[lbo-talk] Beautiful singers....

[andie nachgeborenen]

Perhaps, W, though in the radio era looking cute
wasn't so important. Ella was a genuinely awesome
talent -- also lucky to have been picked out of a
Harlem Apollo theater amateur night performance by a
talent spotter for the Chick Webb band. (Sarah Vagaugn
was too, btw, a few years year later, by Billy
Eckstine).  But Ella had, as they say, a face for
radio, she'd never make it today in the video age,
when you have to look like Beyonce (looks and luck, no
talent). Brass balls, boundless energy, imagination,
and hard work can substitute for some of these
criteria -- Madonna is an example. She's not taht
gorgeous, not very talented as a singer, but she makes
luck and money by chutzpah, imagination, and energy.

I think that in many cases you need talent and luck
(Ella), or luck and looks but not necessarily talent
(Diana Krall), or looks and talent and luck (Sarah
Vaughan), but looks and talent won't itself buy you
much without luck, though maybe having looks and
talent _is_ a kind of luck. Still, you need a break.
Socialism won't change that, I don't think.

I don't have luck myself. Liza F has all three, and
beautiful baby besides, which si the best luck of all.

--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:


> Joanna:
> 
> Don't know what to make of this, but the greatest
> popular singers of the 
> 20 century (of the countries I know), were also
> extremely beautiful...
> 
> 
> [WS:] Is not it the other way around, they are
> popular because they are good
> looking?  Many people can perform at a decent level,
> but only a few achieve
> a celebrity status.  That status is perhaps 10%
> ability and 90% marketing
> and in the latter look and sex appeal are the main
> things that matter.
> 
> I think this is true how most institutions operate
> anyway.  There are many
> talented people, but only few make it to the top. 
> Those who do owe it
> mainly to the combination of luck, appearances and
> inside connections - but
> that is ex post facto rationalized as "exceptional
> ability."  Bollocks!
> 
> Wojtek
> 
> 
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>
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> 

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