Behind the Music: How Little is Too Little?

 Now before I get Twitter attacked by a rabid fan reading this, I am only using this artist as an example because he is included in the upcoming episode of Behind the Music. In an earlier posting, I'm sure you can recall that I compared VH1's flagship program Behind the Music to TV One's UnSung. But this relates to Behind the Music focusing on artists who to me have not had enough longevity to prove they're in the music industry for the long haul. This episode airing Sunday on Adam Lambert is a prime example to me. I'm not saying he's not musically relevant, but he only was a contestant on American Idol not that long ago.
 He's only released one album as a mainstream artist. Now sure as an openly gay artist, he's had to endure more public criticism but I think that he needs to experience more for the story to be fuller. For example, I just watched the Enrique Iglesias episode which was amazing. I honestly didn't have much information on him beyond his tenure in the States, but his episode was informative and insightful on him as an artist. He's been in the industry over sixteen years. I think the depth of his career experiences made the show much more interesting than if he just bust on the scene in 2007.
 This isn't the first episode I've had problems with. Jennifer Hudson, although wildly successful as an actress and singer, has a lot to prove. Can she survive the Oscar hype? Is she going to do another musical? I mean a career with a few years experience is great, but several years is even better. The dynamic layer of personal drama, shaky record sales, and other spins in a career make for great stories.
 There are younger artists with layered careers, one in particular that comes to mind is Christina Aguilera who was essentially famous since she was a young kid on the Disney channel. Experience isn't central to age but to storytelling. You can be seventy with no story or fifteen with a lifetime of pain. It doesn't matter. What matters is what keeps us watching. I honestly don't want thirty minutes focused on what segment of someone's life. I want to hear what got them to this point and what makes them go on.
 A story is about the dynamics of the characters and the turns in the plot. Without that, there's no point in watching.