Bad Tempered Clavier
Silver Member
Somebody sent me a YouTube link to some kid, who was apparently 6 years old at the time, playing a cover of The Pretender by Foo Fighters. Apparently this video became enormously popular about a year ago and subsequently the kid was invited to perform on the NBC Today Show in New York City last July. This has led to widespread media attention in North America, Europe, and Japan. To be fair, the kid shows a lot of flair for drums and music in general - he ain't exactly the next Tony Royster Jr, but then that's asking a great deal of anyone.
The last thing I want to do is discourage anyone - especially one so young - but I find myself wondering whether thrusting a child of 6 into such a bright spot-light is a healthy thing to do. By all means, encourage our young to be creative, studious, enthusiastic, maybe even gregarious: but to bestow celebrity like that on a kid with - and let's be honest - a level of skill that is pretty good but not exceptional seems rather patronising. It's certainly exploitative.
I'm sure Blondie enjoys all the attention and that, but I question the kind of message this sends out to the world. No doubt he is deserving of praise and should be properly encouraged by his family and teachers etc within the context of home and school but is his talent really worthy of international fame? Put it this way - anyone billing this 6 year old as a prodigious musician is putting him on a par with Mozart and that's just crazy talk. Even if he were that good - he don't exactly get a say in any of this: how many 6 year olds can single-handedly stage-manage a public profile like the one he has now? Do we know if he is actually happy on his travelling sideshow? More to the point, does anyone particularly care if he is?
The whole thing just strikes me as dysfunctional - indicative of the kind of unprecedented attention that something like YouTube can bring. I mean, if he follows in the footsteps of young Tony Royster Jr or even just gets good enough to work as a jobbing drummer later in life then I guess a leg-up like this may serve him well. On the other hand, if his talent doesn't progress much further then he will most likely be left with the nasty truth that people are interested in stuff when it's small and cute but once he starts getting acne and needs braces on his teeth then the cameras will be pointing elsewhere.
The last thing I want to do is discourage anyone - especially one so young - but I find myself wondering whether thrusting a child of 6 into such a bright spot-light is a healthy thing to do. By all means, encourage our young to be creative, studious, enthusiastic, maybe even gregarious: but to bestow celebrity like that on a kid with - and let's be honest - a level of skill that is pretty good but not exceptional seems rather patronising. It's certainly exploitative.
I'm sure Blondie enjoys all the attention and that, but I question the kind of message this sends out to the world. No doubt he is deserving of praise and should be properly encouraged by his family and teachers etc within the context of home and school but is his talent really worthy of international fame? Put it this way - anyone billing this 6 year old as a prodigious musician is putting him on a par with Mozart and that's just crazy talk. Even if he were that good - he don't exactly get a say in any of this: how many 6 year olds can single-handedly stage-manage a public profile like the one he has now? Do we know if he is actually happy on his travelling sideshow? More to the point, does anyone particularly care if he is?
The whole thing just strikes me as dysfunctional - indicative of the kind of unprecedented attention that something like YouTube can bring. I mean, if he follows in the footsteps of young Tony Royster Jr or even just gets good enough to work as a jobbing drummer later in life then I guess a leg-up like this may serve him well. On the other hand, if his talent doesn't progress much further then he will most likely be left with the nasty truth that people are interested in stuff when it's small and cute but once he starts getting acne and needs braces on his teeth then the cameras will be pointing elsewhere.