I agree with everything Yak yakked about. And it’s true that the only reason Branch gets less coverage than Lavigne is because of Avril’s Punk Sk8er Gurl image. Well, that and the amount of advertising her record label is willing to pay for. Which brings my attention a the sad truth – the entertainment industry (and business too) is driven primarily by image.

That’s right, Sprite, image isn’t nothing. Speaking of Sprite, who’s slogan is “Image is nothing. Obey your thirst” or some garbage like that. If “Image is nothing”, why are you trying to create a hip image with a page like this, using celebrity endorsement ads? In actuality, Sprite is like any other capitalist-driven entity – it knows that image sells. Which is also most definitely true in the entertainment industry. Look at the most successful movies at the boxoffice. They’re usually blow-em up, special effects laden action movies devoid of any thought, originality, or technical merit. Yet they make the most money (usually). Why? That’s right, image. It’s the way they advertise and “entertain”. The commercials and flick itself are glitzy, fast, and explosive (usually with lots of explosions), which catches audience attention way better than some artsy sepia toned film using old greek music and running backwards and upside down at the same time would ever garner. I bet that the upside movie is better, but chances are it won’t make as much money.

Now let’s extrapolate that to the music industry. Teens and the general youth of the day crave exciting (and/or hot) faces to mentally imagine when listening to their favourite exciting (and/or hot) songs. It’s the same as the explosive action movie. Logically, the more of an outrageous, energetic attention whore you are, the more heads you’ll turn, and inevitably the more wallets you’ll empty. Look at Eminem. His personality on “screen” is totally different from his real life. He plays the role of the big bad white rapper that pisses off everyone. And it works. His controversy makes him the moneys. Should we blame him for being hypocritical? True, you could say that his image doesn’t affect his music, which is what we should be judging. And of course, image does affect popularity of the artist. In essence, you can’t really blame Eminem for being a hypocrite. He lives in a pseudo-capitalist society. He wants to make money. If you could make a million dollars right now by telling a little white lie, would you do it? Probably. Why should we treat Eminem any differently than ourselves?

Which brings me to my point (yes, apparently I have one). I’m not here to talk about whether Avril or Michelle is the cooler artist (Avril), but why Avril is more popular. She understands the sad reality of life. Society is fickle. We are easily swayed, and are proverbial sheep. *looks up at name* Unlike Branch, she realizes that the more publicity you get, the better. And a quirky and fresh personality helps. Notice how many magazine covers feature Lavigne? How many feature Branch? Thought so. In entertainment, popularity is not always proportionate to talent. Many times, it’s inversely so. Some rely on raw talent alone to get them to stardom. Fine, it’s a noble goal. BUT, there are so many “talented” people in this world, and only a finite amount of songs that can be played on the radio everyday. Unless you’re freakin’ Orpheus, you statistically stand better chances by selling your image to augment your music (career).

We should lament not how artist X is more popular than artist Y because artist X breaks windshields with her guitar, but lament the fact that society likes artist X because she breaks windshields with her guitar, and not because she’s talented. Unfortunately, to avoid this, we have to avoid mixing up music and entertainment. I’m not sure many people would want to do that.