You didn’t have to watch a single episode of this year’s American Idol to know who Sanjaya is.  It was a bit like our inability to drive past a car wreck without slowing down to look.  But as I watched every week - hoping that somewhere in those 40-plus million calls, there would be enough votes for the more legitimate contestants to send Sanjaya home - I was actually struck with the bigger picture…the Sanjaya Effect.

Americans seem to love mediocrity.  If it was possible to excel in it, we would.  Between the young girls who thought a cute boy with pretty hair qualified to be the next American Idol, and all the people who were in the “Vote for the Worst” campaign, there were a lot of people who wanted mediocrity to win this year.

And why not?  It’s something we can all attain without breaking a sweat.  Celebrating it makes us all feel better somehow.  But it takes a big toll.  You can see the effects on TV every night of the week.  You can hear it on every radio station in the country.  You can observe it in the theatre, schools, homes, and places of worship all across America.  It even permeates the nation’s leadership.

One of my fellow SmoothViews staffers remarked that reviewing other CDs so soon after immersing herself in Patti Austin’s and Joe Sample/Randy Crawford’s recent releases was going to be very difficult because it would be hard to measure up to those two. 

But that’s what happens.  We get so used to hearing mediocre music, that we start to believe that it sounds pretty good… until we hear true excellence.  Then we realize the stupor we’ve been in.  And the only way to keep from falling back into it is to keep that excellence around us.  And it’s almost impossible to do if you are never exposed to excellence.

You certainly don’t get exposed to it in schools much anymore.  Between budgetary concerns and the obsession with teaching children “self-esteem,” music and art classes disappear.  Kids aren’t exposed to great art or great music, nor are they encouraged to excel in them…their talent might make other kids feel bad about themselves.  So we teach them how to pass tests instead of nurturing their creativity and exposing them to greatness so that one day they, too, may do great things.

If you’ve never heard Bach, or Mozart, or Billy Holiday, or John Coltrane, or Miles Davis, then you don’t have any problem listening to formulaic musical wallpaper.  If you’ve never seen good theatre, then you don’t mind watching reality shows on TV seven nights a week.  If you’ve never studied great leaders and statesmen… Well, you get the picture. 

The other day, I was talking with my husband about the continuing downturn in the music business.  I shared a comment an artist made that he didn’t know of any record label that wasn’t struggling right now.  My husband asked why that was, and I said, “Have you listened to the radio at all lately – any station?” 

And the real tragedy is that there is true talent out there, and very few are being nurtured and developed.  Much of it, we will never have the opportunity to hear.  

That’s the Sanjaya Effect. 

- Elizabeth Ware