Analysis of American Idol - Essay Example

? Analysis of American Idol Celebrities that influence mass media are akin to an epidemic in America. Every generation has seen them resurface with a vengeance, from Jenny Lind in the 1850s, to the Beatles in the 1960s, to modern day pop stars and rappers such as Britney Spears and Lil Wayne. Their charm and exuberance is characterized by mass appeal, owing to a specific skill set which is promoted to the level of cult. Plenty of mainstream celebrities have surfaced throughout history popularized by mass media and self-promulgation tactics as well as a healthy dose of skill. However, it is noticeable that the recent trend represents a paradigm shift in celebrity development. What is apparent is a programmatic shift in the way the contemporary celebrity is developed through concurrent media – television and internet-based branding in particular. Thus, no longer are only the elites with their extraordinary levels of consciousness considered as an important pool of personnel to be regarded for mainstream celebrity, as Hearn illustrates, “Psychoanalytic concerns about unconscious identity formation are for the most part, left to the side here, as are any claims about essential human nature” (198). This has paved way for Ordinariness amongst the recent wave of celebrity development, which, rest assured, has always enjoyed a certain repertoire amongst the discourses of mass celebrities along with denoting essential ingredients of various film and televised content (Bonner). Turner refers to this phenomenon as the demotic turn (153-154) which signifies a convergence of ordinary and celebrity. While there is inherent contradictoriness in the discourses of celebrity itself, as a celebrity by nature cannot be ordinary once elevated by mass appeal, this contradiction is what enhances the apparent widespread acceptance and validation of reality tv shows and the celebrity development it engages in. This paper seeks to conceptualize the celebrity self-branding techniques characterized by the popular show, American Idol in light of the theories of Hearn, Skeggs, and Turner. American Idol The show is primarily a singing competition that allows ordinary members of the public who profess to possess singing skills to audition and be judged by a panel in order to partake further in various singing formats with the promise of a reward for the winner in the form of a contract with a leading record label. The participants are initially screened by a panel but later voted on by the general population in a seemingly democratic process of selection. The particular episode in question was part of season 11 episode 1, and was aired on January 18th, 2012. Analysis Turner’s principles of demotic turn were primarily aimed at the understanding of recent celebrity proliferation in mass media. His focus was to determine how self-branding techniques in popular media such as reality TV shows, DIY internet websites, radio talk shows etc. serve to exacerbate the systematic popularization of ordinary people in order to classify them celebrity status. His acknowledgement of the self is characterized by self-recognition, a distinct identity that is argued in the public’s redeeming eye, accepted and promoted. Reality TV accounts for a certain kind of recognition of self as well, as witnessed in American Idol over its tenure. Participants occasionally have to make their case in front of the judges in terms of qualities other than singing, which the show wholly comprises of. Turner cites William Hung as an example, who although never qualified past the screening process, argued that he did not have any training in singing or dancing which he seemed to believe identified him as unique (154). However, he most certainly classified as entertainment, and was rewarded by the show in subsequent re-runs of his audition as part of the show’s promotion. He engaged in a modern form of promotion that Hearn describes as a by-product of self-branding, a methodic interpretation of brand creation that is “flexible, visible, culturally meaningful … that trades on on the very stuff of lived experience in the service of promotion and possible pro?t” (213). In episode 1 of season 11, similarly, Shannon, who did end up qualifying, was made to call on stage her entire family and sing in front of them. According to Turner, this exacerbated her ordinariness, indulging in a methodic self-branding process that seeks to develop a celebrity culture around ordinary people. The successful integration of this principle can be replicated across other shows, so that the product in question, could be replaced and give rise to new content periodically and perpetually, “television’s production of celebrity can truly be regarded as a manufacturing process into which the product’s planned obsolescence is incorporated” (Turner 155). Thus, Shawn, Shannon, Amy and the likes of other contestants from this episode can simply be refreshed with new crop and the same proliferation of celebrity principles fellow. It may not be forgotten that the motive for any network is to make a profitable product, hence, incorporating a production mechanism that allows for subsequent obsolescence of the product, the contestants Shawn, Shannon and Amy, for example, to be replaced with similar seemingly ordinary contestants makes for a fruitful manufacturing process, as Turner illustrates: “The replaceable celebrity-commodity is structurally fundamental to both of the leading primetime formats aimed at the key 14–35 year old demographics: reality TV and soap opera.” (155). The word used to describe the resulting ordinary celebrity is celetoid. Thus, celetoids are “accessories of cultures organized around mass communications and staged authenticity” (Turner 156), thereby rendering them talentless individuals subjected to a recurring manufacturing process and a considerably short life-span in the publicly perceived stratosphere. The framework of current reality TV and DIY websites such as 2night.com is likened to producing one-hit wonders, or celetoids, used by modern consumer-oriented societies to satisfy its demand for celebrity. I would have to disagree with the celetoid argument for some part, as it fails to acknowledge the celebrity’s consequent fame in the music world after being chosen the winner in American Idol. The reason being, much like the rest of American Idol, episode 1 of season 11 follows through with subsequent episodes in order to produce a winner who goes on to live through with his identity, generated through his culture, values, and self-branding throughout the show, as a celebrity from amongst the ordinaries. He has the opportunity to thrive and last longer on stage outside that of reality TV. As such, the contestants who stood next to him in the later episodes leading up to the season finale are the real celetoids, while the resulting celebrity with a theoretically longer lifespan is excluded by definition. Hearn’s arguments are similar, as she discusses them in length in her aforementioned article. Her identification of self is characterized by the definition initially coined by Anthony Giddens as a “hallmark of modernity… forming a distinct form of labour” (198). She explains: “Self-branding involves the self-conscious construction of a meta-narrative and meta-image of self through the use of cultural meanings and images drawn from the narrative and visual codes of the mainstream culture industries. The function of the branded self is purely rhetorical; its goal is to produce cultural value and, potentially, material pro?t. Different in?ections of self-branding can be traced across several mediated cultural forms that directly address the constitution and celebration of the ‘self’ as such. The practice of self-branding is clearly expressed and delineated in current management literature as a necessary strategy for success in an increasingly complex corporate world. Many reality television shows invent narratives of self-branding and, simultaneously, produce branded personae. Websites such as 2night.com and universityparty.ca improvise on the theme of self-branding by taking photographs of young people at clubs and linking them to advertisements online, blurring the distinction between private self and instrumental associative object, while social network websites such as MySpace and Facebook offer inventories of various selves.” (198). The passage is self-explanatory and can be experienced in the development of the American Idol individuals who indulge in long pretexts about their life and development before finally relaying their singing performance on stage. They market their ordinariness, in a similar fashion as Turner and Skeggs conceptualize. Self-branding via popular media is an essential ingredient if the democratic process of selection is viable, as evidenced in the casting of votes in the selection stage of the show. Any particular negative about their life identifies a sense of uniqueness to their personna, “Any judgement of the working-class as negative [including pity] is an attempt by the middle-class to accrue value’ (Skeggs 104). Conclusion American Idol places important contextual details of the working class, celebrity development and self-branding in perspective. The recent trends of celebrity tend to engulf the consumer’s demand for flexibility and innovation by presenting ordinariness in a highlighted fashion, thereby simulating heightened levels of self-recognition and self-branding. The concept of demotic turn by Turner is well in effect in today’s reality tv shows in general, Big Brother, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, etc. to name a few, but none exemplify the process as well as the most celebrated American Idol. The contestants generate value by presenting themselves and their ordinary lives to the mass public, and in a democratic process of election, get voted to celebrity status. This programming shift in the creation of modern day celebrity allows the contestant to promulgate his face as his identity, his experiences as values, and his story as a relationship with the consumer, together to form a brand that the show can profit from, which in turn, demonstrates how neo-liberalism has infused itself in every walk of human life. Works Cited Bonner, Frances. Ordinary Television. New York: Sage Publications. 2003. Print. Hearn, Alison. “’Meat, Mask, Burden’ Probing the contours of the branded ‘self’.” Journal of Consumer Culture 8.197. (2008): 197-214. Print. Skeggs, Beverly & Wood, Helen. “Making class and self through televised ethical scenarios.” Research report, Economic and Social Research Council. (2004-2008). Print. Turner, Graeme. “The mass production of celebrity: ‘Celetoids’, reality TV and the ‘demotic turn’.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 9.2 (2006): 153-165. Print. Read More