‘American Idol:’ Music’s Great Deceiver
Somehow I can make it through every Tuesday – the classes, the meetings and the work – knowing when I get home I get to enjoy one of the greatest pleasures I have ever experienced.
On Tuesday nights I get to watch “House, Md.”
I never watch much TV during the week, except maybe the occasional college hoops game and old reruns of “Sanford & Son,” but there is something about Dr. Gregory House that gets me.
Grumpy people are hilarious.
But for two weeks I was not able to watch my favorite show. There were no new episodes of “House, Md.” As Fox does every year at this time, they replaced “House” with the season premiere of “American Idol.”
There are many television trends that I do not even attempt to understand.
Most of the trends include reality shows such as “Survivor,” “Beauty and the Geek,” “The Real World” and especially Flava Flav’s revolting “Bachelor”-style dating show, “Flavor of Love.”
“American Idol” is a show I do not understand. But with an estimated 37.3 million Americans watching the first episode of the current season six – breaking the record set by last season’s premiere – I have to give “American Idol” the benefit of the doubt. I mean, I can’t be smarter than all those viewers.
I’m probably only smarter than 37 million of them.
The problem I have with “Idol” is the fact that America assumes anyone who has a good voice can be a musician.
I see this as an insult to thousands of musicians who spend their lives writing, recording and performing without a second of recognition from anybody.
Millions of people across America can sing well. But not just anyone can write lyrics like John Lennon. Not just anyone can play guitar like Eric Clapton. Not just anyone can put on a show like David Bowie.
Writing lyrics, playing instruments and performing take real musicians.
Having the ability to belt out Stevie Wonder covers does not make someone a superstar. It does not even make them a musician. Just like having a nice basketball shot does not make someone an NBA player.
Hollywood is good at making superstars. They can transform practically any lowlife into a celebrity with a little advertising and clothes removal.
Heck, they might even be good enough to make me a superstar.
“American Idol” is a television gimmick, just like the majority of entertainment today. The show was made to make money, and it will stay on the air until Americans realize they are being deceived.
If you’re not convinced that Americans are dumb enough to fall for Hollywood’s gimmicks, take a look at William Hung.
The Chinese college student’s audition for the third season of “American Idol” was so awful that he got more attention than the audition winners.
Yet Koch Entertainment signed him to a record deal and 195 million pitiful Americans purchased his debut album “Inspiration.”
It has sold more copies than season two winner Rueben Studdard’s latest record.
Studdard’s plummeting record sales probably have to do with the fact that he’s a has-been. With the exception of Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, “Idol” fame only lasts so long – until the record companies can’t make any more money.
Mick Jagger is widely considered one of the most prominent front men in music history. He is a great writer, a great singer, a great performer and a great musician.
But Mick Jagger never would have made it past the “American Idol” auditions.
Neither would Chuck Berry, Jim Morrison, Alice Cooper, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin
and thousands of others written down in music history.
In a hundred years when the music textbooks are written and the great artists are remembered, those are the names that will be mentioned.
Kelly Clarkson will be nowhere to be found.