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We overappreciate performers and underappreciate creators

Page history last edited by Alex Backer, Ph.D. 14 years, 11 months ago
Craig posted a comment on Huffington Post.
Thoughts on Susan Boyle
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

I've watched many of the interviews with Susan Boyle and have come away with the impression that this is truly a genuine woman with a wonderful personality and a miraculous voice. I'm been amazed by her centeredness and hope she can keep it with all the attention she is getting. Anne Buelteman's opinion that Susan has "an average voice" is totally refuted by Susan's 10 year old charity recording of "Cry Me A River" which is nuanced, passionate and sultry. I can't wait to hear more songs from her, and I'm sure my anticipation is shared by millions of others. Anne's cynicism is understandable - after all, cynicism is considered smart and superior in many circles and so can be the safe choice, but sometimes you have to just give in to optimism and wonder that people like Susan (and Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who landed the plane in the Hudson River) exist in this world.
Alex Bäcker
Alex Bäcker at 9:56pm April 20
Craig, welcome to fb publishing! I think the truth is somewhere in the middle here. I was moved by Susan's performance. I think she has a wonderful voice. That said, I am often surprised by the quality of singers at the local karaoke bar. And having heard schoolgirl Andrea Benvenuto perform the same song at our (incidentally, Scottish) high school's rendition of Les Mis, I have to agree w/Buelteman's opinion that Susan's performance was completely flat from an acting point of view. Not only did she change the lyrics on two occasions, but she completely failed to act the utter sadness of this song --if you've watched the musical, you know this son is sung by a dying single mother who's had such a rough life she's had to prostitute herself to support her young daughter. She failed to use expression, volume or anything else to convey the stark contrasts that the song sings about. And anyone who's watched enough Hollywood movies knows that there is no more time-tested way to bring an (TBC)
Alex Bäcker
Alex Bäcker at 10:05pm April 20
(continued) ...audience to tears than music over a standing ovation to an underdog. Indeed, the exercise Buelteman suggests of closing your eyes while you listen to Susan's rendition of I dreamed a dream is illuminating (inverse pun (is there a name for that?) not intended).

Most of all, I think this is a classic tale of how audiences fall in love with the performer, when the most (yet not only, of course) talent belongs to the composer. I dreamed a dream is one of the best songs ever written for a musical, and at least half of what shines through in Susan's performance is, in my opinion, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's talent. Susan brought me to the verge of tears, but so did Andrea the schoolgirl, repeatedly --because they were both singing (well) Lloyd Webber's masterpiece.

The same was true with Susan's predecessor in instant Britan's got talent-induced fame, Paul Potts. Paul is an amazing singer, but he also chose as well as Susan did. The song he performed, Nessun Dorma, is one (TBC

Alex Bäcker
Alex Bäcker at 10:19pm April 20
(continued) ...of opera's most revered masterpiece, a song that was also the one that audiences loved best in Pavarotti's ample repertoire. That song garnered more than 20 million views on youtube, yet no other song in Pott's youtube channedl garnered more than 1 million, with the exception of a single one from La Traviata that is almost as famous, and that one garnered barely 1M views. It's Puccini who deserves the most credit here, too.

If you look at professional pop singers, such as Britney Spears, who sing songs composed by others, you'll find that her best hits (including Oops I did it again and Baby One More Time) a pretty consistently written by the same amazingly talented composer, Max Martin --whom you've surely never heard of. Songs sung by the same famous singer but composed by less talented composers have tended not to become hits. Songs written by the same composer but sung by other, less famous artists (e.g. Hot N Cold by Katy Perry) are hits.

Alex Bäcker
Alex Bäcker at 10:31pm April 20
...We tend to overappreciate visible performers and underappreciate invisible creators.

In sum, while Susan's performance was moving, there are a number of amateur singers at least as talented (Andrea Benvenuto, the former schoolgirl, among them) who never garner millions of youtube views or achieve fame. And while that may not diminish your or my expectation to hear her sing again, we may find that when she's no longer the underdog, audiences are no longer giving her a standing ovation and she's not singing some of the best songs ever written, her performance will lose some of the quality that made it heart-warming, to become one worth listening to, but possibly not enough to compel the average listener to forward to more than one friend --the requirement for viral explosion and fame.

Hey, fifteen minutes is all Andy Warhol promised, so while they last, let's enjoy them with Susan. 

 

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