WHEN MUSICIANS USE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES.

By now I imagine you're aware of who Little Boots is.


If you are not aware of who she is, she is Victoria from Dead Disco making incredibly catchy, smart electropop. With someone from Hot Chip producing. Stuck On Repeat was the biggest 'choon' of last year and sounded exactly what Hot Chip would sound like if they had lady parts. Things are looking good for Victoria and I expect a lot from her this year (no pressure, love).

This is all fine and well, but what really gives Little Boots an 'edge' (hyperbole alert) is that she has recently joined Twitter. "But, Andrew, everyone uses fucking Twitter, what does she want, a medal?" you ask me. The answer is NO. Little Boots does not want a medal. She just wants to understand what the big deal is about Twitter.

While other artists might employ a team of Ivy Leaguers to update their Twitter status in a cold, calculated manner, Ms. Boots has been very hands on despite not being Harvard-educated in the ways of social networking. In a tweet to Popjustice:

"thank you for being my first twitter follower, whatever the fuck that means."

It's like she's saying what we're all thinking, isn't it?

"is totally convinced her hotel room is haunted"

Seriously, musicians, these are the tweets I want to receive. Little Boots Twittergate (it doesn't really need a -gate, does it?) reached maximum amazingness a little under an hour ago, however, with Victoria serenading the spirits in her hotel room with a YouTubed rendition of Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time.



Really, this post was just an elaborate excuse to pass this on, because it's fabulous and has made my morning. But it makes you think, doesn't it? Journalism.co.uk recently put Twitter at the top of their list of Things What Journalizers Need To Be Good With in 2009 because of the way in which it allows you to enter into a discussion with your readers. Similarly, for artists like Little Boots, utilizing sites like Twitter is a grassroots way of interacting with and building an online fan base. Everyone knows the importance of blog buzz in this day and age, but we're moving beyond even that amount of public interaction as artists harness and construct their own buzz, quite literally from their hotel room and armed only with a mobile phone and a laptop. Moreover, with Little Boots teetering on the edge of huge breakthrough success, social networking is yet another way to placate fans with goodies and messages about what you ate for lunch, effectively parrying the dreaded cries of "sellout" and claims of abandoning one's fans once success is assured.

In a world where the CD single is dying on its arse and various music retailers are going into administration, it's perhaps comforting to know that the public are more involved with the music they listen to than ever.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go tweet at Little Boots and tell her to cover Total Eclipse of the Heart or something.