What's Wrong with American Idol
In the last year I've been listening to a lot of music, and yet I've not been tempted at all to try to tune into America's music TV sensation, despite having a number of friends who recommend the show. It's not that it's a game show, especially one that rewards ability rather than simply jumping up and down and screaming (i.e., Deal or No Deal). As an active gamer, I like game shows. I'm not above trying to beat the contestants on Jeopardy with how quick I can ask the question. I don't even mind the early rounds where the whole point of the show is to let folks embarrass themselves and let the hosts insult them. Performer beware, I say. No, my problem with American Idol is that, as a test of musical ability, it only concentrates on one-third of the whole.
To me, a perfect pop song is three things: the music, the lyrics, and the performance. By removing the first two tests from the mix, it leaves the contestants only with the performance to differ themselves among each other, and this inevitably leads to diva-dom. That is, they attempt to show how good their voices are by invariably adding as many extra notes to the existing song as they can (for example, check out any cover ever made by Whitney Houston).
To concentrate on just the performance of a song to me is a throwback to the 40s, the heyday of big bands fronted by classic singers (Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald). It was a time when the production of music was as important as the performance, and also a time when the arranger (Nelson Riddle, anyone?) became quite important. The songs typically performed had been written years before: the classic American songbook.
Rock music broke this mold in the 50s, where singers became bands who wrote and performed and eventually produced the music themselves, and the most important person became the singer/songwriter. This stagnated in the 70s as production once again threatened to overtake everything and led to punk music, that tried to take rock once again back to the roots. Again, in the late 80s, grunge did the same.
Things go in cycles, and now the classic American songbook is all those rock songs from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, as can be seen from the musical choices on American Idol, whose producers now reign supreme over the creation of these performances. I'll pass, for now, until they decide to do a American Singer/Songwriter.
I'll pass, for now, until they decide to do a American Singer/Songwriter.
Guess you better tune in then because they're going to try that this year.
American Idol extends talent search to songwriters
;-)
I just want to point out something here, Glen.
Do you still like Coverville? If so, how does that jibe with this stance that you're only worthwhile if you're performing your own material that you've presented here?
There's nothing wrong with a cover--as you know, I like a good cover version as much as the next person. But Idol's performers are only tested on their ability to do covers. Typically, cover versions are interesting because it's A covering B where both A and B are known quantities. That is, you know of A's original songs and you know what the original version of B's song sounds like, and what makes the cover interesting is how A makes B song their own (such as Johnny Cash covering Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage"). I can't think of a band that I listen to that I started listening to them for their covers instead of for their originals, outside of novelty or joke bands (Richard Cheese, for instance).
As for the addition of a songwriting component to Idol, sounds great, but since they're still not going to be performing their own songs, and only doing the original once someone has won, I doubt I'll be tuning in.
I've been highly disappointed in the songwriters contest for AI. I entered 16 songs, although 18 were submitted. All I got back from them was a credit card statement. I don't even know which songs were actually recieved. I believe in the music that I submitted with my fiance, and I know it's fantastic. I didn't even get to know if it made it past the 1st round in the elimination process. Which I know if they knew anything about harmony they would see. It seems to me that they could have been more forthcoming about the judging process, and whether it had commercial value, and how important that was. I think the top 20 songs are all about the love between two people, and not about the greater goals of love between people of all types. AI is basically appealing to the younger, expendable income crowd. Thank you for your consideration. Susan.