The true value of music lies in the musicians ability to attract, entertain
and inspire an audience. Musicians are members of a local community who do best
when they remain local, enjoy local celebrity and assume positive, if not
exemplary roles. They contribute to the common good. Music education for
children has benefits in many directions and music literate teachers are
valuable in schools and as private educators in the community. If you assume,
as I do, that everyone should play and enjoy music – if only to clap your hands
and sing a tune- then musicians are always needed to promote musical
expressions. In my town, there are many musicians who are constantly at play.
Some entertain, teach and participate in a variety of musical groups. Some earn
a modest living but all enjoy their expression of music. Many amateur groups
practice and perform without pay just for the pleasure of making music.
Sometimes, young aspiring musicians are lured by the example of distant
celebrities and try in vain to become great singers or great bands. In my view,
the wish for celebrity can be self-defeating, a bad idea. Occasionally, a local
celebrity through much practice and dedication to the art of music will become
known outside the local community and one may even become rich and famous. It is
something like the lottery – its fun to fantasize what you could do if your won,
but the odds are 1 in 14 million, so don't hold your breath.
I tell the fame-seekers that commercial success is a product manufactured by
groups of business people. It is an industrial activity that turns a very small
number of specially compliant musicians and a few formula-produced songs into
products that will be mass-marketed and bought by millions of highly
programmed people. If you have a touch of artistic integrity or a taste of
personal freedom, you should probably stay far away.
Celebrity
Famous people have always fascinated inspired and led ordinary people. Fame
has always been achieved through stories, publicity and public spectacles. For
the long stretch of human history rulers, military leaders, and priests with
high status were the main celebrities. Gods and goddesses were made celebrities
by rulers and priests in the same way that actors became celebrities with the
sponsorship of wealthy movie studios.
In the 20th century, the expansion of media created in both local and
worldwide networks a more profuse and complicated world of celebrities. With the
ascent of popular music, radio, television and movies, one path to riches and
fame was popular music. By giving public performances, selling recordings and
appearing often in the media, a few popular singers became stars, even
with mediocre musical ability. If you look closely at 21st century celebrities,
you find mostly attractive, photogenic people whose faces are recognized by a
large audience. Photographs of celebrity faces became commodities purchased by a
receptive marketplace. Celebrity faces appear everywhere. Facial recognition is
an important determinant of human behavior. A familiar face becomes a friend; a
friend becomes family or even a lover. Fantasies of sharing wealth and fame
develop around the familial face. Some idolize and worship a familiar, celebrity
face.
Page wrote: “Celebrities are fascinating because they live in a parallel
universe—one that looks and feels just like ours yet is light-years beyond our
reach. Stars live in another world entirely, one that makes our lives seem
woefully dull by comparison. It’s easy to blame the media for this cognitive
whiplash. But the real celebrity spinmeister is our own mind, which tricks us
into believing the stars are our lovers and our social intimates. Celebrity
culture plays to all of our innate tendencies: We’re built to view anyone we
recognize as an acquaintance ripe for gossip or for romance. Since catching
sight of a beautiful face bathes the brain in pleasing chemicals, George
Clooney’s killer smile is impossible to ignore. Stars summon our most human
yearnings: to love, admire, copy and, of course, to gossip and to jeer. It’s
only natural that we get pulled into their gravitational field. John Lennon
infuriated the faithful when he said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus,
but he wasn’t the first to suggest that celebrity culture was taking the place
of religion. With its myths, its rituals and its ability to immortalize, it
fills a similar cultural niche. In a secular society our need for ritualized
idol worship can be displaced onto stars. Horan speculates that celebrity fills
some of the same roles the church fills for believers; the desire to admire the
powerful and the drive to fit into a community of people with shared values.”
From The Sound of Music by Stephen Gislason
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