Is it art or just Justin Bieber?

It is quite clear to me that my experiences with the media are the idea and plan of what Aristotle would call the great mover, someone in control.

            When it comes to music, a field that I am very familiar and comfortable with, today’s top rated artists turn out to not actually be top rated. What I mean to say is that Justin Bieber is not popular because he is one of the best singers in the world. He is not popular because he is one of the best songwriters in the world. He doesn’t even write his own songs. It seems that these are two very crucial components for making it as a pop icon, so how does Justin do it without possessing these two important traits? Well, the answer is that it’s not Justin, it’s the corporation (Warner Music Group) that  hired Justin. But that raises anther question, why Justin then, if he isn’t the best singer and doesn’t write songs, why would they choose to hire him, what makes him so special. Well, it’s because he fits a very particular formula. A formula generated by marketing agents that tell major record labels what the major of kids look for in music today.

            I read an example that describes a social experiment. These three people: Salganik, Dodds, and Watts, created this series of websites that enabled 14,000 participants to listen to music by unknown artists, to see if mainstream exposure is really necessary for people to like and/or accept these songs as quality music. The idea was that if songs have an inherent quality that makes them popular, then the same songs should become popular on each website. The outcome was interesting. It turned out that the songs that were highly rated by the earlier listeners would go on to become increasingly popular. It seems, and this comes with my experiences with my friends who listen to pop music, that people like to follow other peoples’ opinions and not fully evaluate the music themselves. I have found that with my friends listening to music that is not widely accepted as ‘good’ is strange. I guess people find a sense of credibility with popularity, which in my opinion is not always the case.

            Another example of the mainstream media’s efforts for success is, ‘art imitating art.’ One can find an example of this through any sequel that has ever been made of any major motion picture: Jaws 2, Star Wars Return of the Jedi, The Hangover two and so on. This theory is that if it worked once, it’ll work again. And in most cases I think this happens to be true. I remember when the Backstreet Boys (again another corporate project like Justin Bieber) were popular and then being confused by the emersion of N’Sync. I couldn’t tell the difference. I know now that really, there was no difference. Both bands encompassed the exact same concepts and representations for a successful pop band and that were not artists, but rather, products. This can also be seen with TV shows, Flavor of Love and I Love New York (New York was the name of the woman who stared in the show).  The show Friends and How I Met Your Mother is another example. When using formulas for hits, there is an assumption that there is a greater likeliness for economic success. Fortunately, this is not always a grantee because fads come and go.

            My last example is convergence culture. If a particular form of media becomes successful, and by successful I mean popular, then those behind it financially will do all they can to squeeze out any possible profit that they can gain from that book, or movie or Television Show. A good example of this is the Harry Potter franchise. The books are deemed as one the most popular book series ever. From this, the book was converted into a movie. For artistic purposes? No for profit purposes. The movies were not made to awe the audience as a form of film art, but rather, were produced to be a moneymaking powerhouse. Once the movies proved to be a financial success, the franchise grew into comic books, cartoons, action figures (dolls), and various other toys, costumes for kids and all that. The book notes that a movie or book isn’t enough in contemporary society, but now, corporations strive to create an entire multi-platform fictional universe. Is it entertainment that generates profit? Or is it profit that entertains? Answer this question depends on which side of the moneymaking spectrum you associate with.