Vanessa Hudgens Sings Like Paula Abdul In "Sneakernight"

Every once in awhile, it's good to stop and take stock of..talent. Vanessa Hudgens has it and it's expressed in this video. Now, I'd not known of her until I decided to click on her YouTube video and that was because it was on the front page of YouTube. Then I realized Hudgens was at the center of the Internet photo scandal a while back.

Ok. It seems there are so many of those.

She can sing and dance. Her voice is soulful and reminds me of Paula Abdul or any one of the Pointer Sisters. I'll be one of the half-million MySpace friends she has who puts their sneakers on!

But from a Zeitgeist perspective, Vanessa's one of the emerging young women who aren't African American, but have the soulful voice that Black female singers have been known for. She's part Irish American and Filipino American. But her style is emblematic of the diversity that Hip Hop has for all practical purposes forced on America. Because Hip Hop and Rap are the dominant music culture forms, American Culture, including what kids listen to, and who they try to sing like, have been litterally controlled and shaped by them.

Vanessa is the end result of this process.

Venessa Hudgens! Vanessa Hudgens! Who's Vanessa Hudgens?

Ok. I've never heard of Vanessa Hudgens until Techorati introduced me to her and (of course) some kind of sex-related content. So, ever the student of Internet Marketing, I decided to dig in and see what the fuss was all about with the idea that I could learn a thing or three.

Who's Vanessa Hudgens?

Well, she's...

Vanessa Anne Hudgens, (also known simply as) Vanessa Hudgens, (born December 14, 1988 in Salinas, California) is an American actress and singer. She made her screen debut in 2003 and appeared in the Hollywood films Thirteen and Thunderbirds, before reaching fame in the 2006 hit Disney Channel film, High School Musical. Hudgens also began a music career and released her debut album, entitled V, in 2006. In 2007, Hudgens became the spokesperson for Neutrogena.[1]...

According to a Wikiepedia entry -- at least the part that doesn't look doctored, if you know what I mean.

And ShowBuzz says "Hudgens portrayed Gabriella, the brainy love interest of Zac Efron's basketball star in the first two "High School Musical" made-for-cable movies. The two are said to be dating in real life.

"High School Musical 2" attracted more than 17 million viewers for its Disney Channel premiere in August, the most-watched television program of the summer."

Wow! 17 million viewers!

But a look at the blogs reveals a lot more juicy stuff.



TMZ.com reports that she took nude photos a while back and they surfaced on the Internet. Apparently, TMZ liked her body so much the labeled the report under the tag "Hot Bodies." Meanwhile, a new report claims that Vanessa sent nude photos of herself to some guy named Zac Efron

For all the huff, Vanessa's MySpace page contains no visible appology, but a lot of fan sympathy.

Ok, for me, this is a story of a desire for Internet visibility. Yep. That's right. It should come as no surprise that with this stunt Vanessa's broken out of her teen-pop-culture roots, right as she's turned 18 years old. Think about it.

Now, she can secretly approve the "leak" of nude photos of herself, then sit back and watch as her Internet traffic numbers rise up -- which if you look at the Alexa graph and focus on September, has happened.

Vanessa's the latest in a long line of young women who've bared it all online and reaped the rewards, from Paris Hilton and Britney Spears (who really just bared the beaver) and a certain Louisville Cheerleader. The list goes on, and it will keep going on.

What's interesting to see is the number of teenage copycats on YouTube who dance wiggling their butt to the camcorder, or showing other parts on more risque sites, or those that join the i-Friends network, then spam the hell out of people who want nothing to do with their webcam activities.

I'm serious about this.



What Vanessa, Paris, and other pop-teen stars are doing is saying to their fans -- girls -- it's ok to show off before the camera and tease society for attention and in some cases profit. You'd have to be naive to say I'm making this up. Heck, you're reading about Vanessa to start with, right?

This is Internet Marketing at it's pure form best -- controversial, viral, unfortunate, and culture changing. It's too late to say we don't want this to happen -- we not only allowed it, we created the technology to cause it. Blogs, websites, YouTube, Blip.tv, and other systems have raised the bar of what can be shown quickly and publicly. The "me" culture has morphed into the attention culture, and we're all a part of it.

We're either making content, or consuming content, and the content we want most is generally that showing someone else doing something..sexy.

But now that I know who Vanessa Hudgens is, I'll tell you what -- she can sing!