Third time I'm posting this vid
and linking to this article Damian Kulash
Wow. Do I have a thing for this song or what? No, I don't. But it's the ultimate example of the shift. The old paradigm is dead. You find the new ways.
Last night on X Factor (let me just take a moment to say Simon made 2 mistakes, not just the 1 but let this post be advice for all who didn't go through) all the singers were interviewed and about 90% of them said something like "I've wanted to be famous all my life and this is my last chance." That's a psychological issue and nothing to do with a talent show. What you should want is to be the best singer/performer you can be. I'm not sure I ever heard someone say this but if they did maybe the producers didn't consider that dramatic enough to air.
Three of the people who went through have been performing for years--Josh Krajcik and the Brewer brothers.
I've known quite a few actors and singers. It spills out of them. They'll do a couple dance steps for no reason, they'll start singing, crack you up with funny stories, they are essentially always on. Whether they have a job or even fame isn't the issue--they're going to perform anyway.
You lose X-Factor? You go sing in a bar. You create a band. You put songs on MySpace. You make a video singing on moving treadmills. You don't wait for permission or money. You do it because you love it, because this is who you are. You perform at the town carnival, at the school, at the senior citizen center, at the church.
Maybe you're poor for the rest of your life. Maybe you're never famous. But you give your ability to other people for its own sake, not for financial compensation. You find a way.
So I find these wannabes boring, shallow and self-centered people who may have an adequate voice, they may hit the big notes but they sound like everyone else. They don't know who they are and maybe they don't want to know. It's better to be a Mariah Carey knock-off than a real person.
All this applies to writing as well.
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