An Obsession Over Stars: Industry and Economy Booster

In my previous posts I have written about how the music industry is affected by online music services such as iTunes, Amazon Music, and Wal-Mart's MP3 Store. This week I decided to write about the obsession that the American people have with celebrities, as it can be seen lately with Britney Spears new album, and how those obsessions translate into money not only helping the music industry but also the economy as a whole. During these hard times any money that comes into the economy is good no matter where it comes from, but can we really stand by and do nothing while these people's lives are being destroyed? Artists have an understanding when they start their careers that at some point in their careers their life will no longer belong to just themselves, it will become public domain but I tend to disagree on how much of their lives should be available to the public. Although everyone seems to be benefiting from these current events, we will have to wait and see how long before a big incident occurs and makes us think twice about the real cost about obsessing over celebrities lives.

One of the celebrities that has the biggest following has been Britney Spears (see left), and her crazy life has caused an even bigger interest in what she does every minute of her life. A report on the Daily News says that Ms. Spears has helped boost the economy by $110 million to $120 million a year, apart from her music sales. The music industry, which includes her record company, promoters, and others have raked in up to $40 million. Although law enforcement and the judicial system has benefited with the publics obsession over Ms. Spears, by paying overtime to its police officers and court officers to protect her. The general has not benefited at all, in fact they are the ones who will have to pay for all these expenditures with their taxes. This obsession over her life has caused her to go crazy and in return more money keeps getting made off her life, this trend is a vicious circle that does not stop. The fact that she has children now has not made the public back off, her own managers seem to be informing the paparazzi on where she is going to be during specific times of the day. The money being generated of course helps a lot of people but at the cost of an individual's life. This is where I have to disagree with the music industry and the way in which they use their artists.

This entire obsession over celebrities and artists has caused a change in who has power in the music industry. Hundreds and thousands of blogs have been created on the Internet, which deal with music gossip and celebrity gossip. One of the biggest and most popular is PerezHilton.com (see right), which is maintained by no other than Perez Hilton himself. His status on the blogosphere has become so big that the music industry has started to give him a lot of power in regards to upcoming artists that he thinks are worthy of getting attention by the public. This article mentions how not only does Perez Hilton write about gossip but he has also been credited for boosting an artist's sales and image profile by writing about them in his blog. The article also says, "Warner Bros. Records was in negotiations to give Perez Hilton a development deal that would make him an executive on the label", which would be a huge change that demonstrates how the music industry sees the future of doing business. Managers want their artists to be featured on such blogs to increase their presence in the media, even though that press might not always be positive. This overexposure tends to help with sales of music albums and concert tickets but this raises the question again of how far managers will go to make a dollar, without taking into consideration how their clients, the artist will be affected.

Not everyone agrees with the power that celebrity gossip blogs and their authors are receiving, and it is to no surprise that the biggest opposition are artists themselves. Artists are saying that they are not sure if they want their careers in the hands of people who making a living on writing about gossip stories. Artists also understand that if gossip writers start joining the executive boards of record labels, this trend of having their personal lives on display for the whole public will never end. Even within the artist community, there is no consensus about how they feel about gossip blogs and their creators. For example the group N.E.R.D. likes the fact that there are bloggers such as Perez Hilton because they feel like their demographics go hand in hand with each other, and that any information being posted on those blogs only helps expand their fan base size.

In an industry where money has become the main objective, unconventional ways of generating revenue will keep coming up. Without disregard to their artists and their lives, record labels will keep using them until they are of no more value to them and then the record labels will move on to the next big thing, artist, that will generate more money. This trend that has set itself as the norm cannot stay intact forever. I believe that artists will unite and demand from their managers more respect when it comes to their personal lives. Artists will stop performing nonstop and will use their demand from fans and their celebrity status as a bargaining tool in order to get better treatment from their management teams, but as long as the American people want their gossip and record labels receive their money, I see no end in sight to the maltreatment and abuse of artists by their labels and managers.