20-06-21
No exposure, no fame. No fame, then no name. In the entertainment world, TV exposure is still critical in spite of online marketing. This explains why plenty of contestants are willing to endure TV talent shows. Such shows can be boring when singers are cookie-cutter artists and judges just talk gibberish.
Popular music is about trends and Hong Kong needs new singers to create new trends. But, there is a wider issue of how to discover new singers and whether they can be well-known. A TV singing contest is thus the best idea as it is something that lends itself to TV watching by millions of all generations, from children to parents. Such programs are on YouTube too. People love that the underdogs may win and participants do embrace each other and cry haptically. Such contest has a much more positive energy and create an inspiring edge over an otherwise commercial show. Doing mashups and cover versions of songs amuse and appeal to the broadest audience.
I worked part-time in the biggest TV station in Hong Kong as a scriptwriter when I was a university student. In many ways, I feel I am still part of the industry and have been hung up on if TVB, my ex-boss, is getting everything right. I am always saddened, until recently, by the station’s sluggish thinking that ‘if no one has done it, we better not touch it. Only if somebody has done it, we will hurry to catch up.’
It does make a refreshing change for TVB to be lately able to produce a striking singing contest program STARS Academy for the young: some are as young as 14 and 15. It is basically a combination of contest, variety show and reality show: contestants singing to compete, professional tutors coaching the kids, contestants criticizing each other ‘in private’, extra-contest outings and activities, contestants performing with famous singers, group dance and personal demonstration by superstars…Memorable characters are the core of successful television and also the reason why people would tune in week after week. By spreading the program for a few months, the eye-catching contestants of STARS Academy stood out as the stars and shared their weaknesses, strengths and struggles that attracted the target audience to become identified with.
There is now a popular social term to describe the young people as ‘Lying-Down-ism’(躺平主義). They do not desire. They do not want to buy a car, a flat, get married or give birth to children. They simply eat and consume to maintain the minimum standards of survival of a human being. They refuse to be the exploited slaves in the ‘economic game’ of a society. They express their silent resistance to the traditional meanings of life.
Never doubt that a TV program cannot change the world. Indeed, TV is the powerful thing that can. Its power is education. Education for youngsters may be neither from parents nor schools. It now comes from the media, especially social media. TVB is wise as it starts to upload its programs onto other online platforms. Good TV programs like STARS Academy are not the filling of a time pail, but the lighting of a fire. We all benefit by watching how the small group of young contestants in STARS Academy have been working hard attitudinally: stop complaining, admit faults, collaborate and help each other, handle stress, ready themselves to face challenges, persist in learning and ultimately face failures. I can see the young contestants have learnt 2 important things: empathy and perseverance. Being young means inevitably being self-centered. They believe they are the best. As the contest involves much teamwork, it is difficult for the young not to try to understand and relate to others. Towards the end of the programs, the contestants show a sensitive feeling to the hard time of others and have built up trust and respect. This is contrary to the start of the programs when the young boys and girls were ‘strawberries’, good-looking but in fact fragile. After weeks of training, they all display the steadfastness to keep fighting in spite of harsh obstacles. Their continued and determined efforts to achieve on TV have become great inspiration for the young ones in Hong Kong, with plenty of good ideas as to how they can put an end to wasting their life.
Television is not necessarily bad. Mass media do not offer art but surely popular entertainment. We simply want better programs like STARS Academy.TV programs are like fast food, eaten, forgotten and replaced by a new dish. But, my friend, ‘you are what you eat’. Don’t you thank McDonald’s new idea of fresh salad after eating too many usual hamburgers?
This article can also be found at the following sites:
