I’ve written about American Expectity, aka American Idol, a number of times before. It’s the world’s premier expectity factory. And now they realized it themselves: They produce expectities, artists whom people love and want – before the show is over and before they are supposed to be actual idols. The problem is that once these artists get the chance to cash in on their efforts, after the season’s Idol series is over, they are no longer expectitites. US media have reported on the very disappointing album and ticket sales of recent years’ crowned Idols. So now, the artists don’t want to win and get immediately moved on to has-been status. 

The solution – American Idol provides prepayments – motivating artists to compete for big bucks before anyone is crowned Idol (aka has-been).

This makes interesting food for thought in the process of updating our obsolete salary system, which I’ve been nagging about before, don’t you think?