Tons of Coffee + TV = Weird Media Connections

Post first published on January 7, 2010.

As many of you know, I went home to the US  for the holidays recently. I was with my family on New Years watching New Years Rockin Eve on tv. On the show, Selena Gomez sang two songs. That's when it hit me, Disney Channel is basically following the same procedure with their artists like Asian companies do, such as Johnny's in Japan or  SM Entertainment in Korea.

Entertainment companies here (Asia) will take in artists, train them in different things, such as singing, acting, modeling and so on. Then, they get them jobs in all of these different fields. That's why usually pop singers also appear in dramas, like Matsumoto Jun in Japan or Uee in Korea. It's also why they call them "talent" (meaning artists) and not simply "Singers" or "Models". It's like making the most out of one artist and they know their capabilities because usually they are training under the company since they are very young.

I feel like Disney lately has been doing that with their artists. I mean, just think about what they have done with Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and many others. I mean, they even make good singers do acting jobs when they can't act that well & they make good actors do singing jobs when they can't really sing. In the end, they make these teen stars successful in many fields and they hold on to them as long as they can while trying to make the most money out of them. It's ridiculously smart of Disney to do it, especially since they are involved in all fields of the entertainment business.

Actually, Disney takes it above and beyond. Not only are their artists in various fields of the entertainment business, but they are working within the Disney company in these various fields, so Disney is bringing in all of the money. For example, take Miley Cyrus. She became famous because of Hannah Montana, which is a Disney show. Through the show, she began her singing career. She is now an extremely famous singer. What's her record label? She is under Hollywood Records, which is owned by the Disney Company. Miley is also in movies. Her latest movie, which is coming out this year, is called The Last Song. Although Offspring Entertainment produced the film, it is being distributed by Touchstone Pictures, which is part of the Walt Disney Company as well. Even Miley's book, Miles to Go, was published under Disney-Hyperion Books. Wow!

I think that Disney is probably the closest thing that America has to Asian entertainment companies like SM or YG, since they do take young adults and place them in various media fields instead of only labeling them as "singers" or "actors".
Yet, there are still differences because of the great amount of power Disney has in all of the media outlets.


Anyway, if I wrote anything that is wrong, I'm sorry. This was just a connection I made while I was watching tv.