My little post on Leona Lewis has garnered a number of comments. Interesting. The latest is from someone who called themself "sexy mama" and I started to write a response in the comments, but it just got so long that I thought "Hey - this should just be a post. I don't post enough as it is." So thanks, sexy mama, because you've given me something to write about while I SHOULD be taking the opportunity to grab a nap. ;) This one's for you:
Hey sexy mama, thanks for your interesting comments. It's too bad you've completely put your own spin on mine, though. I'm not "threatened" by a good looking woman who can sing. Where on EARTH did you get that from? I'm a musician myself and I have many friends who are gorgeous and can sing the roof right off from over your head. A number of them could easily be in her place right now, and I'd be happy for them. So why does one person get a contract for $100 mil when there are so many out there who could have something equally as fantastic to contribute? How about record companies share the love a little? Stardom is not my goal, to be clear. This isn't a jealousy issue, it's just a cynicism with the music industry at large. And for the record (ar ar), I completely agree with you that paying people millions for sports is ridiculous. It's a different skill, yes, and there should be compensation for athletes if that's their profession of choice, but the amount of money that many of the athletes are paid is - again - ridiculous. That said, the consumer definitely helps drive that machine, you know what I'm saying? They wouldn't get paid that much if the customer wasn't providing the funds for them to get such lovely salaries. Really, the same thing goes in the music industry as well. All I was saying about Leona was that I had listened to clips of her music on amazon.ca and didn't understand the hype, or the justification for such a huge salary. For heaven's sake, she's barely out of the gates and hasn't established a brand or anything yet (and don't kid yourself, pro musicians who are signed with big labels ALL have brands). So obviously this brand is going to be formed FOR her - big bucks yes, but how happy will she be down the road?
Also, having made these comments, I have since followed the recommendation of a fellow blog buddy: I went to Leona's myspace page, where I was more impressed by what I heard. So yes, yay for Leona and her beauty and her lovely voice. But still...$100 million? I don't know. I think about artists like Jill Scott who blow me away much more than Leona Lewis has, and who don't seem to get the same amount of hype or attention, and I just think there's something seriously skewed in this industry when only the beautiful ones are rewarded because someone thinks they can sell product as well as beautiful music. And I feel sad for everyone out there who's equally as deserving of success in this field, and who have to struggle EVERY DAY to get whatever modicum of it they can, because someone at the top thinks there's only room enough for a select few "superstars". So really that post was more about "those fucking corporations" than anything else.
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