MySpace/Tila Tequila
Oh, MySpace. For all of its highpoints—I’m sure there were some, honest—its most fearsome legacy may be that it was responsible for the shortlived career of Tila Nguyen, AKA Tila Tequila, thanks to… Well, to be honest, I’m not entirely too sure just how Tequila managed to become “the most popular artist on MySpace” in 2006, but I suspect the internet’s continued desire for cute girls in little or no clothing may be involved.
Nonetheless, Tequila managed to turn internet fame into something approaching real fame with cameos in various low level sitcoms or movies. She played a Hooters Girl in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which may tell you all you need to know about her level of success.
She then managed to convince MTV to give her her own reality show A Shot At Love with Tila Tequila that, surprisingly, lasted two seasons (This was clearly pre-Twitter, otherwise it would have been called A Shot @Love). Never one to shake the preconceptions that she was selling herself based purely upon her looks and sex appeal, she went on to become a recording artist, releasing songs with titles like “Sex,” “Stripper Friends,” and “I F—-d The DJ.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OioGVWfT74]
I’m not sure that social media gets the mainstream crossover it deserves, but I am willing to bet that Tila Tequila becoming the poster child for MySpace probably didn’t help with preconceptions that the site was better ignored for everyone who wasn’t a camera-obsessed teenager and/or those who like to look at them.
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