The Contests

As I look back at 2009 and the past decade, I see that we have made a lot of great music and we will be remembered for that even though I don't know for what genera most. But I already commented on that in my other post The Era of Musical Varience. What I want to talk about more is how people are being brought into entertainment by all types of media and who weren't originally famous or important.


The obvious starting point is American Idol. Starting with Kelly Clackson in the first season and continuing with Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, David Cook, and Kris Allen, stars have been born from this show. The people who have won were nobodies and most are now stars on the radio. Some who haven't won became famous too like Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry, and Adam Lambert. This was the show that set the precedent for the three judge panel: one nice, one mean, and one who is truthful, and mixed genders. American Idol was the show that started fulfilling peoples performing dreams.

The other show was America's got talent. This show was created by the makers of American Idol but was made to focus on all types of talents as opposed to only singing. However, all of the four winners; Bianca Ryan, Terry Fator, Neil E. Boyd, and Kevin Skinner; are singers, making it more of a singing show. No one however is really big off of this show, or at least not the way the people off American Idol are. Terry Fator is the most famous but it is for his Las Vegas show. The others either haven't done much or aren't good anymore.

The next way was by the internet. People were discovered on YouTube and became huge internet sensations. One of the biggest was Fred. Fred, also known as Lucas Cruikshank, started as just another kid posting videos on YouTube. He talks with a high squeaky voice and pretnds to be about half his age. He has now broken away from the internet and guest starred on iCarly and Hannah Montana, popular kids tv shows.

The internet has been used to show those who are amazing in other countries to us. Susan Boyle is the perfect example. She is a brilliant singer from Britain's Got Talent who showed the world how great she was via YouTube. In a day, everyone knew who she was and was completely in love. She is putting out a Christmas album and she has only been around for about six months!

We can create stars faster than ever and, one could argue, better. With the enhanced mediums through which we can listen to music, we have more access to these stars and we listen to more of them. The many opportunities to become famous make the statement "anyone can be a star" completely true. So who is going to be a star next?