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The Ugly and Unsung

Posted 28-Apr-2009 by Robby Slaughter (@robbyslaughter)

Earlier this month, an unemployed 47-year old woman became an instant worldwide celebrity. Her single act was neither famously kind-hearted nor infamously violent. Instead, she waddled up to a microphone on a British television show, made a few sarcastic remarks and then belted out a showtune. Susan Boyle “dreamed a dream.”

First things First

Before we discuss the sociocultural importance of the frumpy phenom, go and watch that video. Pay attention to the stagecraft of Britian’s Got Talent, the polished forehead of Piers Morgan, the plasticine motions of Amanda Holden and the practiced disdain of Simon Cowell. Under the weight of the human drama, the judges break character. Boyle’s performance is surreal, and yet, inescapably revealing.

When ideas resonate with the core of our humanity, they ripple across society faster than puppies in an unattended butcher shop. That YouTube video has already surpassed 100 million views. Major media outlets from the Washington Post to the Dallas Morning News are commenting on the disheveled diva. Thesis made: Susan Boyle is on our minds.

Work Hard, Get Shafted

Here’s my armchair theory about the story arc of the crooner-with-curlers. Boyle’s television spot allows us all to forget life’s most difficult lesson: the world is not a meritocracy. People with talent, drive and ambition sometimes end up achieving their dreams, but usually fumble in obscurity while well-connected hacks effortlessly slip ahead. For every big-nosed, amazingly competent Barbara Streisand there is a dark-skinned, sexy Mariah Carey who could not carry a tune with the help of a courier service. Brilliance is good, but luck is better.

For about seven minutes and thirty-five seconds, contestant #4331 seems to flaunt the logic of that old line about how “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” At your office, vapid bombshells and half-wit in-laws might have been hired into management based on bogus criteria, but on this reality television show the ugly duckling is seen as a swan. Subconsciously, we are all Susan Boyle: mostly unattractive, unlucky, underemployed and overlooked. We’ve got talent. Send us to our stage.

Ramifications

Manufactured celebrity culture has a new pattern for heroes. Captain Chelsea “Sully” Sullenberg was a regular, everyday guy thrust into fame by a combination of luck mixed with exactly the level of skill afforded by his education. Captain Richard Phillips of the MV Maersk Alabama survived a band of Somali pirates by doing what he “was trained to do” and is now being called out to the talk show circuit. Susan Boyle makes for a third no-name, as non-famous as nearly everybody until luck allowed her to perform onstage the way she had a thousand times before in the shower, for charity functions and at private lessons. Sully, Phillips and Boyle are all supremely competent people. None are exceptional in their respective fields, except with regard to luck.

Between free market capitalism, widespread democracy and the equalizing power of the Internet, we are likely to see more randoms achieve greater overnight success than ever before. Indeed, the all-time most viewed clips on YouTube are a freakish mix of pop star music videos and amateur home movies. Watching the leaderboard is like witnessing time-lapsed photography of erosion. The old way of media is crumbling away. YouTube captures it in a slogan: Broadcast Yourself.

Further Reading:

• Daily Beast on The Beauty of Susan Boyle
• HuffPo on Stopping Susan Boyle
• Blogger Aaron Kim on Meritocracy

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