169) Glee Appeal

First, full disclosure: I don't watch Fox's hit show Glee. I've heard and read the buzz, but have only watched a handful of isolated performances. But what fascinates me about the show is its rabid fan base of all ages. It clearly has huge mass appeal, despite its resemblance at first glance to past tween phenomenon High School Musical. (I know, a sacrilegious comparison.)

Yes, there are the dramatic story lines of unrequited love, underdogs and other high school social maladies. Yes, there is the oh-so-cute and talented Mr. Schuester (I think we all had a Mr. or Ms. Schuester, whom we worshiped in high school - the most impossible of impossible crushes). Yes, there are the crowd-pleaser group performances, those feel good, belt-it-out songs of karaoke glory, like Don't Stop Believing. And who doesn't love a knock-out cover? (How much of a guilty pleasure was the Britney Spears episode?)

But what I think draws people to Glee on a deeper level is its ability to choose popular songs to insert and thereby bolster their plot lines. By putting these hits in the context of a high school drama, it gives them meaning that one can easily relate to. And I think this is what we ourselves do when we hear a song. Often, we interpret the lyrics as they relate to our own lives, infusing meaning that is relevant to us. (Have you ever heard a song that you thought was a love song about the opposite sex, only to learn later that it was written about God? Exactly.)

It's a little easier to show than to explain. A couple examples:

"Rachel's heartfelt vocal delivery gets to the core of the song's lyrics, which are made all the more poignant by the episode's context. (She finally gets to kiss her dream boy, Finn, but almost immediately afterwards, he denies it ever even happened.) When Rachel clutches her hairbrush, stares into her bedroom mirror and belts, "Don't tell me you're sorry, 'cause you're not," she's singing on behalf of the heartbroken teen in all of us." (From Billboard.com)


Sure, she's just casually singing in front of the glee club, but her impassioned performance and smoldering glances make it very clear she's talking only to her special someone.

In the end, it's the super combination of the aforementioned factors that makes Glee such a pop culture hit. They've hit on a formula that is massively appealing, plain and simple.