A Canadian entertainment news reporter may have just stumbled upon a plausible explanation for American teens' seemingly inexplicable worship of Ashlee Simpson and, in the process, unwittingly shed some light upon America's ever-increasing fascination with mediocrity.
She is neither warm nor cold; neither unattractive nor unusually striking; neither as edgy as her early marketing sold her nor as sexy as the more recent efforts would suggest. She is just ... there.
There you have it. The secret to Ms. Simpson's success is that she has taken no discernible risks, has made no effort to establish her uniqueness, and does not offer any tangible message to her audience. In other words, she has truly found the key to success in America.....don't challenge anything, blend in, accept your mediocrity, and then learn how to effectively market such mediocrity as an asset. This was the same formula used by Karl Rove to install George W. Bush in the White House. Brilliant. Truly brilliant.
Canada, our savvy upstairs neighbor, understands that Ms. Simpson's complete "unremarkability" is the secret behind her success:
...By this point, she could reasonably have been expected to be relegated to playing shopping malls, not just visiting them for autograph sessions as she did later yesterday. In the shadow of her older, blonder sister from the get-go, she briefly appeared slated to become the next Milli Vanilli after the most humiliating musical performance in Saturday Night Live's three-decade history. And yet here she is, mere months after being exposed on national television as a lip-syncer (and questionable jig-dancer), wildly outselling more seasoned artists...
...Ashlee, on the other hand, is sufficiently unimposing that hundreds of thousands of girls can easily imagine being in her shoes...
This cult of mediocrity has so permeated our culture that we barely notice it. We incessantly watch reality television. We increasingly frequent mediocre chain restaurants (Olive Garden, Chipotle, Starbucks) strictly because of their convenience and predictability. We accept a President who utilizes a profoundly limited vocabulary to mask his subversive designs. We sit idly by as our youth are bombarded with paint-by-numbers style, manufactured trend-setting garbage on MTV. And we make Ashlee Simpson the top selling "artist" in America even though her music is thoroughly uninspiring and, better yet, we know that she cheats. In a culture that so quickly forgives (or, ignores) the fact that our President lied to us regarding weapons of mass destruction, is it any wonder that our teens gave young Ashlee a free pass when she got caught lip syncing?
We are all guilty of worshipping mediocrity, whether we acknowledge it or not. How many of us have uttered this phrase: "I really like [him/her/it] because I totally identify with [him/her/it]." WE ALL HAVE. We like to IDENTIFY with persons and things because it makes us feel safe. It's comfortable. It doesn't challenge us in ways that we don't want to be challenged. And it reaffirms our choices.
I ask you this: WHY? Why do we so often define our preferences in art, film, music, politics, etc. in terms of whether we personally identify with the relevant speaker, artist, policy, etc? Don't we want to be challenged to see the world differently? If I wanted someone to identify with, I'd look in the mirror, not to the artists, leaders, and other contributors to the marketplace of ideas. I want music, art, political movements, and the like to grab me by the neck, and give me a swift kick in the ass.
Well, I for one, am taking a vow. I will never, ever, ever again compliment someone or something on the grounds that I identify with it. I need so much more....especially from people that I look to for artistic inspiration and visionary leadership. I don't want to live in KARL ROVE and ASHLEE SIMPSON'S AMERICA. I will no longer let them, or anyone else, get away with marketing mediocrity as an asset. I'm tired of people "keeping it real." I don't want any more reality.
We can do better.
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