The article's point is interesting, and I think it extends far beyond the world of politics. Americans place a disproportionate importance on fame when judging the worth of anything. Years of reality TV and savvy marketing have drained the gravitas of anything that hasn't received media attention.
Just look at music... Nowadays, if you don't manage your media persona carefully, there's very little chance you'll make it big, and most big-name artists resort to "cross-marketing" (i.e. inviting guests on their tracks) to boost their brand. Someone like Kanye West may be a hip hop master, but he mostly gets attention for being so present in the media.
And so, the real worth of ideas and creation have been drained from our discourse. Nowadays, success isn't about creating value; it's about generating enough buzz to bring it to the masses' attention. That's how we end up with something like 50 Shades of Grey topping the bestseller list.
A book like 50 shades of grey topping the charts isn't something new or unexpected. Bad books have always topped the best sellers charts. Period. even at the height of their fame, the Beatles were outsold by... The monkees. Yet people don't even consider the monkees when mentioning the Beatles, so why is 50 shades dominance looked at as an example of ideas and creation being drained from our discourse?
I'm not claiming the phenomenon is new, only that it's pervasive now. The Monkees might have topped the charts back when the Beatles were popular, but it seems to me that the Beatles wouldn't have been famous at all in our current climate... Not without a way to generate attention for themselves beyond their music.
Aight, your assuming that the Beatles got attention purely due to their music, but that ain't true, remember in the beginning they were viewed as a boy band, girls loved their looks and style. Plenty of artists let their music speak for them, the weeknd went platinum without doing any press or interviews.
The article's point is interesting, and I think it extends far beyond the world of politics. Americans place a disproportionate importance on fame when judging the worth of anything. Years of reality TV and savvy marketing have drained the gravitas of anything that hasn't received media attention.
Just look at music... Nowadays, if you don't manage your media persona carefully, there's very little chance you'll make it big, and most big-name artists resort to "cross-marketing" (i.e. inviting guests on their tracks) to boost their brand. Someone like Kanye West may be a hip hop master, but he mostly gets attention for being so present in the media.
And so, the real worth of ideas and creation have been drained from our discourse. Nowadays, success isn't about creating value; it's about generating enough buzz to bring it to the masses' attention. That's how we end up with something like 50 Shades of Grey topping the bestseller list.
A book like 50 shades of grey topping the charts isn't something new or unexpected. Bad books have always topped the best sellers charts. Period. even at the height of their fame, the Beatles were outsold by... The monkees. Yet people don't even consider the monkees when mentioning the Beatles, so why is 50 shades dominance looked at as an example of ideas and creation being drained from our discourse?
I'm not claiming the phenomenon is new, only that it's pervasive now. The Monkees might have topped the charts back when the Beatles were popular, but it seems to me that the Beatles wouldn't have been famous at all in our current climate... Not without a way to generate attention for themselves beyond their music.
Aight, your assuming that the Beatles got attention purely due to their music, but that ain't true, remember in the beginning they were viewed as a boy band, girls loved their looks and style. Plenty of artists let their music speak for them, the weeknd went platinum without doing any press or interviews.
Hmm. I may have overstated my case. It makes sense that marketing has always been a key component of success.