Growing up watching Hollywood movies I heard the actors allusion to ‘Living the American Dream’. It took me some time to actually understand it. You ever wondered what the ‘American Dream’ is about?
The American Dream is a dream of success, fame and wealth achieved in the United States of America. It's thought to be achievable by "hard work, courage, and determination", or by "getting rich quick" The concept often involves moving upward in the social classes, and may involve icons such as car, house, partner and pet!
The concept of the American dream has had its share of criticsm from many writers and economists. The main criticism is that it is misleading. These critics say that, for various reasons, it simply is not possible for everyone to become prosperous through determination and hard work alone. The consequences of this belief can include the poor feeling that it is their fault that they are not successful.
Today I saw a person living the American Dream. It was Taylor Hicks, winner of American Idol Season 5.
American Idol, formally known as American Idol: The Search for a Superstar, is an American television show. It is a replica of the UK show Pop Idol, a singing talent contest to determine the best "undiscovered" young singer in the country.
The winner gets the title of ‘American Idol’ of course, a 5-album major record deal with Sony BMG, a summer concert tour and a track on the season’s compilation album. ufffff!!!
In the show, hosted by Ryan Seacrest, hopeful contestants are screened by preliminary panels to be selected for singing talent or humorous potential and human interest. Those who pass the prelims are potentially aired on the show. They then audition before the three main judges - Simon Cowell (one of the judges from Pop Idol), Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson - in selected cities across the United States.
I started watching American Idol just to hear the comments of Simon Cowell. His acerbic style of judging, hard to please personality was a major reason for this show becoming popular. Cowell's fame (or infamy) grew, fed by his deliberately insincere signature phrase, "I don't mean to be rude, but …". The best part was in one of the episodes when a contestant said, he has a “personality”, to which Simon replied “You have personality!! Dogs have personality!!”. This paragraph is a misfit in this post, but that’s how much I enjoyed it!!
Watching the show over for a few weeks, I was amazed by the kind of hard work that the contestants put into singing. And the kind of consistency required to come out tops is simply amazing amidst such competition. You falter once, you can pretty much expect to be voted out by the american audience, who vote in millions every week.
After 4 months of intense competition, Taylor Hicks, a guy from the Birmingham city of Alabama won the competition. He finished with his arms in the air, eyes closed, singing “Iam living the American Dream”…….
Yes, even I want to live such a Dream...
2 comments:
Rushing through British TV was a ..er..not so great experience. I have been admittedly a non-TV person. Never watched TV while in India, cos most of the programs are lame and the ones which interest you are re-runs. British TV (I'm talking about the basic set of 5 channels) is a slightly painful experience.
Interestingly, the trend among celebrities involved in TV/print media is to be rude. Jeremy Clarkson was a pioneer in this (i think). But his Topgear reviews are hysterically funny and do have a point. There are quite a few programs on TV with a 'rude' host. Weakest Link, Pop idol etc. Anne Robinson in the weakest link is rude for no reason, she is not even funny. It just looks desperate really. .. and Simon Cowell is in my humble opinion, a moron. He is NOT a singer. He was just a manager/ promoter for a gay boyband, Thats about it.
Sadly, I dont see his remarks as critical nor intelligent. He is just there to make good TV. People like rudeness.
yah..u r right about Cowell..people like rudeness when its bestowed on someone else..I have watched a few episodes of Clarkson, he has indeed got a good sense of humour..
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