This year, Glee is having more of an impact than American Idol.

( Glee Cast )

Here's a long response I wrote in response to Tom's brief sketch of a schema of music history and the relation between content and context. He gives us three eras:

The Pre-Recording Era
The Recording Era
The ???? Era (Now, Basically)

And I played with that:

( The Conversation Era )

Black Eyed Peas celebrate half a year at number one, while two country acts and an oddball one-man band join the top 40.

( Carrie Underwood )

American Idol is good to Carrie, Randy, and Brad, while Wayne unwinds and Flo Rida goes searching for game.

( Carrie Underwood )

"Blame" rises, "Climb" falls, and some radio stations are willing to !$@# "Amy," presumably in modified form.

( Rascal Flatts )

Britney jumps to number one, Carrie and Abel make the long trek to the Top 40, and Akon and Weezy finally have a week where no one invites them in as guests, so they invite each other.

( Britney Spears )

From the files of the Dept. of Misapprehension:

A lot of the time when I'm listening to Carrie Underwood sing, "I carved my name into his leather seat," I hear it as, "I carved my name into his legacy." I can't shake this; when I'm half paying attention, these and not the correct words are what I hear.