The title “That Was Fast” could allude to almost any aspect of Shawn Mendes. It could mean the lightspeedy performances that have made the 16-year-old a star in his chosen medium (6 second Vines). It could mean Mendes’s rise up the pop charts to #1, to the Mendes wit, to his hair, to the relatively short amount of time he’s spent on earth. The name Shawn Mendes is practically a meme now–signifiying alacrity, swiftness, rapidity. It’s an economical brevity of purpose, success, and talent–and, Mendes hopes, not of career. Career-wise, Mendes hopes to take short very, very long.
What a Vine does with every six seconds is prove again and again the never-truer adage: that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Even with familiar Vine stars it’s as if you meet them anew each time. As Mendes told the New York Times, in a paradoxically long profile: “you only have six seconds to impress somebody. And if you can do that in six seconds, then you’ve done a good job.” Mendes has made a pretty good impression on Taylor Swift–he’ll be opening on her next tour. No doubt that will go by fast too.
