The word “trending” has never been used as much as it has in the last two years than it ever has in history. The Twitter world has started something that is easily relatable to what people find entertaining. They take simple words and names that people want to know more about and put them into categories for the followers to follow. This technique has shown us as viewers and researchers what people are finding entertaining. Finding out what is trending shows us who people want to see, what they want to see and what people are interested in. The world of entertainment has been easier to follow with online video outlets, such as YouTube, Vine, Instagram, and Facebook recently. Home videos have become very public and very famous. Entertainment may have gotten more accessible, but it has gotten more complicated in its shapes and sizes.
People want anything bigger and anything better. Being normal is not entertaining to people anymore. Entertainment has become about who is the best at anything. Dogs have always been entertaining, but what is more amusing is a dog that can speak words or do handstands. Even singers have fallen under the radar. People have always loved and respected the best singers around the world, as they still do. However, these days, people want to see the outliers that are out of the ordinary, such as Miley Cyrus and her outrageous behaviors or Justin Bieber and his inability to keep his life in order.
The idea around the country seems to be that being normal and even just being good is not enough. If we want to entertain, we need to be extreme in every way possible. One needs to go beyond the sphere of greatness and go into a new sphere of borderline bizarre. Nikki Minaj and her antics in music videos have made her a star. Lil Wayne and his repeated puns during his raps got him to where he was once called the greatest rapper alive. You see the results on YouTube by looking at the unthinkable amount of views that these artists get. Yet, people with great talent on the same website don’t get the same exposure or the same amount of views because of just how ordinary their methods may be. Music is one of the biggest and most visible methods of entertainment going on right now.
Entertainment goes beyond the internet of course. The television is also something similar, and almost as widespread as the interweb. People love television. I love television. The shows that become the most popular are the ones that have the ability to entertain the most. What I see is that the television shows that bring something original to the table are the successful ones. Shows like Key and Peele, who bring racial stereotypes to the public in a humorous manner are being seen as completely entertaining. They come after a time when Dave Chappelle shocked and entertained the entire world with the Chappelle Show. Game of Thrones is taking over as well by bringing a realistic view of world wars that has everyone watching. Breaking Bad was seen as being one of the most entertaining shows of all time by showing an amazing journey of the chemistry teacher with cancer who decides to make and distribute meth. Shows like these are what people love to watch. Why? Because it is a diversion from reality.
Entertainment is defined as a diversion, as a form of amusement. The shows and the songs that are being found as most possible do exactly that. They take people away from their lives and give them a small piece of living someone else’s. People enjoy the feeling of being the terrible drug dealer or village King. Entertainment is also a business, and people are definitely willing to pay to feel entertained. That feeling of escape from one’s own life, excitement from doing something different, or the thrill of doing or seeing something dangerous. The world of entertainment has become a large percentage of our culture in this country and I do not see it stopping anytime soon.
Blog by Evan Linneman