I don’t know if I will ever watch Idol again. My first impression of the show is so far removed from what it seems to have become.

My Idol Viewing History and General Musings about the Show:

My first taste of Idol was the first season finale. I had heard of the show but was just sort of channel surfing and landed on American Idol. I wasn’t too impressed with either contestant and I really had no preference who won..I barely knew who they were anyway..

The second season I watched about 70% of the shows. My family all had favorites..Treynce, Ricky, Clay, Kimberly, and Ruben; from the auditions to the show we followed those five and rooted for them to do well. Our favorite part of the show were the group numbers..in the end, we loved Ruben and were glad when he won but we also liked Clay and would have been happy if he had won too.

Third and Fourth seasons I did not watch…. I’m not sure why but Ruben’s CD was a huge disappointment and I was a little less than thrilled to invest time watching another season to then get such a poorly made product in the end.. I did happen to see Bo Bice sing one night the night he sang “In a Dream”accapella, I thought to myself..”that guy is a star”

Year five..the best year ever! in my opinion. I happened to have access to a T.V. at work and once again by chance landed on Idol. Again I watched the auditions and from the beginning I pulled for Taylor Hicks..but I also liked Daughtry, Paris and Mandisa. I never remember seeing Elliot in the auditions but the first time I heard him he was one of my favorites and as the season went on I liked him more and more. This was by far the most talented group of individual contestants but the “feel good” vibe from season two was gone and the group numbers were not as cohesive as in season two. Still the talent level kept me tuning in for the entire season, although it was apparent now, that this was clearly a competition and winning was very important. I think this was the first year that just being on the show and the exposure was enough to propel a career from total obscurity to recognizability. Almost the entire top ten has managed some level of success since their time on Idol. In the end I was torn between Taylor and Elliot each impressed me week after week, each was also a long shot in the sense that neither possessed the prototypical rock/pop star looks that these days seems essential to selling CD’s; but I was proud of Idol for showing America that stars are born not made and the packaging shouldn’t matter...or at least I thought that was their message.
After the season I was again disappointed with the CD, the winner produced; not with Taylor as an artist, but with the obvious production shortcuts that were taken, personally I think it is one of the worst engineered CD’s I have ever heard; I think Taylor Hicks’ original material on his independent CD releases is far superior to the after Idol, record company CD. I don’t think they understood him as an artist and I don’t think they cared to try. I also had issue with the marketing or lack thereof that he was subjected to; and the really cruel treatment the press has given him. I mean he didn’t win because nobody voted for him right?

(more on that CD in a later blog entry)

Season Six..I started off feeling pretty disenchanted but then Melinda Doolittle sang and I was in love all over again. No one else seemed to be really as intriguing, although a few of them grew on me at least enough to semi follow their career moves after Idol. ..most noteably Chris Sligh… The whole Sanjaya factor turned me off and soon I stopped watching and just “Youtubed” Melinda’s performances. The eventual winner Jordin was predictable and I was again disappointed at the post idol, marketing angle as she is being made into a Pop Princess and won’t need to use her vocal ability much as she will most likely be singing to beats by Timberland soon. I’m convinced Idol doesn’t want to discover the next great diva they are more interested in appealing to the fickled will of the teenage consumer. Thus the much less marketable, Melinda was cast aside, in favor of the more youth-oriented contestants, Blake and Jordin.

What has changed this year

So now we come to this year..never have more beautiful people been assembled in one place at one time without any awards being handed out..not a quirky one in the bunch..no feel good stories, no underdog… nothing. I am convinced that Idol handpicked this crew to do one thing and one thing only..Sell CD’s. Most of them have already had exposure so the undiscovered talent waiting for a shot theme is no longer the case. This is the year that Idol cannot lose.. I don’t know if they are afraid of the next Taylor, someone hugely talented and popular, but difficult to fit into any niche market or maybe it’s the next Sanjaya, someone who is popular for all the wrong reasons..whatever the case, Idol has taken to crafting the outcome; and the judges, this year more than ever, seem to have an ulterior motive to their critiques. It appears they are almost, blatantly steering the audience in the preferred direction. In fact the contestants get very different treatments in so far as lighting, and camera angles as well as other controllable production factors. This technique actually started a couple of seasons ago.

That is not to say that I don’t like some of the contestants but how can you not..they are all so pretty?? For the record I am pulling for David Cook, I think he is talented. I don’t think he is very original but given the choices this year he and David Archuleta are the cream of the crop; having been consistently good week after week. The edge goes to Cook for me simply because he has shown more artistry in his original arrangements and more range in his song choices.

Where do I go from Here

I never really set out to blog about Idol I am a music lover and what attracted me to Idol was the music, that was what was so special about season five, but that music has taken a back seat lately; and numbers seem to be more important. It’s a shame because I really think that Idol could have been instrumental in bringing back real music, not the gimmicky pop, money making formulaic crap, that fills the radio airwaves today. After next week, I don’t know what direction this blog will take. I don’t know if I’ll take on Idol again, there are plenty of blogs out there who do it much better than I can. I really don’t like reviewing or making negative comments about someone else’s artistic form of expression, so I’ll probably stick to what I love and just talk about music I like. That was my original intention when I decided to blog and hopefully I can provide some interesting content in the future..