At one point it seemed like just about anyone could use YouTube as a launchpad to fame.
But it turns out that people can become anonymous again just as fast as they can become famous
in the first place.
Sure, some YouTube sensations stay in the limelight, like Justin Bieber or Tyler Oakley.
But others just fall by the wayside no matter how hard they try to stay relevant.
Here's a look at some YouTubers that haven't figured out they aren't famous anymore.
WHATTHEBUCK
Michael Buckley, best known for his YouTube series What the Buck?!, was quite popular
between 2007 and 2010.
Buckley was well-known for his comedic takes on pop culture news at the time, particularly
as it related to teen pop sensations.
His biggest trending moment came after a legion of angry fangirls attacked him for making
fun of one of the Jonas Brothers falling on stage.
He responded by posting a video of himself reading their nasty comments.
"Eff you!
They rock, jackass!
You're effing jealous of them and they are hot.
And their music is super cool, so haha, stick that in your mother-effin' juice box and suck it!"
Those glory days didn't last long, though.
Even though he still boasts more than a million subscribers, that seems to be mainly because
fans are too lazy to unsubscribe, as most of his recent videos have struggled to even
reach ten thousand views.
That's a massive drop for someone who was once at the top of the YouTube heap.
"In 2008, I was at a YouTube bowling tournament and I won!"
Esmee Denters
Esmee Denters was set to be another breakout YouTube pop sensation in the vein of Justin
Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen after her cover of Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around"
went viral in 2007.
The video even featured background vocals and an appearance by Timberlake himself, helping
Denters become one of the first YouTube stars to exceed 100 million views.
"Sings my song better than me."
"No, that's not true."
"Haha!"
"This is the man right here!"
Since then, though, it's been a mixed bag.
Denters had some moderate success in Europe in 2009 and 2010, but was eventually dropped
from her record label.
She tried to jump start things with an appearance on the British version of The Voice in 2015,
but was eliminated during the knockout rounds.
These days she's still posting songs to YouTube, but with most of her videos only getting a
couple thousand views, she's pretty much back where she started.
Here's hoping better things lay ahead.
Greyson Chance
When then 12-year-old Greyson Chance's cover of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" went viral in 2010,
people thought we'd finally had found our anti-Justin Bieber, especially after his much
hyped appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
"You put this up on, first you put it up on your Facebook and then you put it up on YouTube.
And you just think it would be fun just to put it up on YouTube and it's crazy how many
hits this has now."
But the stardom didn't last.
Although Chance's album Hold On 'Til The Night hit the top 30 on the Billboard charts, within
a short time, the internet's collective attention span had moved on to other hit YouTube musicians.
Such as this legend of the form:
"Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow-me-me-meow."
Greyson still has a small following, but it's a far cry from the 58 million people who watched
that first "Paparazzi" cover, which may be why he's already trying to stage a comeback
at just 19 years old.
"Now I'm on the verge of adulthood with a new team and a new album.
I'm back and better than ever."
Karmin
If you look at the Boston-based pop duo Karmin now, you'll probably see them as just one
YouTube cover channel out of many.
But in 2011, couple Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan seemed destined for breakout music
success thanks to several viral covers of songs by popular R&B and rap artists, including
a cover of Chris Brown's "Look at me Now" which got over 100 million views.
"Look at me now!
Look at me now!
Whoahhh, I'm getting paper!"
Karmin took their new popularity and ran with it, but the resulting 2012 EP Hello was not
well received.
Rolling Stone reviewer Jody Rosen said of Karmin "Viral video-stars-turned-major-label
recording artists Karmin [have] a great back-story.
They also have one of the most aggressively obnoxious debut albums in recent memory [...] Karmin
can make you hate pop music."
Ouch!
Despite the negative reviews, their single "Brokenhearted" still got over 34 million
views back in 2012, and their 2014 single "Acapella" topped 35 million.
But recent videos rarely barely get a fraction of that even though their original YouTube
channel still has over 1.5 million legacy subscribers.
That's enough to leave anyone…brokenhearted.
"So, can we fix what started.
Don't you leave me broken-hearted tonight."
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