to his incredible online icon status.
“I’m the queen of the Internet,” Star says. “I’m on over 20 Web sites where people around the world are watching me. I knew [MySpace] was another opportunity to show millions of people who I am. I already figured MySpace was the next Yahoo.com, and I was right. My page gets so many views a day, so when I decided to make music it was easy for everyone to listen to it, whether they wanted to or not.”
His music, which he describes as “electronic sex appeal mixed with beauty pageants gone wrong” is dancy electronica with hip-hop flavor. He got his start when collaborating with friend and Peaches’ live drummer Samantha Maloney. They mixed a few tracks with Star’s vocals and when he posted them online, received a huge response which continued to grow. Now Star has just completed a tour supporting Peaches and is currently recording his first EP, Plastic Surgery Slumber Party.
“I’m here to have fun and do something different,” Star says. “I don’t take everything as serious as my ‘image’ portrays, which is something I like to let people know. Obviously rapping about straight boys fucking me isn’t a world-changing event, but it’s something funny that can make someone laugh if they’re having a bad day.”
Even without MySpace fame, musicians around the world have found a new way to promote themselves, and it is changing the music industry at lightning speed. Now, bands that previously wouldn’t have the opportunity to reach outside their immediate community are able to attract millions of ears, regardless of location, touring, or album sales, as was the case for Springfield, Illinois–based group the Graduate. Formed in November 2006, the Graduate put up a MySpace page before they even had a band name.
“These days it’s more important to have a MySpace page than to have your own Web site,” says vocalist Corey Warning. “Everyone has MySpace. Most of my friends, and I’m just as guilty, go to MySpace more than once a day [and] search for friends and music when they’re bored. Posting bulletins and shows are a great way to spread news to friends and fans easily and quickly.”
It didn’t take long for the band’s popularity both in real life and e-life to grow, and its talent soon caught the eyes and ears of indie label Icon, with which the group recently signed. Their first full-length album is currently in production. The Graduate still uses MySpace for promotion and a way to reach out to its fans everywhere.
“MySpace had us as a featured artist last week and we had around 3,000 to 4,000 new friend requests,” says Warning. “We made sure to send out plenty of bulletins about new things that were happening with the band and tried to answer as many messages and comments as we could to welcome all our new friends.”
While Warning is thankful for all MySpace has allowed his band to do, he also recognizes there are a few downsides to the extreme accessibility. “I think MySpace is a great way to spread word about your band. However, there is such an overload of bands that it’s sometimes hard to sift through everything to get to the serious bands,” he says. “I’m in no way saying that some people shouldn’t write music or express themselves; everyone has that right. However, when every kid that gets a Squier Strat Pack for Christmas, records a few tracks in their basement, and puts it on MySpace, the pond starts to grow. It makes it hard to stand out. You have to really catch people’s ears. Personally, it’s made me work harder knowing that there are so many people out there wanting to do exactly what I want. It keeps me on my toes.”
But it is this accessibility that allows 23-year-old Chicagoan Amanda Davis, designer and owner of jewelry company Right in the Family Jewels to rise up as a fashion up-and-comer. Her hand-cut designs are bold and eye-catching — and only available on MySpace. Though not a MySpace celebrity herself, Davis utilized the e-fame of model and scene queen Audrey Kitching, giving Kitching a few of her first designs to wear in photo shoots.
“Her style completely embodies the direction my first collection was going and from there, other people got in contact with me as it became a more ‘in demand’ product to own,” Davis says. “Without her, the rise of my business would not have flourished to the degree it did. I’m very grateful to her for helping get my name out there and fully recognize that the popularity she experiences, via MySpace, assisted me in where I’m at today.”
Right in the Family Jewels is in such high-demand that the young business owner — who does everything from design, to execution, to delivery herself — can barely keep up. “The benefits are really the same as the reason I put the business on MySpace to begin with,” says Davis. “I’m reaching more people through simple clicks of their mouse than I could ever come in contact with by working from a grassroots level of marketing and advertising. One person will see my page, buy something, absolutely love it, and then tell all their friends. If I simply had a small Web store and no exposure via MySpace, I think it would take quite a bit longer for the word-of-mouth tactic to provide any successful results.”
For Davis and other e-business owners, MySpace “comments” provide a simple way to receive feedback quickly and easily and gives satisfied (and unsatisfied!) customers a place to voice their opinions. But Davis also sees a downside to MySpace business that is unavoidable.
“People rip off my designs much quicker than if I didn’t have as much exposure on the Internet as I do, but that issue is bound to arise sooner or later,” says Davis. “It just happens on a pretty consistent basis when people see the success I’m having and can see the full extent of it all through MySpace comments and friend counts.”
Taking the bad with the good, MySpace is undeniably changing the world for this generation. From communicating with friends to discovering new music and art to even who we idolize and look up to, MySpace is quickly becoming a culture all on its own. Bands in Middle of Nowhere, USA, have the ability to rock sound waves in Singapore and DIY designers can be the next big thing without a runway or even a store. And young people no longer only have traditional mainstream stars like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears to look up to, thanks to the real deals like Vanek and Star.
“I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and I don’t think anyone is,” says Vanek. “I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and I’m sure I’ll make plenty more. When you become a role model, people start examining every little thing you do and are ready to pounce on you when you do something wrong. I try to live my life with the morals and values I think are important. I guess if anything, I think that girls should try not to define themselves by the people they’re friends with or who they’re dating. Their achievements should be their own, not their boyfriend’s.”
Star couldn’t agree more.
“I’m giving the youth of today a reason to want to be an individual again,” he says. “I’m still really young myself; I know how it is to not have anything to look up to. When I was in high school, I felt hopeless because no one liked the same things as me and I couldn’t relate to all the robot-like kids who all dressed the same and didn’t have a brain. People have forgotten to think and that’s what I bring to the table. Besides changing the ideals of beauty, I’m also sending the message that it’s OK to think for yourself and not believe what everyone tells you.”
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