I've just read an interview on William Hung by a local entertainment reporter. It was curt, but insightful, having all those usual celebrity questions and then there is also William. He is touted as the America's other Idol, where the winners of the American Idol would have the coveted role of next new sensation in singing but then William never made it to the final twelve, as they call it. He didn't even pass the audition, walking off the hotel hall with his yellow and black backpack when the judges didn't declare him fit for competition, his voice monotoned and he doesn't have the looks and charisma of a star. They were right, on that basis, but William was different. Now he has an album titled 'Inspiration' and then another one coming.
How did it come to this? I was thinking more in terms of letting a naive singer wannabe teaching me more than I had expected.
He shouldn't be there in the first place, among the stars like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. Yup, I've heard of them. But then William is as almost famous as these people, maybe for a while until his magic and marketing team run out of ideas. He's a novelty, like Tado, Mura and Mahal in Magandang Tanghali Bayan or the guy who said, "Leave me alone!" in one snack commercial but is now at the morning show, Breakfast. Being part of pop culture that we had seen for a few seconds or hours, they had made an imprint on us and then the big networks tried to capitalize on them and that imprint we have of them.
However, William had naivete, and probably a good and sensitive agent who knew who he was more than the rest of the world. Some of us will remember him as the guy who spoofed Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" but I think of him as the novelty who is in the business for better reasons and bigger odds than the rest of them. Don't worry, I won't be skulking and using the Filipino tag phrase, "I'm for the underdog." The judges had deemed him a bad singer; on TV he couldn't dance but could follow rhythm; he is not the cutest person in his county and hasn't (yet) had facial surgery and labored for hours in the gym; he still has all the same traits whenever he would perform in front of audiences numbering thousands in radio station concerts dancing with little choreography and a bevy of beautiful dancers which he seems to have no romantic or sexual interest with; and he does it for the love of performing and singing --just like what he used to do in karaoke bars in LA.
In the present situation of the music industry with women jiggling with it on videos sung by beefcake or vixen singers with million dollar contracts spending several relaxing months recording with expert sound engineers and producers, William is so far from them that he would be forgotten to most, but not to the people who had seen him dance with the pop stars and saw him as a star too and follow in his wake. Dreadful to think of a future full of pop star novelty acts without any social impact coming out in the next few years, William was the wave starter and rode the wave with childlike fun, guts and sincerity. By the way, it had been a long time, maybe a few decades, where the world had image-centered pop star novelty acts.
Most adolescents dreams to be a rock star or a pop star. This would have been the most appropriate attitude when going into career that you don't get to learn at school and outside, passion then hardwork.
How did it come to this? I was thinking more in terms of letting a naive singer wannabe teaching me more than I had expected.
He shouldn't be there in the first place, among the stars like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. Yup, I've heard of them. But then William is as almost famous as these people, maybe for a while until his magic and marketing team run out of ideas. He's a novelty, like Tado, Mura and Mahal in Magandang Tanghali Bayan or the guy who said, "Leave me alone!" in one snack commercial but is now at the morning show, Breakfast. Being part of pop culture that we had seen for a few seconds or hours, they had made an imprint on us and then the big networks tried to capitalize on them and that imprint we have of them.
However, William had naivete, and probably a good and sensitive agent who knew who he was more than the rest of the world. Some of us will remember him as the guy who spoofed Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" but I think of him as the novelty who is in the business for better reasons and bigger odds than the rest of them. Don't worry, I won't be skulking and using the Filipino tag phrase, "I'm for the underdog." The judges had deemed him a bad singer; on TV he couldn't dance but could follow rhythm; he is not the cutest person in his county and hasn't (yet) had facial surgery and labored for hours in the gym; he still has all the same traits whenever he would perform in front of audiences numbering thousands in radio station concerts dancing with little choreography and a bevy of beautiful dancers which he seems to have no romantic or sexual interest with; and he does it for the love of performing and singing --just like what he used to do in karaoke bars in LA.
In the present situation of the music industry with women jiggling with it on videos sung by beefcake or vixen singers with million dollar contracts spending several relaxing months recording with expert sound engineers and producers, William is so far from them that he would be forgotten to most, but not to the people who had seen him dance with the pop stars and saw him as a star too and follow in his wake. Dreadful to think of a future full of pop star novelty acts without any social impact coming out in the next few years, William was the wave starter and rode the wave with childlike fun, guts and sincerity. By the way, it had been a long time, maybe a few decades, where the world had image-centered pop star novelty acts.
Most adolescents dreams to be a rock star or a pop star. This would have been the most appropriate attitude when going into career that you don't get to learn at school and outside, passion then hardwork.
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