American Idol: the day after
Some of you may recall that I sorta, kinda, like, follow "American Idol." Yes, it's the populist in me.
I'm actually somewhat more interested in the soap opera aspect of the show (correction: the "human interest" aspect of it) than the music. Oh, whatever; it's fun.
This week--and the week before--I missed it; had other fish to fry. That shows you that my commitment is somewhat less than rigorous. But no matter; the blogosphere came to the rescue and pointed me in the direction of videos of the performances of my two favorites this year: Chris and Elliot. Ann Althouse has her usual no-punches-pulled roundup, and The Anchoress has obliged with comments of her own and links to the videos. Enjoy, if you care to see what all (or at least some of) the "American Idol" fuss is about.
And Dean Esmay comes aboard to prove that the appeal of Chris and Elliot is not just limited to the distaff side; he agrees, they were awfully good.
And to those who complain that it's more a popularity contest than a music contest I say, "Du-uh!"
posted by neo-neocon @ 10:55 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Neo, I'm so glad you enjoy AI too. It is definitely fun. But the real question is, who do you think will get the boot tonight? I am hoping it will be Kellie, but fearing it might be Paris.
Also: I note there are no trolls here, at least as yet. Maybe the thought of Simon Cowell -- or Paula! -- scares them off.
Nikolaides: I'm hoping for Kelly. But I don't care who it is, as long as it's not Chris or Elliot. I do worry about Elliot; he just doesn't have that "X" factor that gets the fans fired up, although he's got a great voice.
And I think the winner is gonna be Chris, all the way. Even if he is a married man.
Unfortunately, I like this kind of stuff and especially the realy bad tryouts early in the season.
Ms. Pickler would be my choice to be picked to go tonight after her horrendous song last night and last week as well. But, I fear she has a large and loyal fan-base who has bought into her sob story and is willing to overlook almost anything; I'd like to know if she is really as naive and unsophisticated as she seems because if this is an act she's got to have a hell of an I.Q. to pull it off. Taylor Hicks seems an inch wide and a mile deep talent-wise: a natural, great in his element, not so out. "Handsome" Eliot is not my favorite because to my ear he is always just a little bit off on most notes. Paris is extraordinary given her age and I like how she changes her look and persona depending on the song. Kathrine McPhee is luscious and has a great voice but the giggly thing and her extreme awkwardness on stage have to go. To me Chris is like Taylor, great in his element, limited outside it; since I don't like his brand of rock, I wouldn't pick him to win it all.
Maybe more entertaining for me is name-dropping Randy, "The Dog" with his gangsta act, incoherent, siliconed, botoxed and probably overmedicated Paula and obnoxious Simon, who I think is the only sensible judge of them all; what a great dysfunctional family!
I suspect that most of what we as the audience see is almost all very well-staged manipulation. For instance, some of these song choices are so bad, I wonder if the producers don't have some influence on who picks what, and then how the judges react to the resulting awful performances, all in aid of boosting ratings. Several times what I thought were obvious faults were overlooked while really great performances were shot down. But then, what do I know? I didn't even know that Andrea Bocelli was "one of the greatest singers to ever walk the face of the earth!" Troubling, as well, is the fact that nobody ever sees a breakout of the vote.
American culture, the real super weapon of the 21st century. Propaganda does not work against it, why? Because popular culture is on another level entire, it's like it is alive.
There's like 700 comments under that Youtube video, one One Blog, for One Post. outclocked by the 1,000+ comments when the Union Strikers opened up their official site, at New York Transit Strike on Christmas thing, but still.
Last night's comments by Ms. Pickler have convinced me that she is, indeed, genuine and very clear-eyed too in her perceptions of American Idol and her place in it. I guess I've seen so many phoneys that its hard to believe the genuine article exists.
I must say Paula was very entertaining as she did her maniacal cheerleader routine; what the hell is she on? I'm also very thankful that Randy got neither the chance to utter the phrase , "Yo,Yo,Yo, Check it Out" nor the chance to say "It's Da Bomb." He talks about a five note song but I think he's working with a 20 word vocabulary and maybe 21 if you add gang sign language.
Ya, it's the "theme". Paula's the romantic. Simon's the jerk, standoffish guy. Randy is the neighboor across the hood, just hanging out and chillin.
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