Do People Overrate New Artists Too Quickly?

[SavageTaker]

Pretty simple thread here. Do people overrate new artists too quickly?

I’d have to say yes. I’ll give an example. When Lady Gaga first started becoming famous, I had friends that were talking about her as if she was the greatest artist ever. I had never really listened to any of her songs until my friends told me about her. So I listened to some stuff and I thought she okay…nothing new or special. However, they kept talking about her and they’d even go as far as to calling them “The next [insert famous, great artists name here].” Eventually I thought that she was overrated because of the way people talked about her.

Instead, I think people should let new artists show us what they can do before they start calling them the next great thing in whatever genre that artist is in. Let them gain some exposure and then judge them and start making the comparisons. Don’t just listen to one song and think the artists is amazing because of ONE song.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Dagger Dias]

People always want to see "the next big thing" in every genre. I think that many people do overrate new musicians or new songs is because they want to see them do well and become "the next big thing". They look for former hits that they resemble and then call the new song/artist they like the next (insert former song/artist here) to help boost the popularity.

It's a lot like how many of us quickly get behind new wrestlers we like, we want to see that person succeed so we look for former champions that they resemble. How many times have we seen threads on here about how (insert name of rookie here) is the next (insert the name of legend here)? We see that ALL the time.

It's no different in music or any other media than it is with wrestling. People just want what they like to succeed in becoming more popular. It's a simple, yet VERY interesting thing when you think about it.

 

[Blue Chipper]

People are too apt to prematurely praise a said artist. I like your example, because it's true. She was worshiped at an abrupt stage in her career, and the same can be said about countless others. The reasoning behind this, in my mind at least, is because they want something new, and they like proclaiming how "good" they are. They like to express to everyone how good this young star is. They want everyone to acknowledge this young persons talents. Additionally, I think if the star did become great, the people would love to say "I knew so and so had potential".

Like Dagger said, it's like this in all walks of life; we can cherry-pick examples of this from society to life. It's also predominate in wrestling.

So, yes, in essence, the fresh talent is being rated highly in an early stage, when we don't know how they will blossom, but that's just nature. They love to voice how said talent is going to become something great, and it's never going to stop.

 

[Ty Burna]

I have to agree with you ST, and it's getting pretty ridiculous. You gave Lady Gaga as an example, well take a look in the music section. Tenta started a thread saying his friend stated that Lady Gaga could be the next David Bowie. Uh.......what? David Bowie has released music for the last 5 to 6 decades and is still going strong to this day. Lady Gaga has released what? One or two commercial albums in total? I think part of the problem is when a new artist that's exciting or sounds good comes around, everyone wants to be the first to have heard of them and proclaim them as this great artist when in reality they've maybe released one good album that was commercially successful. BC is absolutely correct in stating that people want to be able to say: I knew they would be a legendary artist. But at the same time I can say that about any new artist that comes out and chances are I may get one out of so many right.

Another issue is the media exposure we have today. We can all go online now and proclaim greatness for anything we want and the media medium we have to do so is huge. Eventually everyone will start saying a certain artist is the next great thing and suddenly an artist is overrated. I'll use Lady Gaga as an example because she's probably the best one to use. She makes electro pop hits that are good club songs, but nothing outstanding that can maintain it's greatness years afterwards. We have many pop acts like this that were destined for "greatness" and ended up fizzling out. Milli Vanilli anyone? They were the next big thing and due to their lip syncing quickly phased out of the lime light. Lady Gaga is just another pop singer who will eventually get replaced by the next great pop artist in a few years. Hell look at Christina Aguilera. When was the last time you heard her as going down as a legendary artist? I'll wait don't worry. In reality pop is a lot like hip hop nowadays. All you need is a great beat and a catchy chorus and you have a hit song. Artists in the past had to painstakingly build their reputation up and make music that would transcend the band even after it came to an end. I don't see that happening with new artists nowadays since record labels have figured out how to make popular club hits with no substance. With the Internet these artists will continue to gain huge reputations and sadly artists that have put years of work into making legitimate music with substance will get overshadowed by artists who go out to make the next club hit.

In conclusion, yes people are way too quick to rate artists as great or legendary when these artists are just starting their careers. Let these artists release more material for a decade or so if not longer and then we can properly rate them as great or legendary. Until then, leave it as either "I like their music" or "This is probably the best new artist to come out in awhile". I can live with someone saying someone is a great new artist, I just don't want people saying that someone is a great artist along the lines of David Bowie or in the vein of rock, Led Zepplin or The Doors.