"The men and women on our annual Celebrity 100 list--the most powerful people in the entertainment business this year--earned $4.5 billion over the last 12 months by starring in films, playing basketball, walking the catwalk and more. But they also rose to the top by garnering influence."
Let me start by saying that I like watching movies, sports games, even America's Next Top Model. I like listening to music and going to concerts. It would be pointless and false to say otherwise. But something about the above quote just doesn't sit well in my stomach.
Are we so engrossed in the media that we freely put 4.5 billion dollars into it?
According to Forbes' Celebrity 100 List, the most powerful people in the entertainment business have more than just money. Lady Gaga took first place above Oprah because of her social status, which is built off of her 32 million facebook fans, and 10 million Twitter followers who are known as "Little Monsters."
The astounding thing about this has nothing to do with the moral issues involving the fact that Lady Gaga herself has this much influence (that in and of itself has serious implications about youth in America), but the obvious obsession we seem to have with celebrities in general. We watch their every move and hang on their every meaningless "tweet."
How backwards is it that people in America throw a fit over the amount spent for the protection of this nation, yet mindlessly throw billions of dollars into the entertainment business? And the ironic thing is that these people don't even realize it's a business. We are being sold these celebrities the same way we are being sold food in the grocery store or electronics at Best Buy.
When did simply enjoying something become a 4.5 billion dollar industry? Why must we take fun, even sometimes good, things to the extreme? Maybe we are trying to over-compensate for all the bad. Maybe we think that if we simply smother our depressing lives with entertainment we won't notice the state that we are in. But then we take the good and push it to such extremes that in the end it isn't helping us; it's consuming us. Music, movies, sports teams; they're consuming us.
And I guess the bottom line isn't (solely) that the entertainment industry is filth. I think the real issue is our pathetic attempts of ignoring the pain, hurt, and filth in our own lives. We are taking every chance we can get to escape from reality. But if we don't start keeping things real, we are going to lose ourselves.
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