Sanitarium

Mar 02 2011

American Idol.. or Just Contest Winner?

Posted by: Imran in Interesting, School Stuff

Just a small paper for SOCY101 about the cultural implications of American Idol.

It is unfair to say that ‘American Idol’ is representative of American culture. As it may seem that an overwhelming majority of Americans are addicted to this (terrible) show, television rating show that only about 8% of the country watches it. The rest of the 92% could care less. Before we go into the cultural implications that ‘American Idol’ may carry around the world, it is important to assess just how much influence it has in this country; after all, it is American, Idol.
Though America, as a country is one, it is quite difficult to pinpoint how much real influence one, specific, show has on the country as a whole. America is divided into regions and each region observes a culture which it calls its own. Where there could be an 80%+ fanbase in New York, North Dakota may have a .6% fanbase. Because of the wide variety of sub-cultures within America, one genre of music can in no way represent the taste our 300million citizens. It is actually for this precise reason that there are so many different genres in the first place. For example, there was a contestant that did a rendition of “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” by Judas Priest; obviously Steven Tyler was super excited, being that he is the lead singer for Areosmith, but much of Idol’s younger audience has no idea who Priest is. Even with the wide range of opinions on which parts of popular culture are superior, it is definite that the idea/concept of having a popular culture is quite universal. The reason that much of the most publicized pop culture is so similar is because the underlying culture of America is making money. ‘Just Dance’ assumed that if ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is making bank, then why not change the dance style and tweak the rules and make lots of money? As phases in pop culture spread throughout America, other nations realize that they could just as easily throw in their own cultural twist and make their own money. The reason we call them ‘American Idols’ is because it’s much easier than saying ‘Possibly the Next Teen/Young Adult Pop/Rock/Hip-Hop/Country Star’.
Although the question was only pertaining to the influence of this show on American and world cultures, I feel it is important to realize that popular culture’s primary objective is to create as large a revenue stream for as few people as it can. Those few people are the CEOs of production companies. As they keep coming up with ideas, that hold no real value to improving quality of life, but give the impression of wealth and fame, people will continue to support them and in turn make them wealthier. Bottom line, Americans love money, the world loves money; constant phases of popular culture is just a vehicle to reach that money.

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