Roman Ryabtsev: the fate of idols to fans to a light bulb

Just don’t be cunning, let’s be honest (well, at least not out loud, but admit to yourself) – no, no, have you visited the same thoughts? It stings the feeling of social justice, you want to comb it, but throw out indignation at these people who flaunt their easy success …

But one day the next news comes that the next star of the screen or scene … died in poverty, forgotten and abandoned by everyone. And this news literally stuns you: how is it? because we loved him/her so much! Yes, we have watched all the films, and more than once! Yes, we know all the songs by heart and drunk we sing in karaoke and during festive feasts! it can’t be like that! Well, yes, I confess: personally, I didn’t give a penny to my dead blood star, but the rest are millions of fans ?! And everything like that.

Let me just remind you of a few…

Valery Obodzinsky, a megastar of the 60s-70s, was forced to work as a watchman at a tie factory, as he was thrown out of the Soviet show business (I’ll call it that, although it didn’t really smell like business then) for anti-Semitic reasons, the then chairman of the USSR State Radio and Television Sergei Lapin. And all the millions of fans did not care at all that their idol ekes out a miserable existence, no one tried to help in any way. Only at the end of his life Obodzinsky tried to resume touring activities, gave several concerts … and that’s it.

Igor Starygin, the star of the films We’ll Live Until Monday, His Excellency’s Adjutant, and, of course, Aramis from The Three Musketeers, who also brilliantly sang his songs in all films, was forgotten and abandoned by everyone – both fans and directors theaters and cinema. The actor was terribly worried and literally cried from impotence due to the lack of any work and was even afraid to leave the house – what if they call and offer a role? When the journalist Ekaterina Tabashnikova (who later became his last wife) came to Starygin to interview, she was amazed at the miserable conditions in which he lives. Such a life, of course, was not conducive to health, and he lived only to 63 years.

I remember being shocked by the news of Whitney Houston’s death. Well, it would seem that someone else, but she should have everything in full openwork! A megastar! Yes, not locally-chernozem size, but global scale! Millions of copies all over the planet, world tours, films, advertising contracts … But no, she died in complete poverty, lived in hotels, borrowing money from friends (ex-husband Bobby Brown sued her mansion in Beverly Hills), Whitney’s entire fortune spent on drug addiction treatment … And in the same way, no one gave a damn about her fate, no one suggested that she record something new, get out of this deadly peak (I wasn’t there! I would have used her as a vocalist, yeah!) …

But, of course, I’m not talking about the successfully and beautifully decaying Western show business, which began to develop right from the beginning of the last century and over a hundred years has grown into an almost perfectly self-regulating system – there, as a rule, if you already got into the cage, then with you won’t die of hunger (the example of Houston is just not trivial, but I couldn’t help but mention it, it was painfully remembered). Of course, I am writing about our, down-to-earth showbiz, about those musicians and actors that I encounter on a daily basis, whose main income is creativity, and not assets successfully invested in side activities.

There are endless examples of such a sea, the reasons for the lack of demand and life tragedies for each creative unit are different, but they are united by one common circumstance (I’ll tell you one very unpleasant thing now, but don’t be offended): in fact, absolutely all fans and fans deeply don’t give a damn about how their idols live. Everyone is sure that since a person has entered the media space, this by definition means that he is: a) as rich as Croesus; b) healthy as a bull; c) forever d) does not need sympathy and help, because – see points “a” and “b”; e) is obliged to please his fans with new creativity non-stop, and for free – see paragraph “a”.

On the pages in social networks of one or another group (in fact, for all groups and performers) I periodically see two sacramental questions: “well, when is the new album already?”, “Listen, why is it so expensive ?!” (applies to CD/vinyl/flash drive/Internet release – no matter how the music is released, and concert tickets).

It never occurs to any of the questioners that music does not come out of nothing. Recording in a studio, mastering a soundtrack, designing a cover, advertising a new release – all this costs money, and quite a lot (and without advertising, it makes no sense to release anything nowadays – there are about fifty thousand new tracks DAILY on Spotify alone; there is no advertising – you won’t be heard!) Where can musicians find funds to create new music, given that patronage is not a concept in Russia, and it is much more difficult to find an investor to release an album than to open a new burger joint? That’s right, announce a fundraiser among the fans. After all, it is logical: if you love the music of this artist, help him to record a new song!

However, no. The vast majority of fans are sure that the musicians will take the money for recording from the bedside table and then post the finished work on the Web for free. Only a few manage to raise enough money through crowdfunding to record new material (mostly established, well-known bands with a huge fan base). And then many are sincerely indignant: how dare they ask for money for recording! Yes, they HAVE TO!

The same thing happens with actors and directors: how many times have I seen unsuccessful attempts to raise money among the audience for the shooting of some short film or for staging a play – nooo … The audience is ready to donate a hundred or two at the most and hope that it will the artists will do everything for them on their own, without help (but at the same time they are enthusiastic about the talent of their idols and demand new works).

Yes, and the artist, in order to paint, needs money for canvases, paints, brushes, for renting a studio. I can imagine how today’s painters sigh with envy, reading books on the history of art, where generous patrons, kings, breeders and, to be honest, even the popes provided artists with everything they needed, sometimes asking them to paint either portraits of household members or themselves, loved ones in return …

So it turns out that musicians, actors, artists and other creative people, for the most part, cannot count on financial support from their audience. No matter how strange and illogical it may sound at first glance. And when hard times begin for idols, even more so. People categorically dislike losers and simply turn away instead of helping those whom they so “sincerely” admired just the other day.

But as the star departs to another world, crocodile tears and pathos speeches immediately begin. Obodzinsky’s wife recalled: “At the civil memorial service at the Central House of Arts, there was no end to the speeches about how everyone was friends with Valera and how they loved him. And there stood on a special stand his photograph in a frame with glass. And suddenly she fell to the floor and the glass shattered with a terrible crash. After that, everyone immediately shut up. Thus, Valera stopped this apotheosis from there, from heaven.

In fairness, I must note that the artists themselves are partly to blame for the current situation. They are terribly afraid of “losing their brand”, seeming to be losers and with their last strength, they try to portray on social networks and interviews for the last penny that everything is fine with them, that everything in their life is like in the best of times, they are successful, rich and in nothing need… Vicious circle of pretense. And I really want to break it someday. For each person performs some specific function in life: someone builds houses, someone cooks food, someone drives a bus … And someone creates art for all those who do not know how to do it themselves.

And it also WORK! Difficult, nervous, very costly and extremely unhealthy. And not entertainment, which at the same time also brings crazy money (actually not crazy). And it would be great if fans sometimes asked their idols if they need any help? Suddenly needed, and the artist is shy, so as not to look like a weakling?

And musicians, actors, artists and others would not be afraid to appear before their fans as ordinary people of flesh and blood, and not pretend to be celestials. They would share their everyday problems, tell not only about the premieres and the notorious “creative plans” (brrr!), but also about what really worries and worries them. Now, if over time such real live communication became the norm, then you look … and we would not be sadly surprised by the next news about how another star was found dead in an apartment among empty bottles and cockroaches …