American Ideal: How American Idol Constructs Celebrity, Collective
Identity, and American Discourses by Amanda Scheiner McClain
provides an insightful analysis of the popular television show
American Idol and explores contemporary notions of celebrity,
American collective identity, and other American themes. American
Idol depicts how a new star is constructed, supports American
ideals such as individualism and archetypes, and reinforces an
idealized American identity through verbal and visual discourse.
The monstrous popularity of American Idol demands study of the
program and the ideals contained within. This book consists of
discourse analyses of the first seven seasons of the program,
contextual press coverage, and of the official message boards. By
amalgamating this research, it becomes clear that American Idol
presents an idealistic vision of American life, where everyone is
equal, democracy chooses the right winner, power is shared, and
celebrity and success can be attained simply by "being yourself."
In American Idol's rendering of America, racism, homophobia,
xenophobia, and sexism do not exist. This idealized America
consists of perfected extant ideological systems and apparatus.
Through American Idol's American themes, representations of
celebrity, and facilitation of collective identities, the show
provides an idealized version of American culture. These idealized
versions of America, national identity, and celebrity support
contemporary economic and cultural norms: capitalistic ideology and
concomitant materialism, beauty, race, gender, and sexuality
standards, and ostensible equality epitomized by possibility for
success. This book is an indispensable reference for not only
scholars, undergraduate and graduate students, but anyone with an
interest in American Idol and popular culture.
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