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Where we leave art for tart
I just posted this massively off-topic rant on a mailing list I'm on. It's a variation on something I've been banging on about for ages; the deification of celebrity. I doubt it'll be the last time you hear from me on this topic.
I considered since it was a largley off-topic ramble that I should repost it elsewhere as people in the original mailing list will probably just sigh and skip to the next post.
On 26/03/2008, xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> i recall the amount of new recording labels erupting at the time,
> releasing 12" with moronic music and a "hot" girl doing "vocals".
> Anyone with a girl that wasn't too afraid to come on a microphone had
> a record out then.
Hasn't it always been like that? Someone does something interesting/novelty and makes a few quid, suddenly everyone is onto it and a craze starts. If there was anything artistic in what started it, it's trampled underfoot in the rush for quick profits.
Everyone wants to be a star, you see all these kids in schools now who's main goal in life is to be a star, and they get convinced of it because "people just like them" "made it".
Most of them have no real talent, at least in the area they are heading in. I watched a TV show last week with this local girl in it who was going to be a huge famous singer. She kinda looked cute which was the only reason, I think, that the two bit record producer took her on board I feel. She sings, therefore she has talent... seems to be the belief. She might be shocked to find that a lot of her school-friends could sing as well as she can with a bit of coaching. It's just that singing is no longer a passtime for most people. It's seen as the reserve of "pop stars" and wannabees, rather than an ancient form of expression that is open to all.
This girl won't make it because she's not an exceptional singer. The market for teen hotties who can sing is stale and I can't see there being room for anyone new until she's too old to be accepted. She'll fail, and she'll have put al her hopes in this and will see herself as a failure for the rest of her life because of it. Any taken she had in any other field will likely be overlooked.
I'm off topic now, but this is something that really bothers me. I think the internet and the craze of these fucking Pop Idols-type programs have given a lot of kids false hopes and wrong directions in life which will leads to lots of young people with no hope and shattered dreams and a worse future for all of us.
Why would a young person struggle to be a "normal" person, in a "normal" job like shoe sales, plumbing, design, PC maintenence, car repair etc etc... when there is a chance you could be a star?
For many being a star is all that matters in life, anything else is deemed as a second rate life.
Here the road to the downfall of humanity begins, or at least turns from a meandering lane into a highway.
I know that most of them time I'd rather have a good plumber than another Britney Spears.
Because at the end of the day stars are of no practical use, they just sit in the sky looking pretty and distract us from the real issues on the ground.
Labels: music biz, rants, repost
