The visual has so overwhelmed the audio that people unsuprisingly get surprised when they hear a beautiful voice come from a plain jane. Susan Boyle, a 47-year-old Brit who lives with her cat, admitted to Britain's Got Talent television show that she has never been kissed. The audience reacted to her as if she were a joke--cringing, laughing, etc. Then Susan Boyle started singing. The joke was on the shallow gawkers. Watch the moving video if you haven't already.
The posted clip was all over the morning shows today. She's quite good.
I was thinking along these lines the other day with regard to what seems like a new trend in the music industry that concentrates on appearance over talent and substance. I think it started with country music but has infiltrated all genres of music where if an artist or a band is not photogenic and stylish, no matter how good their music is, they don’t make it. Could be why a majority of today’s music $uck$.
Makes me wonder if some of the pug ugly bands of yore would have made it today, notwithstanding their music was and is great.
The standard for looks has always been higher for women than men across the board. What's really sad is the way the audience treats her.
NEW trend? Form over function has been a fact of life in the music business for a long time. No doubt it got worse when MTV came along but it's still nothing new. It always nice when people get recognized for talent and not the way they look. Kudos to this british lady, they say she really kicked butt.
My god, look at Ella Fitzgerald. A very heavy not attractive woman, but a staggering talent. Doubt if she'd make it today.
What a shame that would be, but you're probably right.
It’s a marketing no-brainer that you’d like to have pretty people performing as opposed to homely ones. Being smooth on the eyes certainly adds to the entertainment value and with the advent of ubiquitous video (starting with MTV), appearance and presentation mattered then but I think matters more now.
It’s kind of ironic to me that the entertainment medium (movies) where it was originally paramount that leading men and woman were good looking does not seem to put as much emphasis on that quality any longer while the one that didn’t (music) does.
