The audience, quite delightfully, displayed the strong opinions and partisan enjoyment of sports fans, rooting for favorites and debating the relative merits of performances, even in some cases without prior specialized knowledge of the music.
But I've long wanted to do an empirical study of the merits of performances in relation to direction, because I think that, in an overwhelming preponderance of movies, there's a close correlation between the quality of an actor's performance and the inspiration of the director.
French economist Thomas Piketty, in his book Capital, calls this the ideology of "meritocratic extremism", the doctrine that extravagant pay is justified by the merit of performance.
The Tupac hologram's performance instantly set the internet ablaze as Twitter users and bloggers debated the merits of a performance by an artist who could obviously not agree to "playing" at Coachella.
Unwritten rules and veiled patterns often weigh as heavily in the Oscar race as the merits of a performance or film.
However Matt Mueller, editor of the industry journal Screen International, speaking after her remarks on French radio, was among many who felt that, whatever the merits of her performance, she hadn't improved her chances of a taking the Oscar.
They wanted Norma Desmond.' Michelle believes the real reason her mother did not win an Oscar had more to do with behind-the-scenes Hollywood machinations than the merits of her performance.
And while the singer in question – the immensely talented Tara Erraught – perhaps more closely resembled Strauss' idea of the character in question, as well as many now plus-size women who appeared in the art of the era, from Renoir to Cezanne – the merits of her performance were, on the whole, overshadowed in favour of derisive body shaming and outright pettiness.
The best way, perhaps, for an outsider to assess the merits of a performance is to see how touchy-feely the coach is and he received a double kiss and hug before being awarded the highest score of the competition (16.850).
