The music biz is like the publishing racket. MFA programs and workshops promote their own graduates, rather than good writing, and similarly, connections play a part.

I don’t think Kelly Clarkson is a bad singer- but Ella Fitzgerald, Karen Carpenter, or Judy Garland she ain’t!

cosmoetica Says:

May 17th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
PS- the show is called American IDOL, not SINGER, for a reason.

Exactly.

Still, the ones who are good singers or artists are also getting a public showing which has led to some recording contracts, so even when they don’t win it doesn’t matter.

And the show is what it is: entertainment (mostly). Personally I’m finding the banter between judges, host and contestants is getting really stale, and the “Simon is a meanie” thing is way past its ‘sell by’ date.

And, I’m getting a bit tired of the pattern of a couple of talentless eye candy contestants plus one dorky guy making it to the midpoint of the season (at least they usually are out by that time). Probably not much that can be done about that, though.

I don’t count “Thankful”. AI made sure her album was “bought up” by the record company. They didn’t want a failure. “Breakaway”… HMMM! Seems like I missed that one. Time to do some checking around.

Thankful = 2M+ US album sales

Breakaway = “only the fourth album in history to stay in the Billboard 200 Top 20 for a consecutive year, as well as being certified five-times platinum in the U.S.”

I say that is more than comparable to ‘non-AI’ stars.

I also absolutely second the issue of a creative artist vs. a singing talent. Again, though, Kelly does write some of her material.

Finally, you can have quality AND quantity. In fact, I don’t care how bad anyone’s taste in music is, you have that many songs and albums, just by accident you will have a fair amount of good music.

No, but financial success has no equivalence with artistic success. Were that true Steven Spielberg wd be a better filmmaker than Ingmar Bergman, Dan Brown a better writer than William Kennedy, and Fifty Cent a better musician than your average Symphony violinist.

It’s great that you have all those tunes. But, there is a diff between quantity and quality. Taste is what one likes. Excellence is an objective look at something. I like Godzilla films- they ain’t Kurosawa though. That you equate financial success with artistic success says alot, and not positively.

I did say Melinda was this year’s best singer, but a singer is just an interpretive artist. They are nothing w/o a creative artist. Blake, and Bice, are musicians first, singers second. I doubt Carrie or Kelly could even string a couble of good verses together. Carrie, at least, is a babe, and younger Faith Hill, so all ain’t lost.

But, w/o handlers, she’d have ended up a trophy wife.

Hmmm. Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood (who I don’t like, but who I do give credit to). Bo? Nope. Album tanked, critically ravaged.

Or are you one of those who believes success means no artistic integrity?

Finally, I have over 19,000 songs on my iTunes (in just about every genre that exists), I go to 20 to 30 full concerts and another 30 or 40 small venues per year; I am an annual member of both the Austin Symphony and the Bass Performing Arts Center; I play bass (concert and electric), my brother is a guitarist; my aunt plays cello with the New York Philharmonic; my uncle plays French Horn with the Denver Symphony; and my great-aunt was a touring piano soloist until her death.

I DO think I know a bit about music and he arts. I just have different tastes than you (and don’t mistaken one a capella performance with overall ability).

You are correct about Blake, though. That was a brilliant performance. But, as with Bo, it didn’t make him the year’s best singer. It just was one good performance.

Stick to politics, AR. The arts are beyond you. Bice’s a capella song in the semis was, along w Blake’s Bon Jovi song, the gutsiest move in the show’s history- as well as great singing.

Clarkson’s a teenybopper. Please. Doolittle is far better than Clarkson ever was. Without the manipulation of studio pros, Kelly is just another wannabe. That first season was ATROCIOUS! I recall watching after the Top five, and even Tamyra would not have made Top 6 the last two or three years.

And Yamin is a jazz singer. He was th ebest singer on AI last night.

Kelly Clarkson? Yeah, and Jessica Simpson’s even better.

I remember driving home, and my wife calling and saying that Kelly had just sung Harry Nilsson’s ‘Without You’, and it was incredible. My reply was that as he had a pure 8 octave range, there were maybe 10 professional singers in the world that could do it complete justice, but I was sure she did an ‘OK’ enough version.

When I finally heard it, I was blown away. She hit all the notes, with subtly, control, etc.

Quite frankly, AI got insanely lucky for her to be on season 1, cause otherwise the talent level since (except eventually Carrie Underwood and maybe Chris Doughtry) has been mediocre to slightly above average.

Without her (pardon the pun), I don’t think the show would have gotten as big as it did.

In the 6 seasons I’ve watched the show, the best singer has NEVER won. Had they, the winners would have been (in order) Tamyra Gray, Clay Aiken, LaToya London, Bo Bice, and Elliott Yamin.

That said, like Diana deGarmo had the best potential in Year 3, so does Jordin, and Blake is actually the best artist of this year’s mediocre bunch. Not a one of the three would have made Top 4 last year.