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.

Something to say?