Anyone familiar with the on goings of show business would readily recognise that February is a special month.
The Golden Globes, the Grammies, the Oscars and closer to home, the MTV Asia Music Awards, all happen within a few weeks of each other. We find ourselves inadvertently glued to our TVs, or reading snippets from magazines or newspapers about who’s been nominated, who’s won and even who’s who.
Let’s face it. No matter what we do, or don’t do, no matter where in the world we may be, we will know all about the awards sooner or later.
Ironical to remember that as recent as the 19th century, the arena of performing arts was seen in a completely different light. It’s true that Art has been in existence practically forever. People like to be entertained, whether in the past or in the present. And now our version of Greek entertainment comes in the form of movies, concerts and all sorts of popular art form.
The basic premise of the performing arts has not changed, but the status of artistes most certainly have.
Actors and singers used to be penniless, depending on the lords to support them. A parent hearing his child intending to walk down the path of the arts is most likely to either suffer from a cardiac arrest or disown his own flesh and blood. As the performing arts became more and more secular in the 15th century, the association of its participants with loose morals and vice became inseparable. To be a part of the performing arts was highly frowned upon.
Funny how all that has turned around.
The loose morals and vice are still there of course, in many varied disguised forms that I’m sure do not need spelling out. But since the turn of the 20th century, performers have never been more exalted. The actors and singers have now become the new elite, with their huge mansions and diamond-studded lifestyles.
Practically every young person dreams of making it big. A look at the turnout for the American Idol auditions says it all. The arena of performing arts has never enjoyed a better reputation.
Kudos to the entertainment business for flipping the tables. From a despised career, performers are suddenly what everyone wants to be, or tries to be with. The hours spent in queues just to get a glimpse of their idols, the desperation to get an autograph, the tears, the euphoria of making eye contact with Brad Pitt…the almost fanatical worshipping of people who, if born a few centuries earlier, would have been seen to be slightly better than the scum of the earth.
Show business’s marketing strategy should probably be written into a textbook for any aspiring marketeer.
Don’t get me wrong. I am all for creative expression. I thoroughly enjoy a good play or movie. I like listening to different sorts of music and I am a voracious reader. Creative and talented people need to be recognised and encouraged, like all other people in any honest form of living.
But have we gone a tad overboard? Has the tinsel blinded us?
Many follow the lives of the stars with an insatiable appetite. What we choose to see now lies on the outside – what a person possesses, be it jewellery, good looks or his latest girlfriend. What we hold important, what our values are, seems to have changed somewhat.
The Oscars started in 1927 for the purpose of raising the cultural and technical standards of professional filmmaking. But as we watch the Charlize Therons and Johnny Depps walk down the red carpet, what we focus on are the designer clothing, the gigantic and endless number of diamonds, the make-up, their private lives…the superficiality of it all. It’s no longer about talent, but an image. An image that would be bought up by adoring fans all over the world.
Appreciating a creative art form is one thing. Following it to be point of obsession is another.
Recognising and acknowledging talent is one thing. Spending millions of dollars letting everybody know about it is another.
God wanted us to encourage each other in the things that we do. But I’m sure He never meant for us to pat each other on the back for a job well done, to the point where his own creation has taken over His place.
Instead of chasing after God and being like Him, we now look to the exalted artistes whose talents God gave, for direction.
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