Susan Boyle Superstar

A singer/actress friend of mine and I were discussing the Susan Boyle Phenomenon[1]. There are a lot of layers at work here. At first my friend was surprised about all the fuss over a lady with a good Broadway voice. She knows plenty of people like Susan Boyle, so what's the big deal?

The big deal, we realized, is not that a TV show found some actual talent for once, but that the talent was not beautiful. This apparently passes as some sort of revelation for people who regularly watch American Idol and Britain's Got Talent. The formula behind these shows is to select some attractive people to win, and a lot of unattractive people to laugh at. Only recently did the producers of BGT suddenly decide it was time to have a Carrie moment in their show where the unattractive people are avenged.

Susan Boyle slayed everyone not entirely by the strength of her voice. Had her voice come out of a cute twentysomething, we would not have been nearly so moved. Susan Boyle slayed the crowd with her unattractiveness and talent. Most viewers were surprised that such a voice could come in such a form, but why should they have been? Because TV and popular music have been controlling the Industry of Cool for so long we've actually forgotten that talent is independent of physical beauty.

The saddest part of this is that the greatest talents are most often the least attractive people. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was not a handsome man. Nor was Luciano Pavarotti. The single most astounding guitarist and pianist I've ever seen was a fat guy from Memphis who had psoriasis.

I realize AI and BGT are entertainment shows, and they are designed to get you emotionally involved, and that manipulation is a big part of that. Legitimate musical talent has about as much to do with these shows as McDonald's has to do with quality beef. The audience just needs to be aware of the manipulation, and I don't think they are. I think people have confused AI/BGT with a musical meritocracy where excellence is rewarded. It's not.

Let's be honest: if AI/BGT showed us nothing but excellence every week, we would stop watching. No one likes to be constantly confronted with prodigies because it's depressing after awhile. But having a show where regular folk get rewarded for having regular talent creates a mental lottery of sorts where the viewer watches the show and relates to the contestants personally, thinking, "that's not so hard; I could do that." And we feel better because we're right. We could do that. Given the luck and timing, you could win on American Idol. Given the same conditions, you could also win the lottery.

Cheers to Susan Boyle, though, for being the person selected to remind the world that talent has nothing at all to do with attractiveness. Hers is apparently the most viewed video on the web ever, which is a testament to the weight of the truth she makes manifest. Perhaps it's a sign that the entertainment world is re-awakening to the possibility that unattractive people can still rock the house.

1.) If you don't know who that is, then no one you know watches television, forwards emails or looks at YouTube. Congratulations.