Once off the plane and in JFK I took my runway ready self over to my next departing gate, found a chair near an outlet and sat down.
A few minutes later a young guy in a hoodie sat one chair away from me. Then, a guy with a guitar sat across from me. Slowly, all of the seats around me began to be taken by what appeared to be band members. As I listened to them chat, their occupations were confirmed. I quickly learned the guy in the hoodie was the main artist and the rest of the group were his band members and managers.
Once they mentioned the name of the artist I googled it and discovered this guy was quickly gaining international popularity. He and his mates were heading to Toronto for a concert and would be on a BBC music show later in the week. I felt it was the least I could do to let them all sit by a legend like myself.
We sat there for some time because, like my previous flight, there was a major delay. Due to the weather, no planes were boarding or departing. This gave me plenty of time to read up on this up and comer. He was tweeting like a boss and when he tweeted about wanting to sing a Christina Aguilera song to motivate people (I’m assuming fans) to get up and walk away, I had to look up from my phone to see if I had missed something; specifically, fans.
Nope. The ‘scene’ was the same as it had been since they first gathered around me. The majority of his band and managers were pre-occupied with electronics or sleeping and nobody was around him or talking with him. I patiently waited for the Aguilera song, but he never sang it. This didn’t prevent his followers from favoriting and retweeting.
This situation confirmed for me that this is how one becomes famous: tweeting about things that aren’t happening; especially when doing so makes one sound very, very popular and cool. A phenomenon I shall doing ‘tweeting one’s way to the top.’
I’d love to go on, but I’m about to be (self) promoted. Like the young hoodie, I don’t do it for me, I do it for my fans. You’re welcome.
