Everything in life has a pattern. The media has found a few tricks that seem to work rather well. To reach a targeted audience they have a simple formula for certain kinds of television shows for instance. American Idol is not any different. They have a very systematic way that the show is set up. You have several weeks of auditions; where we see the good, the bad, and the god awful. We then see those who succeeded and got their ticket to Hollywood, go there in a huge group and go through different rounds; your individual performance that leads to the group and another round or two of solo. From there the judges narrow it down to who makes it on television. After that it’s up to America’d vote. Through that process we see people grow and we decide to love or hate them; to see who has the potential to make it or who we think will.
It’s taken me quite a bit more effort to understand the concept of a formula that pertains to pop culture but once I got it, it clicked. If you step back and look at certain movies, shows, songs, etc. you can see that there is a common foundation from which it came; a base storyline. From there an individual has the power to add variables (invention) to the control (convention). Regardless you can come to see a pattern and can possibly even predict what could be successful or could be at risk of failure. If you study it enough you could avoid the latter.
References
Browne, R.B. (2005). Profiles of Popular Culture. Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin Press.
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