I’ve been thinking of all these talent shows on the air these days.
Of course it all started with American Idol. Then there was The Voice. Then America’s Got Talent, and now there’s X Factor.
It’s a really good gig, if you think about it.
But not for the participants!
One of the things I do when I’m watching a show like this, is that I ask myself, “What is entertaining me?”
That is, “What is appealing in what I’m watching? And why am I watching it?”
I’ve only watched two full seasons of American Idol–from auditions to finish, and two seasons of America’s Got Talent.
I watched the season when David Cook won and then the recent one where Scotty Mccreery won.
And for America’s Got Talent, I watched the season that Terry Fator won and the most recent one when that Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. guy won.
And I’ve come to a conclusion.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter who wins. Winning doesn’t ensure success.
Just look at American Idol. Only two of their alumni have gone on to be big stars: Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
It’s too soon to say for Scotty Mccreery but David Cook has been a big disappointment! One hit wonder.
I have a different theory for Terry Fator.
He comes from the trenches!
I know how he feels to be in a venue way at the back of a fair and almost get heat stroke!
When you’re that *hungry* you don’t take a chance at the brass ring for granted.
The reason that Fator is successful is because he *worked* for it, and continues to *work* for it.
But you don’t really see that with so many of the other contestants.
I was watching X Factor last night and they showed them partying up a storm, and as I was watching them tossing back drinks, I just thought, “You silly fools!”
Now’s not the time to celebrate!
Now’s the time to get some rest so you’ll be fresh tomorrow!
And then you see some of the ones that had been partying hardest collapse when they get eliminated. One guy was shouting, “I have no life! I have no life!” And I thought, “Yes you do!” This is NOT the end of the world!
But I feel sorry for the children!
Eleven and thirteen year olds should not have to build a career at that age! Time enough for the dog eat dog world that is the entertainment business!
As for the ones that were partying. They don’t get it.
This is work.
When I write a story it’s not about any kind of lifestyle I’m trying to achieve!
It’s not about fame or fortune!
Some of my best work has been completely ignored!
It’s about the work! It’s about pushing myself and my artistic expression, to write something amazing!
Getting back to the talent shows, I think that part of the fascination of them is the fact that the economy is so lousy.
Susan Boyle would not have been so successful if she hadn’t been lampooned by the video guys before she walked out on stage. Did you hear the frumpy music they were playing while they filmed her stuffing a donut in her mouth, talking to the interviewers and then walking out on to the stage?
It was a build up of sorts, but as it turned out, a red herring.
And when she opened her mouth and blew them all away, it wasn’t just the beauty of her voice that made the impact. It was the whole scenario.
And her song choice. “I dreamed a dream…” From Les Miserables couldn’t have been better suited!
When did this happen? At the height of uncertainty in 2009 after all the bankruptcies and people were losing their shirts.
Why did people react so much to her?
I asked myself that very question even as I watched her on youtube a number of times.
It wasn’t just her voice!
After seeing so many talent shows one thing I’ve realized is that there are a LOT of very good singers out there. And Susan Boyle is NOT that exceptional.
It was because she was ridiculed and we’ve all felt that way at times. But she rose above it. She exceeded expectations and in the process she gave HOPE!
Hope at a time there was none.
And perhaps many who were watching her, thought if she could so defy expectations, then perhaps they could too.
In fact I’d dare say that the power of that narrative was so great, she’s still riding its after effect.
Saw her on Oprah, and she sang some song I can’t even remember the title of, standing there her hair all coiffed, strapped into a dark evening gown, looking like a stuffed sausage. She seemed to be girdled so tight, she couldn’t even move in that silly dry ice fog they had floating around her.
Very little of the dowdy (but charming) lady that first took my breath away was left! She is now just another singer.
So what is the success of these shows?
It’s profiting off the raw talent of the hopefuls!
David Cook did his best work ON THE WAY to winning American Idol. His rendition of Eleanor Rigby took one of the weirdest songs the Beatles had ever written, and gave it meaning. I mean what the heck does ‘keeping her face in a jar by the door’ even mean???
Susan Boyle gave her best performance AUDITIONING for Britain’s Got Talent!
Same with David Archuletta, who’s another flop finalist.
Once the competition was gone, these artists couldn’t construct a new story vehicle so they could rise higher. And that’s too bad.
And then there’s Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. who just won this year’s America’s Got Talent. And he beat two top notch, world class dance troupes to do it too!
Why?
Because of his back story!
He was a poor black man singing Sinatra style! Used to wash cars for a living, but had been homeless at one point.
Could you have asked for a better rags to riches story???
I have to admit that at first I was not rooting for him.
I thought the dance troupes of Luminato or Silhouettes would win, but in the final show when the dance troupes trotted out the same old same old, Landau performed a coup by singing Sinatra’s My Way. Of course it helped that he killed it!
Knowing what we knew of his story, was it any wonder that he surged to victory? And again, at a time when the economy is mired in hopeless recession???
He even brought a few tears to my eyes, and after he finished singing it, I thought, “Yes, I do hope he wins.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xGIJxO0Iok
And I have high hopes that he will not disappoint, because he’s probably even hungrier for success than Terry Fator!
And he’d better be hungry for it. He’d better work hard because he’s only got one further chance to impress.
Talent just doesn’t seem to be enough any more.
And that’s actually the main reason why I won’t be auditioning for Canada’s Got Talent.
I don’t want to give away my ‘talent’ (such as it is) for free!
But of course I also don’t believe that a storyteller/stand up comedian can really win in a competition of this sort.
You’ve only got ninety seconds, and it takes a LOT longer to construct a really funny narrative on a stage in front of a live audience!
These talent shows are ideally suited to singers!
Like ventriloquist singers and Sinatra stylists, who are hungry and have absolutely nothing to lose!
8 Responses
Lisa
07|Oct|2011 1I’m not sure how a platinum album, 2 platinum singles and a successful year long tour is disappointing for David Cook. In today’s world that seems pretty good to me. His 2nd album is out and he’s starting a co-headlining tour w/Gavin Degraw. I find it irritating that an artist is not considered “successful” unless they are heard on the “main-stream” radio every 30 minutes. There are so many talented artists/performers out there that are hardly ever heard on those stations. Personally I feel like so many artists today are manufactured and not particulary good singers that I don’t even listen to the radio anymore. Just my opinion.
Rukhsana Khan
07|Oct|2011 2Hi Lisa,
I guess I stand corrected.
I get all my music knowledge, such as it is, from the radio, and I really don’t follow musicians. I was talking in terms of my impressions of his success. If he’d really had a huge hit like Carrie Underwood’s “Dug my Key Into the Side…” then I’m sure I would have noticed.
Platinum albums sound like some of the smaller ‘awards’ out there.
He might be a successful musician, but superstar, nope. And considering all the free publicity he got from American Idol, he has disappointed me at least.
With his talent, he should have been bigger.
My humble opinion.
Sam
07|Oct|2011 3So sad you feel David Cook is a “one hit wonder”. You must not follow him much or you would know he had TWO platinum singles, a Gold single and a platinum album. His new album “This Loud Morning” has sold in line with every other artist in his genre, i.e. Gavin DeGraw, Matt Nathanson and his first single from it hit #17 on the Billboard AC charts & top 30 in HAC. Many in the industry would kill to have a record do this well. I guess, in your eyes if any of the contestants don’t sell in the Lady Gaga/Brittany range then they are a flop. You had better lower your expectations as very few are selling like that, reality show contestant or not. So much for your “one hit wonder” theory. Better get your facts straight. Cook is hardly a “one hit wonder”.
Rukhsana Khan
07|Oct|2011 4Yeah, I don’t follow him much.
Like I said to lisa that I really get most of my music info from the radio.
I do think he had the potential to be in the Lady Gaga range (gosh someone should knock her off top spot! She’s such a hack!)
But I do stand by my ‘one hit wonder’ statement.
I think for a song to be a ‘hit’ it has to be darn near ubiquitous on the air waves! Like Carrie Underwood’s ‘Dug my Key…”
Sam
08|Oct|2011 5If you think that a song has to be played on mainstream radio to be a hit, you are sadly mistaken. Many artists never have radio hits, but do extremely well in the business. Top 40 is not the be all to end all. If you like listening to the same 10 songs every hour on the hour, then mainstream radio is for you. I personally find more entertaining music than the auto-tuned manufactured crap on internet radio. Mainstream radio is a dead if they don’t change.
You said yourself that you don’t follow musicians and your knowledge comes from radio. That in itself is the problem. You have a narrow view of “success”. Platinum is still the standard whether you think so or not and having 3 platinums makes your argument of a “one hit wonder” null and void.
Rukhsana Khan
09|Oct|2011 6Well Sam,
If it isn’t played on mainstream radio then how would I, or most other people have heard of it?
You’re talking about a niche market.
I actually find it very encouraging that there are educated fans out there of David Cook like yourself and it seems Lisa.
Frankly, the only time I listen to music is when I’m driving and that’s to keep me awake.
And I know exactly what you mean by listening to the same 10 songs every hour ad nauseum! How many times have I gotten so sick of the radio tunes, after a five hour drive that I reach for the knob while muttering, “Oh shut up!”
Then I drive in silence for a while because it’s ever so much preferable.
As for platinum being the standard of success, hey, I’ll take your word for it!
Cheers!
Patricia Tilton
08|Oct|2011 7Boy, this generated some comments. I was about to send you an e-mail, and thought to check out your blog. Although, I do watch the talent shows, as there is little else on, I think bottom line, we are a little older, don’t follow the music or the musicians. I do like to see someone who’s talent would have gone unrecognized win. But, will they be prepared emotionally for the fame.
Again, I do watch the shows, but I do have a problem with how we have to create “idols” — the very term disturbs me. Celebrites are our substitute for the royals. Don’t mean to sound cynical, but it seems like our value system is skewed, or we need an escape because of the state of things in the world.
I was trained in classical music as a pianist. And, I have a passion for the opera. I watched a similar talent contest on PBS about the grueling auditions that opera singers go through to win a chance of singing in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera. Found it much more interesting.
Better hush. I will admit there has been excellent talent discovered on the programs.
Pat
Rukhsana Khan
09|Oct|2011 8Hi Pat,
Yes, indeed!
Nothing like a bit of controversy to get the blood flowing!
I like your point about how we’re creating ‘idols’.
I think idol, is the right term for it too!
Young people look at these winners of these celeb shows and yearn for that kind of success so badly!
And when they cry with the rejection, I just feel like reaching through the screen and hugging them, and telling them that in some ways they’re better off!
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