Why You Should Get Off Your Ass and Vote for Adam Lambert

[zhai]

Still in the process of catching up here, but as the event for this is imminent, I wanted to post quickly about the rather odd mental moment I had last week.

jsridler and I have been watching "American Idol". We watched last year, too, and this was largely his initiative since I have trouble keeping track of TV programs. (The TV is still an enigmatic box

Comments

[jsciv]

We do know that Kris has done his own arrangements of almost every song and the word around is that he helped most of the other contestants at one time or another to do the same. The "unusual" versions of songs that both Adam (and David Cook last year) has done are repeats of covers from other artists, whereas the versions of the songs Kris did were his own. We don't have any original compositions from Kris, but if nothing else, what he did with Heartless impressed a lot of people.

As far as what the contest should be about: in the end it's a popularity contest, so whatever people do is what happens. The singers' ability is only one component of what motivates people to vote, so what it "should be" about and what it "is" about are slightly different things.

The first rocker was Bo Bice, then the next year they had Daughtry, and since then the genre has had more representation in idol for sure. They actually used to have a lot more country, but Carrie Underwood was the last country artist to really shine (and then Kellie Pickler the year after was out 6th). So as America's musical tastes evolve the contestant mix evolves.

[devilwrites]

A defense of David Cook, whom I adore: he did do his own arrangement of "Always Be My Baby" and "Little Sparrow." That was my understanding. :)

Erin, I think one of the reasons the whole songwriter thing is taking off may be in part because after Idol is over, it's about album sales. Great performances are one thing, but if the album tanks, its tough cookies. Season five winner Taylor Hicks was supposedly a great performer (not to my taste) but his album sales have been HORRIBLE, even though he won by a landslide.

With songwriters, voters feel they know what they're going to get with an album, which is really where it counts the most once Idol is over.

[zhai]

I think I can see the logic, sort of, in the songwriting thing, I just don't see how that can be a primary factor for decision when it's all speculation, whereas there's plenty to decide on just from the performances as we see them. It is interesting to track who did what after the show, though -- which I think has to do with a number of things, not the least of which is motivation to keep going and keep improving.