Real Musicians? Why Most Popular Singers Shouldn't Make the Cut
By Jessica Dorian, 11.18.04

Music consumers are too fast to label new faces as “rock stars.” So before we place them on the top of music charts, let’s make them prove their style, their music and themselves.

Music lovers are increasingly entertained and shocked by entertainers’ on-stage mishaps. Who hasn’t heard about Ashlee Simpson’s goof on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago?

For some reason people couldn’t stop talking about it. And Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2003 Super Bowl was bigger news than the Patriots’ win.

There is probably something lacking in an artist’s performance when their mistakes merit more discussion than their musical achievements. Well, I’d say Jackson’s had more than enough time to provide evidence of any redeeming quality. Let’s stop waiting, if anyone was.

But Simpson’s first single is only months old on radio station’s mixes. She hasn’t been around long enough to deserve a star label, but apparently long enough to be humiliated in public. It remains to be seen if her talent will develop or if her musical performance will stay at the same level.

It seems that the young generation of would-be music legends is dominating the music industry. But they are a far cry from legendary, and I would argue that the only reason they’ve captured the limelight is because they know the right people, or are related to them.

Let’s be honest, Ashlee Simpson had a paved way to the stage because of her name. Whether she writes all of her music or not, Jessica has to feel good about building her popularity from scratch by marketing to a consumer group that digs her pop style. I’ll admit that I like Ashlee’s radio hit “Pieces of Me,” but having one hit song doesn’t qualify any musician as great in my book.

Britney Spears is a perfect example of a pop star who believes she is a music and sex icon for the 21st century. Why? What are her unique contributions to the music industry? Singing poorly written lyrics about nothing? Done before. Dancing half-naked while singing about nothing? Also done before. Moving her lips to prerecorded tracks at live performances, a phenomenon known as “lip-synching?” Definitely overdone.

So, how does she make the cut as a star?

Some music consumers of this generation are convinced that Spears, Jackson, Simpson and countless others are good musicians. The qualifying bar, placed high by exceptionally talented musicians throughout history – Beethoven, Mozart, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, The Beatles and others – has been lowered.

But the music industry isn’t the only arena in which the standard for great artistic works has decreased. People read cheap tabloid entertainment gossip now instead of great literature. They are easily entertained by dialogue-free action movies and staged reality shows.

Our taste for quality entertainment has deteriorated, and as with most commodities in a capitalistic economy, consumers determine the product. Music standards will rise again if listeners demand it. And real musicians will return to the stage when their work is appreciated.