If there was one thing big in 2017, it was Dutch hip-hop music . There were 6 (!) Dutch rappers in the top 10 of most streamed artists on Spotify this year. Another huge trend in The Netherlands are vlogs on YouTube. Vlogs have been popular for a long time, but this year YouTube exploded with vlogs and other video content. A lot of vloggers try to expand their career and start making their own music, mostly hip-hop music (a simple case of 1 +1 = 2…).
An extraordinary example of a Dutch vlogger who started with making hip-hop music is Famke Louise. She makes vlogs on YouTube and is also a model. She attended the show ‘’Models in Paris’’, a Dutch tv-show about the real life of models working in fashion city Paris. Just recentely, she released two tracks on Spotify, called ‘Op Me Monnie’ and ‘Vroom’. These two releases caused a lot of commotion (‘Vroom’ has got 185.000 dislikes and just 36.000 likes…).
If you listen to the song, the lyrics do not make any sense (just like the images), but the views are unbelievable; more than 4 million in only one week time. Internet sensations are the biggest hits of the moment. It seems like that, in this time in which we now live, negative attention (like 185.000 dislikes) is almost the best attention you can get. Like Famke Louise sings in the song ‘Op Me Monnie’: I’ll let the haters cry, with a big smile on my selfie.
Rappers who turn vloggers, vloggers who turn singers… it’s something common nowadays. Even politicians are vlogging. Is it one big bubble (just like the bitcoin, which is much discussed in these past weeks/months) or is it really the new world? A world in which we talk in loose cries, pay with digital money and looks and likes are more important than ever. Only way to find out is to step on this fast online train, and ‘Vroom’…. enter the new year which is waiting for us!