Popular culture favors youth. Celebrity favors youth. Many of today's icons of the Boomer generation achieved fame before turning 25, certainly by 35.
But unlike older generations, where many youth icons faded from superstardom after age 45, Boomer icons persist today, filling stadiums (Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Gene Simmons, and Bonnie Rait) and winning starring roles in movies (Richard Gere, Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, and Sigourney Weaver, to name a few).
The Boomer generation's cultural hegemony is maintaining and even expanding veteran celebrity status for those well past 45, including all the aforementioned artists who all turn 63 this year.
In Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers (Paramount Market Publishing, 2005), I raised another possibility for the future of fame, if but a wish: that this nation would be capable of recognizing and elevating artists who do not achieve first acclaim until after the age of 45.
I proposed this possibility as another hopeful indication that Boomer dominance over popular culture will not fade as some critics predict; rather, the generation would continue to influence paradigm shifts about aging and celebrity appeal with more contemporary revelations. Undiscovered artists might step onto the international stage for the first time but later in life. These talented individuals would rise above ageism, looks-ism and longstanding social barriers to attaining acclaim after reaching a certain age.
After watching the ascension and victory of young Phillip Phillips on American Idol last Wednesday night -- the 21-year-old pawnshop employee from Georgia with a scraggly vocal style -- I pushed away from the eleventh Fox Network talent competition wondering what's missing in the annual line-up of would-be musical superstars. The finale program that catapulted Mr. Phillips to superstardom did not demonstrate any bashfulness about paying homage to previously discovered post-55 talent, including Credence Clearwater Revival's John Fogerty, Neil Diamond, Steven Tyler and Aerosmith and veteran country star Reba McEntire.
So what's the issue? As typical, all of this year's finalists were comfortably south of age 30. American Idol has failed to find and showcase new talent over age 45. The vast Idol audience seems to love a narrative of the sensitive-pawnshop-clerk-who-has-only-played-guitar-for-several-years storyline. But what about another gripping plotline? How about the seasoned music veteran who has played for 30 or 40 years, never achieving celebrity, but then Idol discovers this fresh talent, catapulting the veteran musician from obscurity to renown?
In April 2009, an understated woman opened her mouth and sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical Les Misérables with nearly perfect pitch and clarity. The judges and television studio audience became flabbergasted, struggling to find congruency between what their eyes were witnessing and their ears were hearing.
Susan Boyle, then age 48, a church volunteer from lackluster Blackburn, Scotland, became an instant celebrity. YouTube videos of her unexpected performance on Britain's Got Talent, the UK version of American Idol, have received over 38 million views. According to Visible Measures, a company that computes viewings of Internet videos, her catalog of on-online clips was watched over 310 million times during 2009.
Following Talent, her shrink-wrapped CD, "I Dreamed a Dream," sold 701,000 copies in the United States during the first week; became the fastest-selling debut album in British history; and soared to the number one sales position in Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia. Her debut album became the second-biggest selling album of 2009 in the U.S., with 3.1 million copies sold.
Equally thought-provoking is the manner in which fans purchased Boyle's album. Ninety-four percent of the sales were CDs, not digital downloads, which is counter to the prevailing trend where only 77 percent of music sales today are CDs. That means immense profits for the music publishing industry--sales levels not easily realized through downloading.
Older artists can achieve extraordinary dreams if given a chance. Western society has traditionally erected nearly insurmountable barriers before those who sought fame for the first time after the age of 45. Susan Boyle shattered those barriers. Now "American Idol" needs to grasp the potentiality and profitability of later-life talent, not on faith but because of monetary evidence.
When the culture of fame finally admits older newcomers -- those who have not spent months or even four years preparing for greatness but rather have practiced their art and nurtured their dreams for decades, as did Susan Boyle -- we can finally witness and celebrate the complete realization of human potential, unimpeded by race, culture, sex, prior socioeconomic status -- and most assuredly, age.
Follow Brent Green on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BoomerMarketing
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except for an improvement in the "smoke and mirror's" department, this show ranks about the same as Ted Mac's Original!
The GONG show! Now, THAT was entertainment!
I'm gonna go way out on a limb, here, and make a suggestion!
CHANGE THE CHANNEL and watch something worth discussing. (OK. Nothing comes to mind!)
In the meantime,someone should start a threat to discuss just what WOULD be worth discussing!
You missed a significant point. This post is somewhat about "American Idol" but more about how we perceive and react to aging as a society. It is here for Huff Post readers who wish to think critically about ageism and the extent to which chronological age is a “class characteristic” justifying arbitrary discrimination and marginalization. Perhaps some will transform this “collective mentality” into action by writing articles, letters or comments.
Why don't you write a blog post of universal value, see if Huff / Post 50 will publish it on its merits, and then get ready to receive accolades for your originality and perceptiveness? We're waiting...
I'm 61, a college graduate and a retired musician with hair to my waste.Rest assured, I know first hand how society acts.They act poorly to ANYTHING that they don't understand or happen to agree with.
"Discussing" this topic is all well and fine from the comfort and safety of your homes, but how many people here actually DO something to try to make a change?
You talk "Revolution!"
In the 60's and into the 70's, I marched on Washington, I demonstrated at the Nation Democratic Convention in '68 in Chicago. I was just a few blocks away when the shots rang out at Kent State. Peaceful demonstrations for a peaceful world.
Societies reaction?
I got bully-clubbed, teargassed, handcuffed, thrown in jail and treated less than human.. all because we just wanted PEACE!
But,perhaps my reply wasn't in the best interest of this post. I simply picked the wrong threat to try to add a little comic relief to. It wasn't my intention to disrespect anyone else's views.
My reply was just MY opinion and weather you agree with it or not, your reply is just YOUR opinion and doesn't make you right or wrong,
But your intentions are well taken and any future replies here by me will be ones of substance and merit!
And, keep in mind : "revolution" CAN be a peaceful process.
Diamond's career is solid and secure, but how many post-50 undiscovered musicians can claim anything close to this kind of performance security for the future? How many have any prospects whatsoever of being "discovered" at this late stage?
That, again, is the point of taking this show's lack of contestant age diversity quite seriously -- because it is a visible demonstration of institutionalized ageism.
Given your age, perhaps you recall when post-modern feminism started becoming an overpowering social movement. Some scholars insist this happened when feminists protested the Miss America Pageant on September 7, 1968. Using street theater tactics, such as their "freedom trash can" and crowning a sheep, merely 400 protestors changed the course of history for women's rights. And not a shot was fired.
Now just imagine if 400 talented Boomer musicians staged a visible and ironically clever protest of the inaugural show for the 12th season of "American Idol."
So, now, I apply that concept to this issue.
Indeed, becoming known at our age is as rare as it was in our parents' era when 50 years ago a then middle-aged unknown by the name of Phyllis Diller shot to stardom. But our biggest celebrities are maintaining a level of fame and popularity unheard of in prior generations, because they believe in themselves so thoroughly,
That as a generation we are more vibrant, better educated, and more forward-thinking in mid-age than any generation before us yet our talents and skills remain un/underappreciated, is as much of our own doing than any young whippersnapper. We buy into the silly "youth culture" as ardently as do the young. Until we recognize our own worth, no one else will.