The Relationship Between Talent and Entertainment

What is real talent? Webster defines talent as a special often athletic, creative or artistic aptitude. This basically means to me that anyone who excels in a specific area of his or her life could logically be referred to as talented. It is a well-known fact that every individual person has some unique characteristic or ability that they do better than most others. For some people it is analytical ability, others have a penchant for visual artistry and still others have an aptitude for musical principals.

People the world over seem to be intrigued by the talent of others. I can recall as a child that every so often my school would have a talent show. You would usually have a few dance groups show up, some jugglers, various other exhibitionists, and a plethora of singers and vocalists. This usually occupied a week or so of free time during which the students and faculty would observe and judge upon who had the most impressive talent.

Apparently, some television exec, perhaps while reminiscing on days of youth, realized that this same concept would work on a much larger scale. Now you can barely turn on a television without seeing some sort of talent contest. They are not only everywhere but people can’t seem to get enough of them.

So what is it about witnessing others display their talent that gives us so much satisfaction. Perhaps it’s the ability to live out our fantasies vicariously through someone else. Maybe it’s the sheer sense of enjoyment of seeing an expert at work. Whatever that x-factor may be, the human race seems to love it and consume it in great quantities.

So how far are we willing to go for entertainment in the form of the talents of others? It is a well known fact that most of the mainstream music heard today goes through extensive editing and pitch correction before ever reaching the consumer. Many athletes have severely damaged their careers by being caught in performance enhancement scandals. It is even considered standard practice for actors and actresses to submit themselves to a portion of the tortuous experiences that their character may have experienced in order to make the performance more realistic.

One thing is for sure, we as a species seem to be obsessed with talent and as long as there is a demand there will be an industry who takes it upon themselves to supply that demand.