Reality shows have killed television. they have even skewed what reality is, and who should and shouldn’t be famous.
A few years back there was a film, “The Truman Show,” that introduced a radical premise - that people had become so obsessed with the lives of normal people that a reality show dominated the attention of the entire world. At the time it was an interesting premise, but honestly, that could never happen right?
Wrong.
Today we have the most mundane activities broadcasted endlessly. Tattoo parlors, motorcycle shops, the trivial quibbling of a semi-celebrity’s family… all of these are available on one channel or another. Has-been musicians like Flavor Flav have reinjected life into their careers by looking for “love” on VH1. Even love is no longer sacred on TV. Flavor Flav should be famous for being a part of Public Enemy, not for giving oversized clocks to a group of desperate women.
Reality TV has given people the hope that they can become famous overnight, which seems like a noble idea. However, instead of doing something worthwhile, Youtube gets cluttered with sneezing pandas and people screaming into the camera for Britney Spears.
MTV has found a way to capitalize on the trend by creating quasi-reality shows like “The Hills,” and “Laguna Beach.” Great, just what we need, mediocre actors portraying the “real” problems of “real” spoiled teenagers.
Shows like “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent” are diluting what talent actually is. Sure, they may have some skill, but these people are given the easy way to break through to becoming a celebrity. Not surprisingly, most contestants on these shows immediately flame out. Great musicians and actors did not win talent shows to find success, they struggled and worked to make their dreams come true. How many reality stars can really say that?
Moving on to some real talent, here’s a review for the week…
“Third,” by Portishead
English trip-hop group Portishead’s first release in over a decade is a solid album that will probably please fans of the band. While it doesn’t set new highs for the band, it by no means falls flat. Beth Gibbons’ vocals sooth as usual, and “Third” is a dreamy listen that, while satisfying, will probably not appeal to a large audience. Overall, the album is moody and features a layer of textured sounds that will impress listeners, as usual. 4 out of 5 stars.
Seeing as how this is the first blog for The Advocate, I had better introduce myself before beginning going into this post…
First of all, my name is Ryan Dulany and I am the scene (entertainment) editor for The Advocate at Contra Costa College… what else, well, I’m a literature major, I’m on my way to attending UC Davis, and I’ve been writing on this paper for two semesters now.
While I’ve been here I’ve picked up a multitude of skills and done a number of articles relating to entertainment. It should be no surprise that I’ll be doing the same here. I’m going to try to set out doing one to two blogs a week relating to movies, music, books… pretty much anything I want to do but can’t be put in the weekly paper.
Additionally, I’ll try to put up a couple of mini-reviews of random content, some new, some old.. and, of course, you’re all welcome to comment on what I write. Agree, disagree, it’s all welcome since - at the very least - it lets me know that someone out there is reading this.
So, I suppose that’s all for now, I’ll get to work on my next post which shouldn’t be all that far off… Advocate blog number one is in the books.
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