All Hyped Up and Disappointed

By: Alaina Gizzo
Posted In: Opinion

Hype has been ruining the simplest of anticipated pleasures for as long as we can remember. At least once as a kid we have all been disappointed by a toy that we have waited to save up enough allowance to pay for. As time goes on, the falsehood of hype has induced many forms of dissatisfaction. Lately, I’ve especially noticed a distinct letdown when anticipating major music and film releases.

One recent disappointment manifested itself with the Mar. 11, 2010 release of Lady Gaga’s music video for “Telephone” featuring Beyonce. Pushing the release date back twice for editing reasons, Lady Gaga was attempting to create even more of a built-up anticipation than there already was. With other masterpiece music videos like “Bad Romance” in her wake, fans across the nation eagerly awaited the video release.

Upon seeing the video, I was not as impressed as I expected to be. “Telephone” is relatively amazing considering that it is in fact merely a music video; yet the constant Gaga tweets that dominated my twitter feed led me to believe that this video would be completely innovative and unlike anything I had seen before. Unfortunately, since the artist herself is so unique and innovative, fans could readily expect the nearly ten minute video to have a decent plot and great costuming.

Yet another letdown presented itself with Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Across the board, viewers enjoyed the visuals, but easily recognized the weak plot. With merchandising that reaches such a large scale that it includes a line of jewelry at Walmart, viewers might expect more from the man behind “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Once again, hype managed to negatively affect the reception a highly anticipated release.

A few factors led to the letdown viewers experienced from this film. For starters, Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” is adapted from both novels “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass,” which is quite a feat in itself. As a continuation of the first segment of the story, the film would naturally be compared to the Disney cartoon version of C.S. Lewis’ story. Lastly, when attaching the name Tim Burton to any film, viewers expect a certain level of quality, both visually and plot wise.

In a sense, hype has a few effects on major releases. For Lady Gaga, it provided a decent amount of PR through the constant buzz about the “Telephone” release, at least until it was finally revealed to fans. For a film, however, it betters box office dollar amounts. Those working in the music and film industries have their reasons for creating and feeding into such hype, but in the end it disappoints the group of people who should be most important, the audience and fans.