Susan Boyle and Reality tv: too fast, too furious?
Ayeshea Perera -
Saturday, June 06, 2009 12:23 PM
What are the chances of a frumpy, middle aged woman walking into a recording studio, wooing the Tommy Mottola type producers with her voice and making it big? In 2009 baby, non - existent. The newest entrants to the commercial music scene are generally young, hep, physically beautiful, dance well, sing tolerably and can pout with the best of them in the poster photo shoots. So that leaves no place for the frumpy - even if they do sing very very well. In fact there has been much lamenting that recording studios are no longer places that starry eyed bands and singers can freely approach with the dream of making it big. Now its more about who you know (or your family/friends know) and of course what you look like that gives you even the slightest chance of getting a toe inside their (soundproof) doors. Big recording studios have in fact been accused of completely squelching artistic creativity, given the fact that they are often the prime determiners of what "sells." And given that they can easily manipulate frequency of airplay and publicity, not many could question their wisdom on this matter.
But now we have an alternative - the reality tv show. Yes, boo, hiss, holler ... throw things at the tv, but its TRUE. Yes they do thrive on a mix of mediated voyeurism and mediated exhibitionism and they do subject contestants to humiliation and ridicule as a means of hooking audiences. However they also DO provide a chance to the literal average Joe (or Susan Boyle) to come out there and show people that they really do have talent. And that is a part of its allure. American idol gave the world Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson along with perfectly tailor made rags to riches stories. And of course the youtube video clip of Susan Boyle coming out and wooing a visibly sceptical audience with her rendition of 'I dreamed a dream" made her a global star overnight. Everyone from Oprah to Larry King wanted a piece of her on their prime-time shows, she was featured in numerous articles and Google Suggest shows over half a million results for her when you start typing in her name.
But the after-story has not been that pleasant. After she lost out to dance group Diversity in the "Britains got talen" final, she was admitted to a facility and treated for anxiety and mental exhaustion. But was this, as many point out a problem with Boyle or a problem with the genre of reality television itself? There has been a great deal of criticism about the way in which reality shows treat contestants - with this article pointing out that at least 8 reality tv contestants have ended up taking their own lives. There have also been calls for producers to take more responsibility for the contestants they feature. What producers could have done to shield Boyle from the media glare she received is uncertain, but it does highlight the explosive potential of reality tv to very quickly both make and break people. Coupled with all the usual web 2.0 suspects, (read here about the impact of the web 2.0 contribution to Boyles success) what happened to Susan Boye obviously happened much faster than she was capable of physically and mentally handling. And this is the frightening bit - web 2.0 and reality television compliment each other perhaps a little too well - potentially it has become very easy for everything people say or do to be put up on the net for the rest of us to love, revile, ridicule and comment on. But the frenetic pace at which we do it coupled with sheer volume makes for tremendous amounts of pressure on the people we elevate. And if this is indeed the next stage of evolution in how we create stars - none of them are going to last very long.