Dick Clark: America's Last Niche-free Entertainer
The idea that entertainment - or any form of communication for that matter - would seek to reach not a niche or a narrow slice of the public but everybody today seems more than just antiquated, it is downright madness. But Dick Clark, who passed away today at age 82, carved out one of the longest careers in entertainment history doing just that.
Clark’s list of projects reads like a roll call of American culture at its widest point. Among the mountains he conquered: the dance party, the quiz show, the awards show and New Year’s Eve. No one would mistake a Dick Clark opus for Shostakovich, and indeed for his part in creating television’s never-ending story of red carpets and gala awards nights, Clark has much to answer for. His shows were often gaudy, creaky and coated with 17 layers of schmaltz, but compared to the toxic sludge which shows up every night across the dial and in the multiplex, it was benign schmaltz. Clark’s work sought to capture America not perhaps at its brightest, but at its most big-hearted, and appeals to the kind of hateful lewdness we hardly even notice anymore would have been as foreign to the Clark oeuvre as atonal chamber pieces.
In Clark’s line-up one can see an entertainer stretching his arms as wide as possible to take in the entire nation and bring every last person into his audience. It is not a happy moment to realize that in this era of niche channels and micro-targeted messaging, after Dick Clark no one is left in the field who even tries to reach the whole nation anymore. His successor Ryan Seacrest, producer of The Kardashians and Shahs of Sunset, radio buddy to Paris Hilton and her set, certainly plays very comfortably speaking to a certain youngish, jaded demographic to the exclusion of many who do not share his fascination of lifestyles of the dead-inside and famous.
Dick Clark was called America’s Oldest Teenager, but he leaves behind about two-hundred million runners-up to that title. Clark won the elderly teenage crown at a time when the concept of teenagedom was just being invented, signifying that even though he was old and wore a suit, he wasn’t afraid to have a little fun and cut loose with the kids once they finished their chores and homework. A few decades later, the teen phenomenon has become just about the most successful notion ever marketed and there are few celebrities who don’t fashion themselves as geriatric teenagers. So successful has the march of Teenagedom been that now its only cultural opposition comes from the other side. America’s next Oldest Teenager is likely to be put in his place not by the grown-ups in the room, but by America’s Oldest Tweenager, whose day surely can not be far off.
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Comments:
May '10
Re: Dick Clark: America's Last Niche-free Entertainer
It s my theory that TV created youth culture. Before TV, only adult culture was legitimate. TV gave youth culture a stage on which youthful behavior, which previously had existed but had not been "recognized", could be be displayed and gain a kind of legitimacy. Everything bad followed.
Dec '10
Re: Dick Clark: America's Last Niche-free Entertainer
It seems he had one last contribution to make to the culture. "Dick Clark's dead" is the perfect response when someone notices the jadedness and vulgarity of pop culture today. The next time one of us expresses a sense of loss for the golden post-war innocence of the 1950s? "Dick Clark's dead." The next time I complain about showing the preview to Watch Out for the b____ in Apt. 23 to an audience of young teens and tweens? "Dick Clark's dead." RIP
Nov '11
Re: Dick Clark: America's Last Niche-free Entertainer
This post explains well what may have been admirable about Clark, but really, is he worth all the air time? And "Clark’s list of projects reads like a roll call of American culture at its widest point?" Really? Maybe "pop culture," but surely not American culture simply. If Clark was or is the best anyone can do in addressing the whole nation, give me niche marketing.
May '10
Re: Dick Clark: America's Last Niche-free Entertainer
Television perfected it but I think the power of it was born in the Frank Sinatra/Bobbysoxer craze in the early 40's. Mothers who rolled their
eyes at the reaction to the Beatles were the same ones fainting and screaming in the seats of the Paramount Theater in 1942. (As an aside, this historic theater has been gutted and now houses The Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square.)
Dick Clark was a younger and more comfortable version of Ed Sullivan. Until he found his niche as a producer he didn't do anything. He didn't sing, act or dance. He was just very amiable before a camera and at ease with a microphone.
May '10
Re: Dick Clark: America's Last Niche-free Entertainer
That strikes me as something that could only be written by someone very young or someone very old with a very poor memory. I watched American Bandstand when it was first aired. It was definitely not designed to reach everybody. Neither my own parents, nor any of their friends I knew had anything good to say about the show at the time. It has a golden haze around it now as a vague recollection of "the good lod days," but that is what it was back in the day.
Dick Clark was an American Icon who had great show biz instincts and thereby brought great enjoyment to a lot of people. That's really all that needs to be said.
May '10
Re: Dick Clark: America's Last Niche-free Entertainer
My all time favorite memory of Dick Clark was during a televised Golden Globe ceremony when he went out to steer an apparently high Elizabeth Taylor back on to her script. Notice at 1:09 how the long-time professional reads out her own stage cue. Priceless!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGT-NUBNTZc
Edited on April 27, 2012 at 10:13pm