Invisible Revolution

by Terry Piper

The story of Clay Aiken's Rise to Fame and tributes written by many of the fans who adore him. Fully illustrated Printable PDF edition in living color.

All royalties from the sale of this book go to the Bubel-Aiken Foundation.

ISBN 1-59431-302-3

ISBN 1-59431-303-2 Non-fiction / Clay Aiken/ Fans /

Cover art by Jan Scott



Introduction

As recently as early 2003, he was invisible, at least on the landscape that is American popular culture. He was living an -ordinary life in a smallish city, a university student just a few months away from becoming a Special Education teacher.

A good life, but an anonymous one. The people who were about to change his life so dramatically were not greatly different except that some were younger, some were older, some lived in small towns and others did not. They didn't know him and, for the most part, they didn't know each other.

In the weeks following January 28, 2003, they began to 'meet' anonymously and invisibly on the Internet, brought together first by their interest in a young singer they saw on a television singing competition and then united by their commitment to his success.

Using the Internet, they created something much more significant than a fan club. They became a highly organized grassroots marketing machine with the single purpose of creating a superstar. They succeeded, and in the process, made cultural history. This is the story of how they did it and why.

The star they created, of course, is Clay Aiken, and the fans are now known as the Clay Nation, which is populated by Claymates and Claydawgs as well as a few Clayniacs, and which crosses borders to include Claynadians and many other nationalities.

For the information of any reader who somehow manages to avoid pop culture and yet is interested enough to read this, Aiken is a singer, a highly successful recording artist with a large, dedicated, and, I will argue, unique fan base. With a triple platinum debut album, a platinum Christmas album that broke Billboard and Soundscan records for holiday recordings, sold-out concert venues, television appearances, and high-profile charity work, Aiken has become a major figure in the music industry in a very short time. If he had won the American Idol crown in 2003, his success might not be quite so surprising. But he was the runner-up, and possibly that is one of the reasons for his success.

America does love an underdog, after all. But the hype of also-ran status usually wears itself out very quickly--witness Justin Guarini and whoever finished second in American Idol's third season. And yet, three years after his season on that show, Clay Aiken's popularity continues to soar and shows no signs of waning. Why?

The singer has often said that he is where he is because of his fans. Well, yes. Since success is defined for an entertainer by the number of fans who care enough to buy their 'products,' that is a given. As we shall see, though, Aiken's fans are not like others, and that may well be because Aiken is not like other celebrities.