Video may have killed the radio star, but video - Internet video to be exact - is creating its own breed of stars.

The latest example is  vlogger Chris Crocker, aka the “Leave Britney Alone” guy. The 19-year-old Britney Spears Superfan’s tearful-bordering-on-hysterical YouTube defense of Spears’ “Gimme More” performance at the MTV Video Music Awards has generated more than 8 million views. In the video, Crocker screams, “She’s a human… leave Britney alone! Leave her alone now… I mean it! She is not well right now!” 

So far, he’s made the rounds on Maury, been mentioned on Jimmy Kimmel and is now set to star in his own reality TV show. There is even a Chris Crocker “Leave Britney Alone” remix, his plea set to a musical beat. Check out this AP article also.

Crocker has been posting videos from his room in his grandparents’ Tennessee home for quite a while. While it used to be that getting your foot in the door in Hollywood involved actually GOING to Hollywood, the self-posting nature of YouTube and MySpace has changed that. Now, anyone can post a video from anywhere and have it be seen by millions in a matter of hours… and then Hollywood comes calling, apparently.

How will the grassroots nature of YouTube and MySpace change the concept of celebrity? Since anyone can post a video, anyone can gain a following… and if that following is large (and loud) enough, can that same anyone become a celebrity? I wonder what Andy Warhol would have to say about this Internet brand of  “15 minutes of fame.”

Britney Spears, Chris Crocker, MTV VMAs, Uncategorized, vlogging