Why Susan Boyle Doesn’t Matter
I finally broke down over the weekend and watched the Susan Boyle performance that everyone's been plotzing over. For those of you that don't know, Boyle is the, as my grandmother would generously say, "plain-looking" 47-year-old Scottish spinster whose lovely performance on April 11th of "I Dreamed A Dream" on Britain's Got Talent has turned her into an international sensation, garnering tens of millions of YouTube views and generating all manner of pontificating on the meaning of her popularity. We're dealing with an ugly duckling tale. That's it. Susan Boyle is by conventional pop standards, unattractive, but sings like an angel, and her notoriety, as the thinking goes, is thus a heartwarming rebuke to an entertainment culture that far too often values looks rather than skill. If this episode sounds familiar, it's because it is--Britain's Got Talent spawned the exact same story two years ago when Paul Potts, a stocky cell-phone store manager, won the competition on the strength of his renditions of tenor arias like "Nessun Dorma." Your mother may have emailed you about him.
Of course, fairy tales are fiction. Potts' success did not result in a radical restructuring of show business norms (though his debut album, One Chance, did go double platinum in the U.K.)--extremely attractive entertainers are still more likely to get the good gigs. Susan Boyle's moment will have a similarly unremarkable effect. For all the back patting (see, we're not superficial!) her moment has allowed us to indulge in, the fact remains that popular entertainment is largely about helping us escape the mundane, whether it's for two hours or the length of a YouTube clip. And it's a lot easier to do that when the person doing the entertaining doesn't look like a crazy cat lady who lives next door. Right now Susan Boyle is an exception. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking she's going to be the rule.
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Do you really believe little kids are more "bankable" than Susan Boyle? Go look at Paul Potts income so far. Compare it to most Idol winners!!!!
Paul McCartney has spoken out saying he is a fan. Elaine Paige, remember her? She has offered to record a duet with Boyle. One of the worlds most succesful songwriters has suggested a famous song of his be adapted on Susans first album to be done with Paul Potts singing it with her.
If I were Paul McCartney I would recreate the simplistic style of his first recording of "YESTERDAY". I would play an acoustic guitar to a tender and emotional performance of Susan singing the single most important pop song ever written. (go check that out if you don't agree about Yesterday)
That union, Boyle & McCartney would produce a worldwide #1 mega radio hit single. Maybe even a Grammy.
LOL - what a dolt. He needs to open his eyes and look at all of the amazing variety in successful artists. And if he were my son I would set him done for a strong lecture about arrogance and civil respect.
Beauty is an attribute yes but not a talent.
The mundane pop symphony in the key of C is not much talent either.Nor is the tolm of crap you people at spin spew about.
I've never seen such fop BS played off as writing.
Note to the editor:You can get better talent off the street.
tour many countries picking up fat checks as she goes along
I wish her the very best.
http://www.examiner.com/x-6988-San-Francisco-Music-Examiner~y2009m4d18-Why-the-women-of-planet-earth-need-more-Susan-Boyles
Shame on you . If she doesn't matter why you are so concerned about her???
grown up.