Dehumanizing Entertainment
By Dyske April 12th, 2010
This video of Taiwanese singer, Lin Yu-chun, seems to be going viral on the Internet now, some calling him “The next Susan Boyle“. If this is the sort of attention these singers want, then I’m happy for them, but I’m not sure whether they are aware that much of their attention comes from people seeing them as essentially freak shows. For the average audience, it’s strange or even freakish to see this type of voice come out of people who look the way they do. It’s the unusual discrepancy that they are responding to, much like seeing a woman with ape-like body hair. In the case of Lin Yu-chun, being Asian adds to this freak show quality (at least from the Western point of view).
In Japan, there are opposite examples. For instance, Jero is a black Enka singer. Enka is a traditional form of singing in Japan. He is apparently quite popular in Japan. I’m sure he is good and deserves some attention, but I’m pretty sure most of the attention comes from the freak-show aspect of his situation. It’s the color of his skin, more than his talent. It’s basically reverse racism.
Although we commonly say “There is no such thing as bad publicity”, there are consequences to getting too much attention for the wrong reasons. These people are essentially being exploited for cheap, disposable entertainment for 15 minutes. It feels rather dehumanizing to see this type of phenomenon.
Paul Baughman says:
April 12th, 2010 at 2:19 pmThe novelty isn’t so much his race so much as his sex and being able to sing in the same key as Whitney does. He is very good – lots of emotion. I have a lot of respect also for people who sing well in a language other than their native one and do it as well as this guy does.
Lin Yu Chun is exploiting him-self if anything. He is the one pursuing a musical career. I think he is now succeeding. Why begrudge him that?
To say he is “being exploited”, sounds like you feel Lin Yu Chun isn’t getting anything out of the deal. He entered a talent show. This was his second attempt. He is actively seeking attention. No one is taking advantage of him more than he, exploiting his novel situation and abilities.
In my area there’s a kid who at a young age learned to play guitar fairly well and started playing with the adults around town. He quickly became a favorite performer because of his age. His playing isn’t any more remarkable than the hundreds of others around town, but he gets the attention.
If I were his age and played that well, I wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of the circumstances.
S. Onosson says:
April 12th, 2010 at 2:27 pmStrange, perhaps… freakish is a bit extreme, I think. In any event, the novelty will wear off quickly if there isn’t any real talent behind it.
To take a less extreme example, consider the Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara (youtube her name if you haven’t heard of her). She’s one of the most talented pianists that I’ve seen come on the scene recently (she just turned 30) – and certainly gains a little notoriety for both being female and Japanese, which are both *relatively* unusual traits in the field of jazz piano. But, without her talent, those characteristics would not be enough to gain more than a little attention.
So, yes, race plays a factor in this and your examples, as well. But I don’t think it’s a very large factor – not enough to make a career out of, certainly.
Dyske says:
April 12th, 2010 at 4:39 pmIt’s true; Li Yu-chun and Susan Boyle are both adults, so ultimately they are responsible for the consequences of their own actions. In that sense, they too are exploiting their own situations. But there is also exploitation on the side of the producers too. These reality TV shows are hardly “reality”; they know what they are doing. I happen to know a lot of people who work on the other side of the camera. So, let’s just say, it’s mutual exploitation.
Paul brings up a good example: How about child talents? This is where it gets tricky. We have to remember that there is money in this for a lot of people, not just for the talents. When dealing with minors, the people around the talents have far greater power to manipulate and exploit the situation, and child actors often turn out disastrous later in life. Just because the kid says, “Yes, I want to exploit my age and talent,” it doesn’t mean that all is Kosher for the adults around him to exploit that situation to make money for themselves. But many people do; and when the kids grow up to be drug addicts, they are no longer there to help.
But my main point wasn’t so much about exploitation. As I said, if these people are happy with the attention they are getting, I’m happy for them. I just think it’s dehumanizing. The same goes for strip dancers. They are all adult women too, and they are getting paid also. So, ultimately it’s their own choice, but it’s still dehumanizing to watch. The reason why I wanted to write about it is because I do not think this dehumanizing aspect is obvious to a lot of people. It’s a deceptive situation. It’s essentially a glorified freak show or strip dancing where they (both the talents and the producers) are exploiting the unusual combination of talent and their looks. Beyond their amusing looks and talents, the producers nor the audience care what happens to them as human beings. But that is what entertainment is. We get what we want out of it, and beyond it, it has no use.
Dyske says:
April 12th, 2010 at 5:21 pm@S. Onosson
“In any event, the novelty will wear off quickly if there isn’t any real talent behind it.”
This actually assumes that the world of entertainment is a true meritocracy. I’m not sure if “real talent” has much to do with it. There are many signers who continue to be popular not because of their talent but because of how they look. If it were truly about talent, among the top 100 singers, there would be only a few people who are good looking and the rest would be average, over-weight, or even ugly.
Jazz actually does not really apply here because it goes beyond “entertainment”. As I wrote in my essay about Jazz, most people can’t even appreciate it because it’s instrumental. Jazz is far more meritocratic than Pop/Rock.
Dyske says:
April 12th, 2010 at 5:39 pmI guess the obvious question here is: What is the difference between “entertainment” and “art”? There are many differences but the main difference is that entertainment is one-way whereas art is two-way. Entertainment is served on a silver platter for us to enjoy on a couch without using our brains. The idea here is that we don’t need to work at all. We just kick back and passively consume. That’s what we do when we watch a naked girl on stage.
“Art” is an entirely different experience. We cannot be passive and expect someone to feed us what we want. We have to actively work on understanding more, and bettering ourselves. The audience must get actively involved in the process to appreciate it. It may involve training our ears, reading more about it, thinking deeply about it, questioning our own assumptions, evaluating our own perceptions, etc.. So, it’s a two-way communication where the audience meets the artists half way.
It’s like the difference between a business relationship and a true friendship (or marriage). In the former, the business owner panders to every need of the customer. In the latter, both have to treat each other with respect and make the same amount of effort to understand one another.
S. Onosson says:
April 13th, 2010 at 12:53 pm@ Dyske: Not sure I agree entirely. It is true that aspects other than talent have a great bearing on success in entertainment (I’ve been in the music business for 20+ years, so I know what you’re talking about). However, I don’t think “strangeness” leads to lasting success in most cases – beauty, certainly, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.
Dyske says:
April 13th, 2010 at 1:30 pm@S. Onosson
Sorry for the confusion. Yes, I agree. “strangeness” certainly would not help. In fact, it will work against them in the long run.
Mark says:
April 14th, 2010 at 11:42 pmYou must not listen to much classical music or opera? Actually I believe the absolute reverse. Since when do you need to look like a supermodel to have a good voice or be talented musically or otherwise? I tend to be quite skeptical of singers who look like supermodels because they usually don’t have any real musical talent and instead are idolized for other more shallow reasons.
Dyske says:
April 15th, 2010 at 5:35 am@Mark,
I guess my original post was confusing, but “the average audience” does not listen to classical music or opera. Those are genres that I consider as “art”, not “entertainment”. So, you do not believe the absolute reverse; you in fact believe the same thing I do.
If the average audience was used to watching opera singers, they wouldn’t be impressed or amused by Lin Yu-chun singing Whitney Houston, so he wouldn’t get this kind of attention on the Internet. So again, the reason why he is getting all this attention is not coming from pure meritocracy. It’s the discrepancy between his looks and his talent.
Dyske says:
April 15th, 2010 at 6:38 am@Mark,
Here is a case in point. This is a video of a Chinese opera singer with the highest “views” that I can find, which is 23,398. In comparison, the video in my post of Lin Yu-chun got over 5 million views. Why? Clearly, it’s not because these 5 million people know how to evaluate musical talent based on merits. So, what exactly is drawing 5 million eyeballs to this video? That is the question that I’m asking.
Paul Baughman says:
April 15th, 2010 at 10:26 amThe novelty of his unique looks, his voice, singing soprano and singing in perfect English – that’s what gets him the attention.
Do you think Lin Yu-Chun feels dehumanized, or do you feel dehumanized?
Dyske says:
April 15th, 2010 at 10:54 amYes, there are many amusing contrasts between him and Whitney Houston: race, gender, vocal range, looks, body weight, language, culture, etc.. None of these have anything to do with what constitute musical merits. You could personally admire a non-native speaker being able to sing perfectly in English, but that does not make him a better singer. English is my second language and people often tell me that they admire my ability to write in English, but if I were in a writing competition, I wouldn’t want the judges to know that English is my second language. That should have nothing to do with it. I wouldn’t want to win a competition that just pretends to be meritocratic. In fact, I wouldn’t bother entering in such a competition.
I do not feel dehumanized myself watching Lin Yu-chun. I’m just describing it as a dehumanizing situation. When I watch a naked girl dance on stage in front of a bunch of drunken men, I do not personally feel dehumanized. The situation itself is what is dehumanizing.
Frank Luo says:
April 15th, 2010 at 8:49 pmDoes anyone remember William Hung?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqmy5qrvaVQ
This guy actually ended up getting a record deal. Problem was, he failed to recognize that it was how bad he was — the freakshow factor — that drew people to him. So once he started to get a few gigs and get some money in, he started to take voice lessons etc., and improved substantially. By improving substantially, he moved from being unbelievably bad, where he was so bad people were drawn to his shows in the same weird way people are drawn to train wrecks, to just plain bad. Predictably, his first record deal proved to be his last.
The other things that might pique your curiosity are the callouts inserted into the video and the comments people left. I’m not really sure what to say about those and the people that made them.
Thiago Biquiba says:
April 18th, 2010 at 11:50 pm“The other things that might pique your curiosity are the callouts inserted into the video and the comments people left.” – Great idea! I took a look at it, and now I agree even more with Dyske. I can’t copy and paste some comments here, because the commentators have a pretty much strong language.
“When I watch a naked girl dance on stage in front of a bunch of drunken men, I do not personally feel dehumanized. The situation itself is what is dehumanizing.” – Great XD But I have to say that I personally feel dehumanized when I see the Lin Yu-chun’s and the striper’s situations.
Christopher Carr says:
April 19th, 2010 at 9:55 amThis is also pretty apparent in Eminem. I think it was Seamus Heaney or Reynolds Price who said “Eminem is the greatest living poet.” during the height of his popularity, but anyone who regularly listened to hip hop at that time knew Eminem was an exhibitionist and pretty second-rate at that; look at De La Soul, KRS-One, and even the Beastie Boys for examples of rappers better than Eminem. I think the mainstream, non-hip hop aficionado public just drew on to the fact that he was that good despite being white, just as Jero is that good despite being American, and Lin Yu Chun is that good despite being Taiwanese.
Thiago Biquiba says:
April 19th, 2010 at 11:43 pm“just as Jero is that good despite being American” – Christopher, do you heard about the English J-pop singer Bentley Jones? Maybe, the same thing happened to Jero and Bentley. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley_Jones
Ray says:
June 1st, 2010 at 3:08 pmIt’s not to my taste, but near as I can tell that dude is good! Freakshow or not, it doesn’t matter. If he can sing like that and people want to hear him, great! I wouldn’t buy tickets to watch him, but then again I wouldn’t for the original singer either.
Ray says:
June 1st, 2010 at 3:28 pmIt’s not to my taste, but near as I can tell that dude is good! Freakshow or not, it doesn’t matter. If he can sing like that and people want to hear him, great! I wouldn’t buy tickets to watch him, but then again I wouldn’t for the original singer either. What does it matter if it’s a he or a she, Asian or Caucasian, I mean If you close your eyes you can’t tell- The fella isn’t half bad for this song. To even suggest him as a freakshow is ridiculous. It’s just narrow sighted and outright ridiculous if he’s got the voice for it and wants to sing in that upper range fine, he could be whit and do that, or black. If Michael Jackson had done this song likely nobody wuld have batted an eye, other than it being out of character for him.
Music’s music and anybody who wants to do it can, those who are good at it can be sucessful with it… pretty much no matter their style. Somebody will take to it- especially in this day and age where somebody can post anything on the internet and people will eventually stumble onto it. So yes it is ridiculous to try to say this fella is a freakshow- just because he’s a he and isn’t a bass. So to reduce it to who’s doing it is dehumanizing, to not acknowledge that he’s good at it is dehumanizing, so in short- my opinion not a freakshow and undoubtably this is dehumanizing. This is a fine example of a fella who’s got an unorthodox talent and ought to be recognized as less of a “freak” and more as an artist.
Paul Baughman says:
June 14th, 2010 at 1:29 pmDo you feel this is dehumanizing entertainment?
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=10473936&id=212641675376#!/photo.php?pid=9571124&id=212641675376&fbid=334552875376
Glo says:
July 1st, 2010 at 1:14 pmWell, I would agree that this ‘freak show’ aspect of the singer is what makes him so popular (if he was black, or a woman, or Dolly Parton no one would blink an eye really).
But to call this ‘reverse racism’ is a little funny… because its really just plain old fashioned ‘racism’.
In fact, the term ‘reverse racism’ is in itself a racist term because the ‘ common’ definition of it is “when someone who is not-white is a racist, or racist to white people”. Therefore the person’s skin color is the sole factor is whether it is ‘reverse’… the dictionary is pretty clear that this in itself qualifies as racism.
Lana says:
August 4th, 2010 at 11:51 amI completely agree with this actually. I myself am most probably – infact certainly – guilty of what you have stated as being ‘reverse-racism’. I have a great interest in Japanese music, culture and have even started learning the language. But like many shallow youths (yes I am one of those) I haven’t ever really taken much interest in enka or traditional Japanese music.
However, because my father is black, when I found out about Jero, I instantly took an interest in him and his music. Had I heard it without knowing who he was or his ethnicity, I most probably would have discarded his music and never listened to it again. I suppose I associated myself with him as I felt he was similar to me.
Now, when I went to Japan as part of a group, as the only minority within that group, I was very worried. Scared even. The questions people asked me were really quite, ignorant in a way. I got questions like ‘do you play basketball’ and ‘where is your afro’ and other things like that. I didn’t get as many looks and ‘uwaaa’s as my blonde friend – whom they seemed to have an obsession with – but plenty of people (especially the older generation) gave me some rather strange looks and were incredibly shocked to see that I – me of all people – could hold a conversation in Japanese. They were even more shocked to see that as the only ‘black’ member of the group, my conversational skills in Japanese were the best.
Funny thing is. I was brought up by my middle eastern mother. My name is middle eastern. My first language was Kurdish and I see myself as completely middle eastern. But I didn’t bother confusing the people of Japan.