“The Temptations” was a made for TV mini series that aired on NBC in 1998. “The Temptations” is one of my favorite movies. It was great. It’s one of those movies I always watch at least in part when I can catch it on TV. As you can guess it was the story of the Motown group The Temptations. There was a scene in the movie where the group was in the studio recording the song “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”.
The lead on this song had daddy issues. Dad was absent from his life and it was a sore spot for Dennis as an adult. The song writer, Nelson knew this but pretended he didn’t know that September 3 was an emotional trigger for Dennis. The sneaky song writer wanted Dennis to sing with emotion and created tension to get the reaction he wanted. The singer was manipulated into a soulful performance so the set up worked.
Nelson had the best interest of their project at heart and Dennis benefitted from a hit song but. “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” was a hit and R&B and pop culture history was made but Nelson did not care about Dennis as a person. The song’s success was at Dennis’expense.
TV shows like “American Idol”, “Dancing with the Stars” and “America’s Next to Model” do the same thing. Even game shows do it. Contestants are cast because they are easy to manipulate. It’s kind of a pimp game and it’s how cults are established.
Social media thrives on emotional triggers and insecurities. Society, politics and the economy has been affected destabilized because of manipulative emotional triggering. It’s on a massive scale now.
I call “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” the emotional trigger anthem and September 3 is nation Emotional Manipulation Day.
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