Did I Completely Miss Something?

I came across an article on the Forbes website stating that Jon Bon Jovi has the most valuable celebrity-charity relationship.  Right behind him are Paul McCartney and Bono.  Are any of these three musicians a surprise?  No, that’s not why I’m posting this.  I’m perplexed by the page the precedes the article which states, “Jon Bon Jovi, Paul McCartney and Bono may be less famous than Justin Bieber, but they all donate a larger portion of their celebrity to charitable causes, according to a survey by research firm General Sentiment.”  Amazing for them all!  But I think there’s a couple of things wrong with that statement.

I’m sorry, but Bieber more famous than Jon Bon Jovi, Bono, and Paul McCartney?  OK, these days, yes, more people might know Justin Bieber’s name since he is always in the media, but when Bon Jovi, the Beatles, and U2 were at the top of their game (and these three are still doing pretty well), these guys were just as famous as Bieber is now.  In fact, they were likely more famous than Bieber.  Why are we even comparing them this way?  Paul McCartney was at his biggest with the Beatles in terms of popularity.  That happened in the 60s.  Bon Jovi was at their biggest in the 80s and 90s, so we can’t even compare the popularity of Jon and Paul (um, I mean Jon Bon Jovi, not Lennon…I hope you got that by the spelling).  It is now 2012, and while tons of girls have Justin Bieber hanging on the walls of their bedrooms and in their lockers, the same thing happened with the others in their respective decades where their bands were on fire.

You get it.  My point is that it’s quite ridiculous to call Bieber more famous than these three.  Especially when each of them has had very long lasting careers.  How long has Justin been around?  A couple of years?  We don’t know yet if he can continue riding the wave of success.

And now I’m going to defend him in the context of this article, not because I love him (I actually don’t like his music at all), but because it isn’t fair to pit him against these three seasoned professionals anyway.  The youngest here is Jon Bon Jovi who is 49, so even he’s been around the block a few times.  They’ve all learned what their fame is capable of and are well-informed adults.  They know what their influence can do.  Justin Bieber is still a kid and, while not ignorant, may not yet realize how much influence his celebrity could have.  He may not even be sure which causes he supports because he isn’t even 18 yet.  He might still be deciding what he believes morally.  Going back to the fact that these three have been doing this thing for years, they’ve been able to make connections and get things like this off the ground.

So, while I believe that when life blesses you with wealth, the decent thing to do is give back, can we cut the kid a little slack?  It’s great when actors and artists use their celebrity to help worthy causes, but he has not been around that long.  Can we give him a little time first to navigate life?

The 30 Day Song Challenge: Day 25 – A Song That Makes You Laugh

I could have chosen any Adam Sandler song parody or anything by the Lonely Island.  But, I decided to go with this song off of Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album.  In this particular song, a young man named John Bongiovi was left uncredited.  This was the first professional recording of front man to the rock band Bon Jovi.  Yes.  He is singing to a droid.

The Future of Stardom?

About two years ago, I read an article that claimed stars were gone. We will never again have the musicians of yesterday when the Beatles was a religion and everyone wanted to be a Rolling Stone. Fast forward to 2009. Who do we have who has that star status? Who outshines everyone else? Who will be remembered by the world in fifty years for their accomplishments?

The writer of this article was not the first person to make this case. I still cannot remember who wrote this particular article, but I think Jon Bon Jovi made the point fairly clear when he wrote “Last Man Standing.” Jon said there were four gods: John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan. Of these artists, Dylan is the last man standing. Even so, does anyone today think about Dylan much? He has fans, but I don’t think he’s picking up many new ones. Still, I doubt many people will find a new artist and call them the next “Bob Dylan” or “John Lennon” (and the people who have done this understand the power of that comparison).

What I do remember about the article was that it mentioned we don’t share music anymore. Not the way we used to share it, anyway. It has become impersonal. The writer mentions how friends would listen to the radio together as a pasttime. Now we put in the earbuds to our iPods and other MP3 players and block out the social context. Music is clearly more accessible with the age of the internet. Transferring files is easy, amounting the sharing of music to a few clicks of the mouse. We don’t engage in a social interaction with music as much as in the past. Concerts are probably the one way we are guaranteed to enjoy an artist in a social setting.

I think this is a sad thing. Whenever I visit friends, we often have music playing in the background, and I frequently bring new artists or albums for them to hear. It gives us something to talk about and spreads the word of the artist. I don’t think this is a major concern yet, but if we stopped talking to each other about music altogether, I can see the artists losing. We wouldn’t be spreading the word.

So, is the heart of the drop in this “star status” the result of a loss of a social context? Either this is the case, or we’ve become more sensible about how we view celebrities. Given the two scenarios, I’m guessing this is the case.