“Money Money Money” sang ABBA, “it must be funny? In a rich man’s world?”
And even though this question was originally asked in 1976 it remains just as prevalent a topic of conversation today. Ironically, releasing this track helped ABBA themselves to accumulate more personal wealth; the single ‘Money Money Money’ alone became a worldwide hit and even today on Spotify this one song (taken from the group’s album ‘Arrival’) has been streamed at least 58.4 Million times.
But perhaps the real irony in this track is that it’s composers, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, write the song directed at the very people whom they intended to see purchase it. The opening lyrics of the track begin “I work all night; I work all day to pay the bills I have to pay; Ain't it sad? And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me; That's too bad!” before going on to suggest that the narrated character of the song, a presumably fictional woman, might look for a rich man to take care of her so that bills are of no question and life’s creature comforts can be met with ease.
I say, of course, presumably fictional because in another rather ironic twist it was ABBA bandmember Anni-Frid Lyngstad (herself no doubt Independently wealthy) who would later enter into a relationship with and marry Heinrich Ruzzo. Ruzzo was of Royal Stature, being the Count of Plauen in Germany and the couple were married from 1992 until his passing in 1999.
In 2021 the subject of money has remained unchanged for many. Some can’t earn any, some long to earn more whilst others earn far too much. With the introduction of Social Media and more expansive and affordable mobile technologies in the past 15 years, we now have more of an insight than ever into the world of the super-rich. Granted, celebrity couples and media moguls are nothing new, but what social media has done is to allow us to mix the “haves” with the “have not’s” all whilst affording a certain level of anonymity, particularly where they want that anonymity to be maintained.
The children of celebrities are one example, a group who traditionally most would never hear about, unless those children wanted you to know who they were. They did, of course, exist and most likely – due to their parents’ achievements – would be unlikely to need to struggle to pay basic rent and Council Rates or obtain part time jobs etc, and would receive a predominantly private education and be afforded (by the very virtue and definition of their status at birth) opportunities which others could only hope and dream about achieving at all.
Parental privilege is as much a fact of life as the passing months on a calendar, and to eradicate it and create a truly equal world is arguably impossible. But social media such as YouTube and TikTok have led its content creators to develop possibilities nobody would have even considered in 2005. Matthew Patrick, the creator of Game Theory, is just one example. Known more commonly as his screen name ‘MatPat’ he founded the web series ‘The Game Theory’ in 2011 which discussed gaming relative in relation to tangible proprieties such as science and math. In less than two years the channel had reached over 1 Million subscribers.
Recently celebrating their 10th anniversary, MatPat currently enjoys over 28 Million subscribers (myself included) and has amassed over 5 Billion views on YouTube alone. Patrick’s wife Stephanie is also now a fundamental component of the channel, and their son Oliver was born in 2018, with Patrick himself building his own personal legacy.
Children attend Sci Fi conventions dressed as MatPat and other YouTube content creators. Teachers often receive school reports in which young people state they wish to aspire to grow up to become a Content Creator as opposed to a Banker, a Journalist or an Engineer. Possibly, this is because content creation is marketed to give the impression that anyone can achieve success and adoration through the platform, in the same or a similar way that Matthew Patrick has. This is, rather unfortunately, not the case.
For one thing, a level of success is equitable to a level of effort, and passion is not the same thing as effort. In much the same way as many young actresses fled to California (and still do) to become actors, very few were ever guaranteed of success. In modern suburbia, content creators will have lives to live, obligations, work or education commitments, which effectively prevent them from simply quitting their job full time to focus on creating videos or content about why Pokemon Cards are now worth so much. There is also, like many other businesses, the costs involved in setting up – ring lights, desktops, software, media, access to digital content; and that adage of money means not everyone is able to afford these things anyway.
In another YouTube video a Pokemon content creator named ‘PokeRev’ talks about how he started his interests in collecting Pokemon trading cards. Something which has now afforded him a channel with a very respectable 346,000 subscribers. Particularly when we consider his videos focus around collecting Pokemon TCG alone and this was (until recently) a niche market. In the video PokeRev speaks openly about purchasing his first booster box of cards about five years, something which cost him £900, and sparked a catalyst of events which led him to paying just over £11,000 last November for a single packet of Pokemon cards. This, of course, all requires capital and investment – spending money to make money is the adage – and PokeRev was fortunate enough to have that money to spend, and for it not to adversely affect him financially.
What social media presents is a falsehood, content creation is relatively accessible, but the opportunities for creating even a moderately successful channel are slim and require you to be able to be able to afford (or at the very least raise) suitable investment along the way. The falsehood of social media is particularly how it is presented, under the guise of being random, sporadic, homemade and – quite literally – social. But, the most successful content is far from it, taking weeks to plan, research, prepare and execute with care. And audiences will respond to that effort and talented because of it’s professional and well thought out nature in comparison to more sporadic content.
Whatever way you look at it, money is the driving force behind this, whether we’re needing some to make that content or making that content to earn more, so we don’t need to get up for that day job come Monday morning. And without the job, we could spend more time planning and preparing content in the hopes of ultimately making more money to support that time well spent.
Funny. Maybe ABBA had it right all along?