You'd best believe that the air up there is very rarefied indeed. In spite of hearing all your life the estimation of so many well known performers careers identified as "international stardom", somewhat of a recapitulation is in order. Who actually determines the parameters identifying the circumstances or achievements that must be met to assign such grand and lofty accolades to any one individuals accomplishments? Who is that assigned "king (or queen) who decree's that a particular artists has indeed reached a place that bestows upon them the ultimate recognition, undying love and devotion of countless human beings throughout the world? Who is it that measures, in such precise detail the level of admiration, commercial sales, tragic acts of devotion or brilliant acts of unselfishness enacted in their name that would seem to me to be a minimal way to really acquire some true sense of the value of someone destined to be showered with this kind notice?
Who Indeed? I submit to you there is no such person, that the bluster and huff attributed to all this generally misstatement of facts has simply been for the most part, a not to cleverly disguised PR ploy that has allowed silver tounged hucksters to play themselves into position to extract unimaginable bounties of booty from the gullible, the naive and the "agendized" media executive with to much time and money on his hands. That is until now. Remember, we're talking about performing artists here not Mother Theresa. We often find so many of these types of people to be selfish, when ego is involved selfishly unkind and often removed from contact with the more common folk who walk the earth among them. Of course there are a few exceptions, but for the most part the stereotype just described holds true more often than not. What anyone does with the resources they acquire is their business and their business alone. Just don't be looking for the world to love you all over when the only opportunity you take to spread love, ease suffering is when cameras are rolling and large crowds are around to sing your praise.
Many times in casual conversation with whom I assume to be average consumers I am often excoriated when I endeavor to explain to them that because they hear about an artist here in America all over the media they should not assume that to means that an equivalent amount of coverage is extended to that same performer in countries all around the world. Hell some performers are not even widely covered in other states let alone the 250 + countries and thousands of cities all around the world. Some get downright indignant with me about my conclusions as if I haven't the slightest clue of what I'm talking about. Not withstanding the fact that i have had the occasion to visit, live and work in different countries or that I now work with talent from different countries from all around the world, they just really have no clue at all that many nations have their own "superstars" they admire. Of course there are probably a few exceptions but this will be nothing compared to what is about to happen if the very near future.
According to Professor Deborah Glik /UCLA - Community Health Sciences at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) just about 112 years ago the earth's population was about 2 billion people. That has increased to more than twice that number in this short span to more than over 6 billion people (closer to 7 billion). Because communications globally have improved so unimaginably during this period the ability to truly shape the career of a truly international global superstar is well withing our reach unequivocally, unquestionably. The life and death of perhaps one of the very rare, definitively global, international talents ever - Michael Jackson signaled two things, the end of a dynamically changing dimension of life, the beginning of the new uncharted waters of a future no one cares to tell us how we landed in.
