So I was browsing through images of Katy Perry earlier today on google and it hit me, “how exactly did she get famous and where did she come from?”. Because a year or so ago I would not have had the slightest clue who she was and I doubt many others would too. Yet today she’s famous and almost everyone can recognize her.
Which got me to thinking, where the hell do all these popstars come from? It’s like one minute there nobodies and then the next they are force fed down our throats until we love them. I don’t think it’s talent or hard work because a lot of times it seems like their first albums are major hits. I bet it’s major record companies hand picking someone, several talented people putting together their songs for them, and a whole lot of promotion and marketing?
Am I right? Would someone with a little more insight mind shedding some light on the topic?
Where do any celebrities come from? There is a business centered around scouting for somebody who can be cleaned up a little and put in front of a camera/microphone for a few years, profitably. That Thing You Do wasn’t a documentary, but it kind of rings true.
We like to pretend that the Beatles got by on merit alone, but before Brian Epstein got hold of them, they kinda sucked. There’s a combination of luck, talent and ambition at work here. And it’s not like Katy Perry is ugly or untalented; singing just isn’t her primary skill and she’s good enough at it.
Justin Bieber is a perfect example of an ordinary kid with average talent becoming the victim of an excessive marketing push to try and make him the biggest teen sensation in history.
It’s all spin designed to make the audience believe these nobodies ought to be where they have artificially been placed.
Katy Perry came up through the ranks “honestly,” similar to Jewel or Alanis Morisette. Instead of yodelling and folk music, Perry happens to write pop songs. Her music is her own, not produced by committee. Her first major hit “I Kissed A Girl” was released in the spring of 2008, so I’m guessing most people have been aware of her for going on 3 years now.
Your point stands, though, since most of the teen pop stars were produced by committee; for example, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera (and Justin Timberlake) were created by the Disney machine. You just happened to pick a bad example. Perry wrote her debut album independently and then shopped it around until she found a label, and has continued writing her own stuff. Her ability to churn out megahits is quite impressive, IMO.
Britney, Christina and Justin all started on the Mickey Mouse Club as kids but their careers as teen pop stars had nothing to do with Disney.
There is no blanket statement we can apply to all pop stars as being manufactured and untalented - even Justin Bieber plays something like three instruments and has a hand in writing many of his own songs. As all genres become more concerned with “credibility” I think you’ll find a lot of artists singing pop music are having a hand in writing their own songs and sometimes dabbling in production as well.
This is especially odd - how could your first album being a hit mean you haven’t worked hard or are untalented? That doesn’t make much sense, there could have been years and years of work to get to that first album.
If you are signed to a major label like Capitol, as Perry is, you have the support of a major label behind you. It’s a lot easier than doing it by yourself. Nothing against Perry, she is reasonably talented, but musicians seldom succeed without a lot of corporate help.
As far as the teenyboppers, they also spent a lot of time as children honing their skills, such as it is.
I’d actually go the exact opposite tack. I think most teenybopper celebrities are genuine and the actual “manufactured” star is a pretty rare occurrence.
I remember I was posting on another board just before Avril Lavigne hit it big and a Canadian member posted this huge thread trying to convince us she was something special and was going to be huge. We all humored him and said “sure she is.” But a few months later he had the last life when “Skate Boi” made her a teenage household name.
Is it possible the record companies planted this long time member for years just to have him talk up Avril Lavigne in one thread? Probably not.
She did, and released an album a few years ago as “Katy Hudson”. She changed her name presumably to avoid confusion with Kate Hudson, and probably to distance herself from her previous incarnation.
Just flicking through this thread as I ask myself much the same question.
Not that I’m an old fogey or anything but my celebrity radar is pretty well broken.
I do know who Katy Perry is (I saw her on Later…with Jools Holland) but until this thread I have never heard the name Justin Bieber.
I’m presuming he is a singer but I can’t say I’ve heard anything from him. I’ve just googled and spotify’ed him and I see he is famous but he slipped under my radar totally.
However, this being the 21st century I’m very picky about what I listen to. I don’t hear general chart radio at all. I mainly use internet radio and streaming. I don’t read celebrity mags or watch similar programs at all so I’m not sure when someone like him would ever register with me.
I suspect many people are like me.
I believe Ellis Dee’s point, though, is that Perry worked like a dog to get that record contract by writing, performing, and touring crap venues to earn Capitol’s attention. It did happen very fast - she is just 26 now - but she worked on a music career more or less non-stop from her late teens, and had to record some albums that went nowhere and get fired by one major label before finally hitting it big with another. So the answer to the OP in the case of Katy Perry is that she worked her ass off.
This is as distinct from a Justin Bieber, who was essentially hired to fill a role after a modest little childhood career. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; hey, if he can make big bux, more power to him.
By contrast, Britney Spears was almost entirely manufactured. The idea of her putting a band together to play the songs she wrote herself and then going on tour to try and land a record deal is laughable. She got the deal from her Disney resume and was handed big hits to perform. All she ever did was practice her dance moves; it’s not like she actually sings live performances.
I’m not Justin Bieber fan or anything, but the kid made a huge name for himself on Youtube long before he was signed to anything. He had this enormous, cult following of teenage girls, earned entirely on his own. . . and it was about that time that Usher and Justin Timberlake started a bidding war over the kid. Sure, he’s got the whole PR machine now, but he deserves some credit for his success.
My college roommate’s brother had a hit song 20 years ago. He was a DJ in a club in NYC and he played a song he recorded. A producer who worked for Madonna heard the song and got him a record deal which led to his hit. His career was pretty short, I don’t think he had another hit after that.
