Jump to content

American Idol Cancelled.


Recommended Posts

  • Members

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/fox-cancels-american-idol-20150511

 

While I know many (including me) are not fans, I will give American Idol this. They were responsible for keeping music at the forefront of people's minds for the last decade or so.

And while "The Voice" has become more popular recently, what have they contributed to the music industry?

 

American Idol:

Kelly Clarkson

Carrie Underwood

Jennifer Hudson

Kelly Pickler

Daughtry

Adam Lambert

Fantasia

Jordin Sparks

Clay Aiken

David Archuleta

Ruben Studdard

Taylor Hicks

Katharine McPhee

 

And probably more.

 

All at least names you've heard.

 

Names You've Heard from The Voice ... ??

 

As stated, It lost its flair for me after the third season.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was going to start a thread about this. Frankly, I will be happy to see American Idol go at the end of next season. I'm not really big on the idea of music as competition, and that show doesn't develop and promote the kind of singing / talent that I'm all that interested in.

 

Of the two shows, I much prefer The Voice. I like that it's not all about looks - at least not initially. I also think that as a TV show, it's generally more entertaining overall. I like the way the judges interact better. I don't really expect big stars to come out of any of those types of shows, and the ones who came out of American Idol - the ones Dendy listed - may be well-known names to many, but honestly, how many great songs can you list that each one of those people have released? Once you get past the first three names on that list, I suspect many people who might recognize the names would have a hard time coming up with songs associated with those artists.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Well, both Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly (and probably others) got their start in singing contests. I think Elvis placed 5th :) For Holly, it was on a local TV show. And I can't tell you how many "Battle of the Bands" I participated in during my high school years...

 

But the big difference is those kinds of contests weren't presumptuous enough to say they were going to create "idols" and frankly, American Idol has not created anyone even close to the level of a Buddy Holly or Elvis Presley. Those early contests were simply about rounding up some locals, entertaining the crowd, and getting some kind of prize if the crowd liked them.

 

You didn't have light shows, studio musicians backing them up, staging, mentors, cliffhangers, Ryan Seacrest, etc. Those were more innocent times and music was nowhere near the huge $$ industry it later became. American Idol's premise was that it would find idols and if it couldn't, then by golly, it would create them. But can you really create an idol?

 

I saw a German band called Goldmouth at Summer NAMM last year. Over the course of watching the set, I realized the guitar player had "it." An "idol"? Probably not, but who knows...he's still just out of school. But I'd rather listen to his band than any of the finalists on American Idol - he believes in the music, and I was more than happy to go along for the ride. And while I'm sure Kelly Pickler is a very nice person, what does she believe in?

 

[video=youtube;H3kAC8M7em8]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm not sad to see it go... It, to me, was a dying gasp of the corporate record industry. But there will always be competition, and those who feel they need to be 'best', whatever that means.

 

And there will always be those sharks out there who milk the talent until they end up dying in debt. And, on the other hand, there be really bad people who will do worse...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

15 years is a damn good run for any TV series and "Idol" is certainly getting long in the tooth. But not only did they bring at least the concept of the good singing (even if the singing sometimes wasn't) back to people and give us some big names, you also have to give them credit for creating an entire TV genre. I think a big reason "The Voice" became successful when it did is it was the pretty much the first talent contest show in 15 years that didn't directly mimic the Idol format.

 

While I like "The Voice" better at this point, too, for some of the same reasons stated above, it is also is really just the Adam Levine and Blake Shelton Show. They could be in a pawn shop or buying storage lockers and it would be the same show with the same level of success to a very large degree. I do get a little tired of their "banter" and damn that show can waste time giving us highlights of the night before! Thank God for DVRs and fast forward! People watch that show for those two as much or more than the music I think, which is one reason the show has yet to produce a hit recording artist. Odds say they have to break one eventually though.

 

Phil said he doesn't like the idea of music as a competition, and I get what he's saying, but I never saw the show that way as much as I saw it as an extended audition process. I don't think most of what they put the kids through was much different than they would go through trying out for a Broadway show. There's one "role" and thousands of people trying out for it and only one person it going to get it. A "competition"? Sure. But much of the music business is and always has been, to that same degree. It isn't all just "write music that comes from your heart and hope for that record deal so you can become a true artist and spread your inner spirit to the masses". A lot of it is learning a craft and perfecting it and being better at performing the same song than everybody else who wants the part so you can get the gig.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm sure there was something good about it, but I never watched it. I was already tired of the reality competition theme that started with Survivor. I tried to watch Survivor once and was disappointed. I would rather watch Gilligan's Island. These shows are all the same with different dressing. People watch them out of morbid curiosity... more to see the fails than the successes. At least that was the part of human nature the people that started this TV genre were counting on... and it worked.

 

Looking at the evolution of this sort of programing you could probably see the beginnings in shows like "The People's Court" (1970's). Now we have almost nothing but this theme in TV entertainment. Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, Survivor, American Idol, Shark Tank, etc.

 

These shows are all identical to me. An ancient theme... The Bema Seat (Judgement seat) where people stand before a God and are either granted entrance into Heaven or cast into Hell. I don't find it entertaining at all. IMO it appeals most to the angry, cruel, vindictive side of human nature.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Gotta say I still think my favorite contest show has been and still is The Amazing Race. I think it's because it's the hardest one to fake and has little reason to do so. I don't think much time is spent feeding people clever lines or trying to force "conflict" and drama. I think the nature of the competition creates enough on its own. And the emphasis is as much on doing well as failing. And I get to see the world from my recliner!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Good riddance American Idol. The show has created industry slaves, the winner is always racially fixed, and it's turned music into a cheap competitive sport. An entire generation now thinks music is some sort of competitive sport (add to this "Guitar Hero," et. al).

 

And while I don't care for Phillip Phillips' music at all, at least he had the consciousness (if not the foresight) to realize his industry slave status:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/american-idol-winner-files-bold-767088

 

 

I will say that I saw Fantasia perform at a concert once, and, okay, gurl can SANG. And I will admit to enjoying some of Kelly Clarkson's and Carrie Underwood's songs. But everyone else churned out by the Idol Machine has been pretty much meh.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I didn`t watch the show much but when I did, I agreed with Simon 99% of the time.

 

The show did produce some talented singers. Clarkson, Underwood, and Hudson could all sing, and Daughtry has had a nice career with his band which is still going. As for the others, I`m not as familiar but if Simon had anything to do with it, I`m sure they are talented.

 

As far as the deals that were made… I`m not completely aware of all the details but from what I heard, winners owed their 1st born to Simon… not a fan of that.

 

I`m also not a fan of contests. I don`t like award shows either. Thats why I hardly watched AI and The Voice… I haven`t seen 1 episode.

 

These shows are for the general public who knows next to nothing about musicality. People are easily impressed by looks and loudness. Very few people actually understand or appreciate the necessary years of training for vocal control which is often not loud or overly dramatic.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think the biggest problem for me from the get go was that American idol was basically a singing contest of cover songs. I mean that's all fine and good and everything but there are thousands of good singers all over America singing cover songs in nightclubs, restaurants, school productions and people's own living rooms. The concept was just not that interesting to me.

 

Also unlike Ernest Buckley I seemed to disagree with judges every time I saw it. They were looking for a certain style that just doesn't appeal to me personally. You had these singers singing these old classic rock songs in a very slick production style, almost like Broadway show tunes and the whole thing just felt desperate and cheesy to me. The few times I tried to watch I found myself almost feeling sorry for the contestants.

 

Also the premise was backwards. The idea was that you sing a bunch of cover songs and if you win they give you a recording contract. But yet the singers didn't have any original material yet. Now if it were show featuring young bands and singers performing their "own music" in their "own style" it might have appealed to me more.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

The show was never about the music, really, and certainly not targeted at musicians. Fortunately, I missed the first few seasons, but I watched the advance of Taylor Hicks, mainly because he was exactly not what they were looking for, but the audience responded to him. After that...meh. The best part of the show was the outcasts at the regionals, but that really played as pretty mean spirited, IMHO.

 

It is television after all, but television created by a crafty Brit record producer who saw a chance to make a pile of money, and he certainly did. As big a d*ck Simon Cowell came off as, he was laughing all the way to the bank, and his brutal 'honesty' was often spot on, if not intentionally harsh.

I had to laugh when they put Ellen Degeneres on the judges panel...as if she had any point in being there...and poor Paula Abdul, the butt of Simon's barbs, and a laughingstock in the biz because of her 'performance' on that show.

 

After Simon's departure to try doing the X-Factor US, AI was a self-satire of its former incarnation. Fox, in typical Fox fashion, could not allow the show to go out on a high note, and tried to wring every last dollar out of it, like they are doing to the Simpsons, and did to Married With Children.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Also the premise was backwards. The idea was that you sing a bunch of cover songs and if you win they give you a recording contract. But yet the singers didn't have any original material yet. Now if it were show featuring young bands and singers performing their "own music" in their "own style" it might have appealed to me more.

 

A lot of this had to do with the fact that they weren't looking so much for an artist/vocalist as much as they were looking for someone they could package into some type of profitable pop act. For better or for worse, it's never been a requirement that pop artists be able to write their own material.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Good riddance American Idol. The show has created industry slaves, the winner is always racially fixed, and it's turned music into a cheap competitive sport. An entire generation now thinks music is some sort of competitive sport (add to this "Guitar Hero," et. al).

 

And while I don't care for Phillip Phillips' music at all, at least he had the consciousness (if not the foresight) to realize his industry slave status:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/american-idol-winner-files-bold-767088

 

 

 

Yeah, because there were no industry slaves, racial prejudice or competition in the music business prior to 2001... facepalm.gif

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Let me guess, football, high heels and nascar, with a healthy dose of AirForce, Wells Fargo and Apple Pie.

Probably not yet hip to things like quantum computing, Cern, Chemtrailing or little things like the death of the dollar, mind control and Haarp...silly girls with all the jewels get all the guys with all the lies.

Wouldn't understand or know what to do with a real man if he stood on bended knee begging for her hand in marriage. Another useless tradition brought to you by the Books of Mormon, Buddha, Jesus and Islam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...