Sunday, August 17, 2008

Elvis; the King and the Reality TV


They say that he’s the king of rock and roll. A master craftsman, the way I like to put it, in singing as well as in shrewd performance. He surely changed the whole concept of American pop culture and will be in the hearts of millions in years to come.

But my question is can we see another Elvis in future? Whether you agree or not my immediate answer will be a big “NO”. Why is this? The main reason is today’s growing reality TV trends. America started the big commercialization of the subject and it went on like a plague through out the world.

It’s true that the programs like “American Idol” paved they way for hidden talents and a lot of people got a chance to showcase their talent (or misery) for millions of viewers around the world. But the thing is that as the season changes you tend to loose track of previous guys and then focus on the new breed. Nowadays artists are like commodities; Commodities which are sold in your local supermarket. As the days go by, when the season changes people tend to look for the newer products.

The new generation of artists are more dependent because of their heavy marketing campaigns, PR gimmicks and heavily paid record deals and they can’t see out of this system. So it’s doubted that whether they can stay in the hearts of people for ages like their retro counterparts.

4 comments:

  1. God... I love Elvis! He's truly the King! And you kinda beat me to a similar post!

    I agree with what you say. Another thing is that most of these cookie cutter singers today don't even write their stuff. It's like they have a persona and everything ready, the songs are written, then they find someone off the street to be that person.

    Elvis actually wrote his songs, and their still good, because there was something behind them.

    For those who say he's a thing of the past, well the same is true for your favourite band of today down the line, except chances are Elvis might outlive them.

    But don't forget Micheal Jackson either... he didn't write all his songs as far as I know though... but a hell of a performer nonetheless with actual talent.

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  2. Hmm true what you say abt the present situation..but then again even if another person comes with exact same talent as Elvis himself he would also have to face the same fate...

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  3. Nah i dont think so. There were probably people just like you denouncing the new and claiming that they just dont make em like they used to. 50 years down the line who knows, some present artiste might have defined himself in some way to be the next generations Elvis or the Beatles. All it takes is for one act to change the whole spectrum, and then we'll be back at square one.

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  4. In this case Whackster... I see your point.

    I would like to add to my comment that I don't mean that all performers today are crap... like in most things there are a lot more of them today than there were in the past.

    It's fairly common sense that the more quantity you have, the less quality you have, especially when it comes to creativity.

    There are still quality acts around, and I completely agree that nostalgia and romanticism make people always see things in the past as being better than the present or even future.

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