Way back in August 2006  -- a relative eternity ago in this fast-paced, ever changing Internet age -- MySpace hit the 100 million members mark, an accomplishment that blew peoples' minds at the time. That was three years ago, when MySpace was king and Facebook, while two years in existence, was still far from the force it is today. Meanwhile, Twitter was just a little baby born that year and something that comparatively few knew about. My, how things change! In March this year, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009 when it had an astounding growth rate of 1382%. That same month of this year Facebook enjoyed a growth rate of 228%.

Around that time, the site compete.com compiled the interesting Top 25 Social Networks Re-Rank chart (below) that includes the monthly visits each social networking site received for the first month of this year and ranked them in popularity accordingly. Even though MySpace, the once most popular social networking website, has slipped down to the number two position and many people have deserted it in favor of Facebook, it still continues to attract new members and hang onto old ones, including countless artists and musicians.

Music makers from all genres and at various stages along in their careers, from established global acts to young aspiring rappers and rockers, all vie for attention on MySpace since is very difficult to stand apart and get noticed these days with so much competition out there.

The futility of this very topic is the theme of the great song/video below "Guitars Are Overrated" (explicit lyrics warning) by Bristol based band The Robot Disaster, who sing about how important it is to have your "own special style"  -- except that in this oversatured artists age, so does everyone else online! Another video from this year that works MySpace (or rather TMySpace) into its content is the video for "We Be" that hot Brooklyn and Cincinnati hip-hop trio Tanya Morgan put together for SXSW. While more lighthearted fun and not nearly as cynical as the The Robot Disaster's MySpace commentary, it nonetheless demonstrates the unavoidable cultural impact of MySpace, especially for musicians.