As promised I'd like to share a few more thoughts on the connection performer - audience. The thrill about the possible upcoming Madonna concert is all in my head and still it just doesn't feel the way I expected it was going to be. Perhaps it was all just to unreal to me, before it actually became a mere fact and thus making someone's concert a dream come true...at first.
On a second thought you start remembering all the stories of how the concert did go, of how your life-time favourite singer actually faked his smiles and did come just for the money. Money is of great importance, no doubt, and they'd make even the grief-stricken shine, probably. But isn't money that killed all the joy of a dream-come-true, isn't it the one to show that we are all of a mere existence and even music exists just to generate more of the colorful papers than be a fundamental part of ones life. Perhaps I am deepening too much or I am being to persistent with my true devotion to music, but my mind cannot take that easy the idea that the singers and groups that I grew up with and which played a major role in my formation as an adolescent are nothing more than a bunch of sell-outs and posers. Commercialism manages it all and it plays big and when I say big I mean tremendously enormous, not just for the sake of good old music.
No need to say that music is no longer a pass-time activity,indeed, it has become a multi-billion industry, which is in coexistence with all the other modifications of show-bizz only to make more and more money. When you get into this big machine and your biggest goal is the cash could you really smile for real? A very good friend of mine told me some time ago that the famous French singer Mylene Farmer was believed to have all of her emotions staged. All the tears and the smiles were part of a compelling and touching script which was to show how much human can a star be. Really? I didn't know that Farmer was from another planet, but I guess her manager takes her for an extraterrestrial, who is supposed to shed a tear on schedule.
I am giving this example with Mylene Farmer not to accuse her of anything, but to give another example of how time, fame and money can have a great impact not just on a single performance, but on one's carrier as a whole. Surely neither Madge nor Mylene forgot how to smile or cry, they are just tоo tired to do that truthfully and soul-shakingly. Do you remember the Michael Jackson trial and all the attention he got from the media? Even if you don't my point is that all of his reactions were nothing more than excellently rehearsed and of all of his smiles, pledges and tears looked and sounded like coming out a robot. Is he really that bored with life?
more to follow
2 comments:
OK, I think you're making this look way too bad. Surely, there's the pose, there's the refined image under strict control. But this image might just as well be a source of protection and safety. You know something like "A window - you might not pass" (from that movie with Madonna and Rupert Everett).
Money are the root of all evil. And good. And once a musician starts earning enough it's way easier to stick to an image and a money formula that works. Which brings me to another thing - the lack of will to change and experiment significantly. Almost all changes are money-driven. Hm...
It is more of a critical view on commercialism which sucked up most of the good when it comes to a concert. Thank any god it didn't reflect on the music as a whole and there are still many gigs, which bring the true pleasure of music. I do admit that things can't do without money, but sometimes money just shouldn't be the top of everything! :)
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