GRE essay sample: My very first essay posted here - please help!!

[andony]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm completely new here and this is my very first essay I am submitting. Please, please, take a minute and rate it so I can learn from you!

 

I just discovered this forum - you guys are just great and it would be terrific if you could give me some advice.

 

Thank you so much!!

 

"The real talent of a popular musician cannot accurately be assessed until the musician has been dead for several generations, so that his or her fame does not interfere with honest assessment."

 

Even though sales numbers of pop musicians can be high, their fame may interfere with the assessment of the quality of their performances. This is one of the reasons why some persons state that real talent of a popular musician cannot accurately be assessed until the musician has been dead for several generations so that his fame does not interfere with hones assessment. However, as will be shown in the following, a good, honest assessment of an artist's talent is possible during his or her lifetime even if an artist enjoy's great popularity.

 

The first and foremost reason for why the assessment of talent is not necessarily biased by an artist's fame is that the fame itself may be taken as a good, economic indicator of talent. Today, in our market-driven societies, it is not left to some critics to decide who is talented and who not. Rather, fame is often a result of pure talent, as assessed in TV shows such as "Britain's got talent" and, if an artist is talented, he or she may reach popularity through videos that go "viral" online, on online platforms such as Youtube. Therefore, fame should be rather considered a confirmation and result of talent since without talent, artists would not stand the popular scrutiny of thousands who participate online and through their votes by telephone.

 

Aside from this argument, which considers fame to be a result of talent, one should also consider that talent can be questioned and further tested more easily if an artist is still alive. For example if a musician's ability to hit a certain note is questioned, his or her current concerts may be used to assess such doubts. On the other hand, once several generations have passed, it becomes merely impossible to generate such scrutiny. Take Mozart as an example. How do we know whether he was only a good composer or whether he was also a great performer. Any assessment of such new questions has to be based on historical documents, which should be considered inferior to the possibility of observing a live artist who still lives among us.

 

Thirdly, one cannot ignore that the assessment of "real talent" should be in congruence with the conceptual understanding of talent in a given generation. Popular artists, in contrast to artists who try to work for future audiences, create art that is aimed to resonate with the present society. Justin Bieber, a very popular artist, for instance, does not perform for an audience in the year 2300. This young, talented singer is successful in impressing his own generation and any future assessments may be considered rather irrelevant for his work and for other artists that, as their description fits it, try to be popular at their time.

 

In summary, certainly, some artists popularity may increase only after their death and some musicians' real talent may only be discovered generations after a person's death. However, as laid out above, there are at least three important reasons that refute concerns about the viability of assessments of popular musicians' real talent. First, fame can be considered a good indicator and does not have to be feared to be a confounding factor in an assessment of talent, Second, talent is easier to assess when an artist is still around and his or her qualities can be scrutinized more easily, and third, and finally, popular artists' goal is to impress current audiences with their talent, which renders future assessments rather irrelevant.