It seems to me like it's getting harder and harder to know who to pat on the back for a job well done, in the entertainment industry. You can hear a song, or see a movie, or watch a TV show, and even thought you see or hear a name, taking credit for it, do you know who really produced what you are enjoying?
I'm currently burning all of my CDs to my MP3 player. I have a lot of CDs, so it's taking a long time, but one thing I have noticed is that the software informs me of the composer of every song. It's interesting to see the bands that write their own songs and the ones that don't. Now, unfortunatly, I don't own any Britney Spears CDs, so I had to google who writes her songs. I knew it wasn't her, but just wanted to make sure before I slam her for not writing anything she sings. So when it comes to Britney, or any artist that has nothing to do with the music they perform, how can the songs be called Britney Spears songs? Someone wrote the lyrics, someone put them to a beat, someone edited and mixed it to sound good, and someone sang the words. Who did most of the work? Who put in most of the effort? Most popular Britney songs are written by one guy. If he simply got someone else to sing the words (someone that could sing better would be nice) Britney would be nobody. So the songs would manage without Britney, but not visa versa, and yet they are Britney songs? On the other end of the scale you have artists that are 100% in control of what they make. Take Mattew Good. On his Avalanche CD, he wrote the lyrics for every song, he played guitar, piano, keyboards, and percussion on every song, he sang every song and even though the strings were played by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, they were written and arranged by Matt Good. Oviously he had some help on the CD. I'm sure it was edited and mixed by other people, but Matt was probably there to guide them where he wanted to go with it. So when you hear a Matt Good song, you know it was his creation. It's something he made, from start to finish.
Movies and TV shows are even more of a grey area. If you watch a Spike Lee movie, or and producers movie, how much of the movie is theirs? Sometimes you have people like Mike Myers, that write, produce, and star in their movies. Austin Powers is a Mike Myers movie, start to finish. Now a movie can be written by one person, directed by another, produced by another, and starred in by many, not to mention the countless people involved in costumes, stunts, music, location selection, casting, etc, etc. But it seems like it's usually one or two people that get credit for the movie. If the movie wins an award, everyone that made the movie what it was, doesn't get credit. What was it that made the movie great? The acting? The directing? The plot?
The point I'm trying to make is that sometimes the people that deserve credit, never seem to get it, and sometimes, produced puppets, like Britney Spears, who had nothing to do with her success, are made out to be gods. I"ve come to learn to respect and enjoy talented artists, regardless of they type of music they make. I'm not a fan of Hip Hop/Rap/R&B type music, but artists like Pharrell Williams, that write songs for other artists (including Britney Spears) as well as songs for himself to perform, show major talent, and it comes through in their performances.
You may think that the Katy Perrys and Britney Spears of the world are talentless hacks, because of "their" music. But just because they are in the same genre of music doesn't mean they are the same produced, type of person. Katy Perry writes, or at least co-writes all of her songs. Britney does not.
The next time you see a movie you enjoy, try to notice what it was you enjoyed the most. If it was the good acting, watch other movies with the same actors. If it is the producing, or directing, try watching movies with the same producers or directors. Look to see who writes the music you like. Maybe they write for other people too. I have found, when you trace back the main contributing factors, to something you like, it can lead you to find other things you will enjoy. You will find that fimiliar names have contributed to a large vierety of things.
Don't judge a book by it's cover. Just because you don't care for something doesn't make it bad, or mean that the artist has no talent, but also be aware, that the things you might enjoy most, may have nothing to do with the person performing them.
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