Watching "Britains got Talent 2010: The Final" last Saturday really pissed me off. For those unfamiliar with the results, a gymnastic group called "Spellbound" won. Now, in all fairness what they did is truly amazing, you can see the winning act here:
My problem with them is, that they are professionals, aside from this contest, Spellbound said they have the Olympics to prepare for as well for some other events. The fact they won, is really in a conflict with the concept of the whole show - find some fat taxi driver who sings like Sinatra, or smth like that - basically give stage to unfound talent, to people that have entirely different background from the nature of their act. Actually I think "Spellbound" shouldn't be allowed to take part in such a competition to begin with.
Talent is certainly part of one's professional success, but if I must define it, I see "talents" as the natural ability to be good at stuff. When you do something professionally and you are really really good at it, of course you need to be "talented" in that area to begin with, but after that it all blurs into a lot of practice and skill. If you want to put things into Starcraft perspective, we can argue a lot who is the most talented StarCraft player. Is it Flash, maybe Jaedong? Why not Savior, nal_ra or Stork, who have half the APM of Flash/JD and still are pretty damn good at the game?
As a wise man once said "its 90% hard work, 5% talent and 5% luck"
i've never considered singing a talent. its really not impressive, people just like music.
like you said. you can literally find a random taxi driver, some fatass making no money, who can sing amazingly. if that's true, then how impressive is good singing really?
a real talent is something like standup comedy. something you can have a knack for, but still requires work. no one is BORN with the ability to write perfect jokes, but people have a certain affinity for getting it close to right, then perfecting it.
I won't argue about the word talent, but I do agree that the show would be better if it disallowed professionals. Although it might be a bit difficult to define a professional (like do you accept people who have done many years of singing classes, etc.).
I agree, the people on these talent shows should not show their JOB as a special talent they have, cuz its not. It's like having a Formula One race-car driver competing in a local gokart rally. OFC he'll win, and he'll outclass everyone else and just be the best, but is that really fair to the people who really really want to win, but racing is only a hobby for them and not a job?
The name "Talent" show is really a misnomer. The show is about what you can do, not about how you gained the ability to do it.
I think your argument about what constitutes talent should be separated from your argument about whether professionals should be on the show or not. As another poster mentioned, the problem then shifts to deciding who is professional and who is not.
IIRC this question has been an issue on this show before, and probably has been in just about every major talent show ever. I think i remember that Fats Waller got banned from the weekly talent shows at the Apollo theatre after winning six in a row, or something like that.
edit To a certain extent, this problem is solved by the self-policing of the entrants. The reason to enter these shows is if you think they will help your career. Above a certain level of accomplishment, the risk of being embarrassed by a poor showing fails to balance out the potential reward of winning.
Not a perfect example, but relevant: A Korean pianist I am acquainted with has won many international piano competitions. I heard about a huge competition in Korea with a massive prize and asked him if he was going to enter. He replied that he was not, because he already had some name recognition and reputation in Korea, and the chance that this would be damaged by a poor showing in the competition was enough (even if you really are the best pianist, there is a large element of luck in a jury's decision) to prevent him from entering.
If its your job, or you have special training like, being at music school or having a diploma in dancing or whatever, then you are professional. Its pretty simple
On June 08 2010 06:10 ArvickHero wrote: Hard work is a talent
no... thats a pathetic excuse for the less talented to not give up, achievements are a combination of both talents and efforts.
its a hard definitions to define actually, because based on different fields or subjects the definitions for talents varies. if i were to define talents though i would say its the physical and mental characteristic of an individual due to maybe certain genes inherited, that help optimise one's performance at a particular activity.
in simpler terms though, talent is something that lets someone do crazy shits like writing an opera at age 14, ie: Mozart
If I go to see a performance, I care very much about the level of skill of the people I am watching. I care nothing for how they achieved it, unless they somehow did so by hurting others.
Hard work is unquestionably a talent. Some people have a far greater capacity for it than others. Most people who achieve a high level of success are talented in more than one way. Saying that hard work is a talent is in no way the same as saying that a person who works hard can always achieve the same thing a more "talented" person would.
On June 08 2010 06:12 mOnion wrote: i've never considered singing a talent. its really not impressive, people just like music.
like you said. you can literally find a random taxi driver, some fatass making no money, who can sing amazingly. if that's true, then how impressive is good singing really?
a real talent is something like standup comedy. something you can have a knack for, but still requires work. no one is BORN with the ability to write perfect jokes, but people have a certain affinity for getting it close to right, then perfecting it.
i hate singers.
ABSOLUTELY NO BIAS HERE WHATSOEVER
In all seriousness, I kinda agree with you. But at the same time, I'm not so sure the majority of good singers are born with it. I imagine most people still need to work a fair bit towards getting really good in addition to any natural talent they might have. But I'm sure there's some spectacular singers who were just kinda born with it.
That show is stupid and you get some of the most stupidest shit moving up to the next round. How the hell are you going to compare stuff like ... flaming coin juggling to donkey juggling (assuming they both excel in their "skill")? There's no way you can compare the two, yet the judges feel 1 is better than the other.
P.S. I saw "stand up comedy" and immediately though mOnion and then I looked at the poster and lo and behold ... lol
On June 08 2010 06:12 mOnion wrote: i've never considered singing a talent. its really not impressive, people just like music.
like you said. you can literally find a random taxi driver, some fatass making no money, who can sing amazingly. if that's true, then how impressive is good singing really?
a real talent is something like standup comedy. something you can have a knack for, but still requires work. no one is BORN with the ability to write perfect jokes, but people have a certain affinity for getting it close to right, then perfecting it.
i hate singers.
I reject that, singing is about 50% raw talent and 50% training, if you have a raw talent for singing you can't hang with people that have trained for years regardless of how good you are. Singing is like everything else that uses your body such as sports, fitness etc. You have to train your vocal chords and your throat muscles to become truly good. Standup comedy and singing both require large amounts of preparation and practice.
On June 08 2010 06:12 mOnion wrote: i've never considered singing a talent. its really not impressive, people just like music.
like you said. you can literally find a random taxi driver, some fatass making no money, who can sing amazingly. if that's true, then how impressive is good singing really?
a real talent is something like standup comedy. something you can have a knack for, but still requires work. no one is BORN with the ability to write perfect jokes, but people have a certain affinity for getting it close to right, then perfecting it.
On June 08 2010 06:10 ArvickHero wrote: Hard work is a talent
no... thats a pathetic excuse for the less talented to not give up, achievements are a combination of both talents and efforts.
True but in every field, art or sport you will find a ton of people that are talented but very few with the combination of talent and the ability to work hard.
I'd say its the most essential talent in that without it all your other talents is probably gonna amount to nothing.
On June 08 2010 06:12 mOnion wrote: i've never considered singing a talent. its really not impressive, people just like music.
like you said. you can literally find a random taxi driver, some fatass making no money, who can sing amazingly. if that's true, then how impressive is good singing really?
a real talent is something like standup comedy. something you can have a knack for, but still requires work. no one is BORN with the ability to write perfect jokes, but people have a certain affinity for getting it close to right, then perfecting it.
i hate singers.
Good God, you just articulated how I feel about music perfectly. I always considered instrumentalists more talented than singers for this reason.
EPT
