Popular, you're gonna be pop-u-lar

GLINDA:
(Spoken)
Elphie,now that we're friends, I've decided to make you my new project!
ELPHABA:
(Spoken)
you really don't have to do that...
GALINDA:
(Spoken)
I know, that's what makes me so nice!
(Sung)
whenever I see someone less fortunate than I,
and let's face it, who isn't less fortunate than I?
my tender heart tends to start to bleed.
and when someone needs a makeover,
I simply have to take over!
I know I know exactly what they need!
and even in your case,
though it's the toughest case I've yet to face,
don't worry, I'm determined to succeed!
follow my lead,
and yes indeed, you will be...
POPULAR! you're gonna be popular!
I'll teach you the proper ploys,
when you talk to boys,
little ways to flirt and flounce, ooh!
I'll show you what shoes to wear!
how to fix your hair!
everthing that really counts to be...
POPULAR! I'll help you be popular!
you'll hang with the right cohorts,
you'll be good at sports,
know the slang you've got to know.
so let's start,
'cause you've got an awfully long way to go!
don't be offended by my frank analysis,
think of it as personality dialysis,
now that I've chosen to become a
pal, a sister and advisor,
there's nobody wiser!
not when it comes to...
POPULAR! I know about popular.
and with an assist from me,
to be who you'll be,
instead of dreary who you were...uh, are.
there's nothing that can stop you,
from becoming populur... lar...
la la, la la!
we're gonna make you pop-u-lar!
when I see depressing creatures,
with unprepossessing features,
I remind them on their own behalf
to - think - of
celebrated heads of state,
or 'specially great communicators!
did they have brains or knowledge?
don't make me laugh!
they were POPULAR!
please! it's all about popular.
it's not about aptitude,
it's the way you're viewed,
so it's very shrewd to be,
very very popular like ME!
(Spoken)
why, miss Elphaba, look at you.
you're beautiful!
ELPHABA:
(Spoken)
I, I have to go...
GALINDA:
(Spoken)
you're welcome...
(Sung)
and though you protest,
your disinterest,
I know clandestinly,
you're gonna' grin and bear it!
you're new found popularity!
ah!
la la, la la!
you'll be popular!
just not quite as popular as ME!

Okay, this was a long introduction for my blog, but when I saw the Cheesy Bloggers theme of "popularity" I automatically thought of this song. In fact, I sing it in my head anytime someone says the word popular. It also helps set the scene for my thoughts on popularity.

I've read a couple of the blogs on this topic through Cheesy Bloggers and it seems like most of us were not in the popular crowd in school. It also looks like we kind of got over our need to be popular once we left the school scene and continued on to our lives. I think that is also mostly true for me. I do have a different aspect in my life than most of the friends I have or bloggers of the blogs I've read. I am a part of a culture that makes its business on getting people to notice them and acknowledge them as something special. If that doesn't happen, everything that they work for is for nothing. In essence, if something isn't popular, it is a failure. The culture I'm talking about is the musical theatre crowd.

I was writing a long explanation of how I got into the musical theatre arena, but that was turning into a book, so I decided to rewrite my thoughts a bit.

Where I went to school it was a big deal to be in choir . . . not like you see on Glee where they are outcasts. We also weren't like Glee in the aspect of a show choir either,we were just a large choir in velvet robes and satin sashes. We were not the outcasts; we were the people everyone wanted to talk to and get to know. I had a strange experience in High School when I was in Concert Choir (the highest auditioned choir in High School) where someone said they knew me and knew about me and I had never talked to them before. It was strange to think that people wanted to know about me just because I was a singer.

This only helped me when I entered college and had to audition for the college choir. I got my degree in Music Arts, but when I began college I was a Music Ed major. I had to be in choir and the top choir was what I and many other students aspired to be a part of. The people in that choir were the rock stars of the music community. I hated getting into the all girl choir as a freshman and sophomore. Then I tried out as an alto OR soprano my junior year and suddenly skipped over the intermediate choir and got to become a “rock star” for the next 3 years (I went to college for 6 years for my BMA, which is a whole other story). I became one of the “popular” girls for the second time in my academic life, but I was an outcast within the popular crowd, if that makes any sense. So even though I have been in the popular arena I still felt out of place and separated from it all.

Fast forward to now – I am part of my second musical theatre production with the same company. I have not gotten a specific role yet, but I’m working to get that accomplished. I’m on “the other side of the fence” these days when it comes to being a musician . . . meaning I’m older than most leads are in the theatre. I’m “over the hill” so to speak . . . although I still have a lot to do in order to reach my prime singing potential. The popularity that I experienced in school translates to the stage so well. It becomes almost political in nature. It’s like popularity on steroids in the music business. Especially for women and absolutely especially for women sopranos. It’s who you know and how you’re regarded that makes a lot of difference. I have to put in my time being in the background in order to get noticed enough to be brought forward. It hasn’t happened yet, but almost. I just have to keep plugging away.

All in all I’ve had my ups and downs with being popular, but would have never considered myself that. In retrospect, if I would have just realized I was popular in my circles it might have gotten me farther . . . or I might have been more mischievous than I was, but it’s probably better that I wasn’t.

I consider myself a gamer girl with a passion for music more than anything else. And I guess that’s all that counts in the end.