Dovetailing with my last article, "Taylor Swift & Friends - Millennial Entertainers Remove the Gloom", I’d like to pose this question: Why does one artist become a star and another one not? How does one artist win the hearts and minds of the public over another one? Whether it’s music, movies, art, books, business or Broadway, I believe I know the answer, and I'll write more about it in the near future.
For now, let me answer the question with three words – skill, authenticity, and resonance. I'll give you an example from one of my favorite country music groups - Sugarland. I totally connect with Jennifer Nettles (the lead singer). She's my kind of girl – I like her voice, her looks, her clothing, her lyrics, and the harmonies that she and Kristian Bush (the other half of Sugarland) have together.
On New Year’s Eve, I watched Taylor Swift count down the Top 50 fan-favorite country music videos. (Taylor, of course, did an awesome job.) Anyway, out of 50 videos, there was one that totally stood out from all the others - Sugarland’s “Already Gone”. I hadn’t seen it before, so it was a real treat.
Take a look at the Video. I think you’ll see how it captures Sugarland’s “star quality”, especially when they look into the camera starting at about the 3.40 minute mark. Awesome – they are 100% transparent – that’s what draws people to them. They are HONEST and TRUE to themselves - no gimmicks, no hype - they let us see them for who they really are. They treat us to a bit of their reality, I think.
In fact, taking it just a bit further, I think the popularity of reality shows prove that the times we live in need large doses of truth. Reality shows seem to be the antithesis to most of the "extremely boring" sitcoms – they show us real people and real life situations. This gives us a "behind the scenes" kind of experience.
You see, we really don't need sitcoms to entertain us anymore. We've learned to entertain ourselves with online experiences, such as social networking, gaming, and 2nd Life. With these things, we can now alter our own reality whenever we want to.
Somehow, I believe this all fits into my premise - that stars are those who are incredibly skillful, their artistry springs from an authentic place within themselves, and their message easily resonate with massive numbers of people. Sugarland's star is definitely rising - so check them out, and see if you don't agree with me.
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