We actually had this poster in our classroom in the seventh grade. Farrah earned $400,000 from it in one year! Most popular wall decoration in history up til then.
I've long been fascinated by "hits". What exactly is the quality of a work which makes it a hit?
Good marketing helps, for sure. But it is not an essential factor. For example, Oprah Winfrey made that movie Beloved, and it was a flop. I can't imagine a better promotional platform than the Oprah show, and yet it was a flop. It was probably a pretty good movie too.
No, I suspect that is some subtle quality that makes something a hit. You can sometimes feel it, a kind of excitement in your belly when watching a picture, movie, song, or whatever that's a hit, before you know if it is one or not. I have several times heard a song in a store (I don't listen to radio), and been captivated by a song, and later I found out it's a big hit too.
I suspect the hit quality is not definable in any physical terms. But nevertheless is real.
Eolake, I had the same poster :) But actually had a crush on Olivia Newton-John after seeing Grease. What a hottie.
ReplyDeleteNow I am alone, sigh :( But I have my Lord Jesus. (I'm still praying for that special lady.) Be well my friend.
Well, when *I* was about the same age, one of my classmates almost got expelled for posting a similar kind of posters. Religious schools...
ReplyDelete"I suspect the hit quality is not definable in any physical terms. But nevertheless is real."
Bah. Like everything else that's physical in the Universe, it is bound to disappear when we wake up. ;-)
Unless by "hit" you mean the kind that's measured by a web page's "hit counter"?...
I'm not sure about other mediums, but as far as music goes, I have a theory that hit songs(along with having good melodies) are usually based on clever ideas. I think you could almost tell what songs are going to be hits just by looking at the song title. That's over-simplifying it of course, but I think it's true in a lot of cases.
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