No More Superstars?

It’s entirely possible that there will never be another SUPERSTAR musical performer.

Now that’s a rash statement, but the evidence leans that way.

Why?

Well, the complete fragmentation of pop culture into ever smaller slices of a pie that used to be a homogeneous group is virtually guaranteeing that the lack of MASS EXPOSURE will make the outcome (no standout artist or group) a moot point.

Consider the history of the megastar in our culture since the age of mass media.

1940’s-Frank Sinatra
1950’s-Elvis Presley
1960’s-Beatles, Rolling Stones
1970’s-Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Elton John
Bruce Springsteen(fragmentation starting?)
1980’s-Michael Jackson, Madonna, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi. Police, etc

From here, things really splinter-and even in the 60’s, you could add in the Beach Boys, etc. There are a lot of people left out—and groups like U2 that span more than one decade. The point is that the fragmentation of media, which first shows up as radio “formats”-created subsets of fans and “superstars” only within that smaller group of fans.

It was on this date in 1956 that Elvis appeared on the Milton Berle Show-a show that was watched weekly by a HUGE percentage of the American population (hence no fragmentation) Ed Sullivan garnered the same huge audience, especially when the Beatles showed up. The Elvis appearance on Milty's show is featured in the clip below:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcG0gnld6OI

As we continue to move into our own little world of musical niches, we isolate ourselves from the commonality of experience that was actually defined by LESS CHOICE. All of America watched “I Love Lucy”---were we complaining that we only had two or three channels to choose from?

No! We were grateful for this new medium called “television”.

The huge audiences garnered by “American Idol” are today's closest example of a pervasive media experience. You can always find someone to talk to at the office about “Idol”. Not as easy to find someone who watched “Ultimate Kick Boxing”. With music, it’s getting harder to find an artist whose popularity transcends formats (or iPod barriers!) to be known and enjoyed by masses in numbers large enough to make that artist a superstar.

And I think we are the worse for it.


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