Eshin Direct

I was watching the show American Idol last night on Star World. The whole in camera process of making a pop star was just taking off in the UK with HearSay when I left the country. And the concept has been inflicted on the rest of Europe and the Americans have swallowed this little bit of Eurotrash like it was the next Beluga caviar. Anyway, for those of you not familiar with the concept – American Idol is where anyone can go and audition for a shot at being “the next big thing”. I believe the winner gets a recording contract and enjoys celebrity status for as long as they are, well, popular.

From what I understand, in the UK, the final contestants are groomed to be popstars and then the vote is put to the judges and the public. In some cases, like the UK, this caused some controversy when the winner and the first runner-up were so popular that many suspected the producers of rigging the votes so that the self-declared gay guy didn’t win. He subsequently got a recording deal with another rival record label.

What’s interesting about American Idol is that they’ve got this guy Simon Cowell to be one of the judges. From what I believe, he’s the one that’s responsible for inflicting the Spice Girls and S Club 7 on us. So, I would say, that he knows a thing or two about making a star. But his thing in American Idol is to be the critical judge, i.e. he takes his role as being Mr. Nasty to the full. It’s amusing to watch these hopefuls being ripped apart by Mr. Cowell. Things like…

“You can’t sing. Go away.”

“You’re useless.”

“I can see you very successfully being the guy who entertains a boat full of holiday makers. But this is not for you. Go away.”

And yes, it’s all the more satisfying to see a Brit ripping little chunks of esteem from Americans. Well, he’s doing us all a favour since anything that is successful in the US is likely to be inflicted on the rest of us and packaged as culture.

I know that my boss has met with Mr. Cowell to discuss possible opportunities for one of our clients to sponsor a similiar show called Pop Princess in China. I never knew what happened with that but I believe that it didn’t go through for a number of reasons.

I don’t believe that the concept will be all that popular in parts of Asia although it was a hit for the Indian market. For the Chinese markets, I’m not that sure. Partly this is because there are already numerous talent contests that go on in camera albeit non-televised. So the uniqueness of this would be lost somewhat.

Also, if Simon Cowell, who has become somewhat of celebrity for his harshness in critique, is a judge on this panel, he’d be out of his element in the Chinese language. While I, as a foreigner, appreciate the musical talent of Chinese singers because the melody and their voice sounds nice, I am well aware that I miss nuances in tone that make these singers great.

This problem could be averted by not putting Simon Cowell on the list of judges, but I guess he’d want to have his “counterpart” that was just as harsh and nasty as he was. While Chinese people can be harsh, the culture of subtlety and distance between strangers makes a “Mr. Nasty” likely to emerge. I’m thinking back to when the “Weakest Link” was localized for the Hong Kong audience with a Dodo Cheng trying to take the mantle of the schoolmistress Anne Robinson. She just didn’t have sharp, abruptness that Anne Robinson could deliver nor were audiences initially impressed with such behaviour. In the end, Dodo Cheng had to revert to a more friendly tone with the contestents.

But would the concept of a documented rags to riches, manufactured fame be successful in a place like Hong Kong? I believe that it would do the HK entertainment industry well to do so since I firmly believe it is plagued by the personal egos of the powers that be within that industry. Too many rumours exist around many of the stars about what they have done, and will do for the price of fame. I’m not making allegations but there are some curious things that happen within the industry that makes it hard to believe that it isn’t rotten on some level.

Some examples I can think of. Anyone notice how one or two stars become the sole focus for every magazine in Hong Kong? It’s almost as if the record companies have deals with each other and the magazines (which are sometimes owned by the record company’s owners) that these one or two chosen ones will be in the spotlight for that month.

The rumours surrounded by stars like Joey Yung and Gig Leung would also indicate that stars are willing to pay any price for the sake of fame. A friend once commented to me that he wanted his girlfriend to quit the opportunity of being famous because, and not in so few words, the celebrity pool was just another dating pool for the rich.

Even the word on the street about star that was raped and who had the pictures of the crime being committed published in a now shutdown magazine was not favourable. It was rumoured that she put too many zeros on a blank cheque that someone had given her for her company that night.

A friend of mine back in the UK, who would know about these things, even told me which stars were owned by which group.

So would a HK-style American Idol be a good idea? Sure. But the current situation in Hong Kong (which runs much of the Chinese language entertainment in the region) would make it an uphill struggle. I suspect also that the situation is very much the same in Korea and in Japan too.

Tags: Random Thoughts