THE IMPACT OF MUSIC REALITY TV SHOWS

The Impact of Music Reality TV Shows within the Music Industry

Abstract

This paper summarizes the approach, empirical methodologies, and part of the results of an empirical study that was conducted in early 2004, when musical TV talent shows reached their peak popularity among young media audiences in America. Our primary research interest was in the similarities and differences that the adolescent target group of this TV format might perceive between contestants in TV talent shows and real or ordinary pop music stars. Shows in this TV format all seem to assume that adolescent TV viewers eventually appreciate successful contestants as music stars just as their favourite pop music artists. And record sales and media ubiquity of the shows' finalists rivalled that of other successful pop stars at least during a certain period. But does this really prove that talent shows actually achieve their ultimate marketing goal, which presumably consists in constructing a real pop music star! in the short course of one TV show season? Do adolescent viewers really buy the message that a music star is mainly characterised by its musical and performance talent and that a suitable TV jury can discover one talented individual among thousands in a few weeks? Or do the young viewers somehow know that these contestants may be omnipresent in all media channels, but that there still is a difference from pop musicians who have been for much longer in the music business? These questions merge with Richard Dyer's diagnosis, that "economics alone cannot explain the phenomenon of stardom." (Dyer, 1998: 12). Whether it is any kind of manipulation via the machinery of production or a uniqueness of individual abilities that evokes the adolescents' conceptions of stars - the TV format itself seems to be the crucial factor for this topic.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The initial assumption was that TV talent shows provide a new category for the evaluation of stars, inasmuch that these formats present a mixture of 'manufacture' and 'exceptionality', as Su Holmes wrote on the British "Pop Idol" (Holmes, 2004: 155). Whereas exceptionality presupposes the integration of stars in a certain social environment (peer groups), the relevance of stars seems to be indistinct due to the principle of arbitrariness that is provided in TV talent shows - the category 'manufactured' now obtains more and more social acceptance. Part of why these new music-TV stars are accepted is the implication that everyone (in the audience) could also be a star, given the necessary talent that has yet to be discovered. The implied key phrase is: "It could be you!"

Socio-musicological research so far has focussed primarily on the motivations of fandom. Fans of boygroups have been closely studied as well as visitors of jazz-, rock- and classical music concerts and even the broad scene of American Volksmusik ' (Dollase/Riisenberg/Stollenwerk, 1974, 1978, 1986; SchmYcker, 1993, Hauk, 1999, Vatterodr, 2000, Weyrauch, 1997, Grabowski, 1999). However, those studies fail to investigate how stars are cognitively perceived by their respective ...