Look, can you blame them? It's the 9th season. It's hard to keep any show fresh for nine seasons. See how much you love Glee when those kids have already graduated high school and college, gotten nowhere on Broadway, and wind up back home working at Jiffy Lube and developing drinking problems.
American Idol seems to be flailing this season. Out of 181 kids flown to Hollywood they clearly did not select the best, most interesting, most diverse twelve. They assembled Fox's answer to the Smallville cast.
The judges keep hammering the contestants for not sounding "current" or "contemporary." But the weekly topics they give them are Elvis songs, old R&B tunes, the Beatles catalog, and Rolling Stones chestnuts.
How is anyone going to sound current singing "Blue Suede Shoes" when the last person who wore a pair of blue suede shoes was run over by a DeSoto in 1959?
Don't get me wrong. Singing classic vintage songs is fine. Just don't ask the kids to turn Patsy Cline into Lady Gaga.
The weekly topics always stay within the kids' limited range too. There's always a chance for Crystal and Casey and Katie and Siobhan to sing the blues. Big Mike can always croon "When a Man Loves a Woman" just with different lyrics. In the first season Kelly Clarkson had to sing a big band number. What about standards? Hip hop? Klezmer, I dunno? Just something out of their comfort zone. And if someone fails badly -- COOL! It's live TV.
And America hasn't helped this year either. They're voting off the wrong people. There's a scene in the movie Where's Papa where Ron Liebman is trying to hail a cab in a gorilla suit. Meanwhile, there's an African-American also hailing the cab. The cab speeds by the African-American and picks up the gorilla instead. That's what I thought of last week when the country kept the far inferior Andrew Gomez over African-American Michael Lynche.
Anyway, Elvis week. The celebrity mentor was recent Idol contestant Adam Lambert. Because he was so smart and original when he competed, I found myself really wanting to hear what he had to say. And I was impressed with his advice.
Crystal Bowersox opened the show with "Saved," trotting out her blues riffs. Kara thought the lyrics were controversial in their day. Oh yeah. "You know I like to lie. And cheat. And step on peoples' feet." Not sure why Kara finds that so objectionable. Maybe as a songwriter she's jealous that the author could actually make words rhyme.
Andrew Garcia was his usual terrible self singing "Hound Dog." If he survives this week look for Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton to both get involved.
Tim Urban rose to the occasion with a lovely ballad -- "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You." Even the judges liked it, much to their utter shock.
Lee Dewyze is the contestant the judges deemed the worthy opponent to Crystal so they pretty much love everything he does. Tonight they fawned all over his rather pedestrian version of "A Little Less Conversation." I'm sorry. He's not so on the cusp of stardom that "smiling more" will put him over the top.
Aaron Kelly, whatever you do, stay off of those "blue suede land mines."
Kudos to Siobhan Magnus, not so much for her singing (although I quite liked her every-musical-style-except-Gregorian-Chant rendition of "Suspicious Minds") but for standing up to Simon and saying she sees no need to label herself. The crowd (and by that I mean the cast of Glee) went wild.
Big Mike sang "When a Man Loves a Woman" but changed the words to "In the Ghetto."
Katie Stevens to me is Crystal-light. The blues for teens. She sang "What Do You Want Me To Do?" She drew upon the angst of getting caught by a hall monitor for being tardy to a class to really sell the pain.
And finally Casey James wasted the pimp spot with "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." Jesus, the Elvis channel on Sirius plays "Clambake," "Five Sleepy Heads," "Kissing Cousins," and "He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad" before that stiff.
American Idol needs to shake things up. Maybe they can take a cue from "the King" himself. About nine years into Elvis' career he re-invented himself. Fat Ryan in a white bejeweled jumpsuit. Yeah, I could watch that. Even with Kara.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WprRGaOoL00&feature=player_embedded
It's hard to watch AI season 9 because after last year, these contestants seem very weak...even Bowersox, IMO. Being a duplicate of Bonnie Raitt is not really being original. There are and have been better artist of her type around for a long time. I see nothing really fresh about her that would entice me to buy her CD.
The only fresh original raw talent is Siobhan, who is having a hard time using that untrained powerful voice like it should be used. Looks like Siobhan just like AI needs Adam Lambert as well, to help her get to the next level! With vocal coaching she could be amazing. Her quirkiness and warmth is also a benefit for the long haul.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvwcJUhIa0U
One more comment...it is ridiculous to assume that you can just hand these kids a greatest hits cd of Elvis or any other artist who was in their prime 30 to 40 years before they were even born, and assume they can pull off poorly edited versions of old songs in a week. Most Elvis songs were barely two minutes long originally. Was it really necessary to cut them down more? Regardless of your perception of these kids' abilities, this practice stacks the deck against them. (Not too mention having four judges give them conflicting advice each week.)
Mamasox bores me compared to him, and she is very good.
Looking forward to X Factor.
never known,experienced, or done without. this is obviously what happened on idol. there have
to be at least 200 hundred elvis songs to choose from - from movies to rock to gospel.............surely there
were better song choices...........they had just never heard them.(and obviously the producers are
also to young to recommend them) in another 20 years* that will
be the idol contestants trying pick the right" michael jackson song..............never heard of them.
*God help us all"
Highlight: Ellen saying a "that was one horny song" when teen hear throb Katie Stevens was accompanied by the UCLA marching band.
Lowlight: Every word out of Kara's mouth. If I get dragged back to the finale this year, I may just bring a muzzle.
1. Rude Boy
Rihanna
2. Nothin' On You
B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars
3. Hey, Soul Sister
Train
4. Need You Now
Lady Antebellum
5. Telephone
Lady Gaga Featuring Beyonce
NONE of these songs are songs that people need to squeeze their eyes closed to "Feel" as they sing. Kara is so far up in her little Ivory tower she doesn't realize how ridiculous she sounds. A Good Melody, good backing sung will will trum "Feelings" any day of the week unless there is some 70's folk singer revival going on I'm unaware of.
Adam was a great mentor.
As for the subject matter. Why not just go back and have Neil Diamond Day again. How about this for a song list. "Anything from the charts, but it can't be older than 2 years." There you go.
As for the Singers, I thought Crystal sounded her usual good self, Sioban sounded weird, but it was interesting and surprisingly enough, Tim was in my top two or three. This was just a wasted night. I can't really picture any major star coming out of this bunch. If you're going to give them theme nights then bring back Disco Night and at least FORCE some of them to be up tempo for once.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Lambert
I have found this year's final 24 to be far more dull than I could have imagined. Few, if any, of them seem to have any range - they each sing the same kind of song every week. And, yes, there is something more than a little ridiculous about tellign the contestants ot be "modern" and "current" while making them sing Stones, Beatles, and Elvis tunes.
I do not see any of these performers going on to big careers.
So many people have talked about how this season of AI is different from past seasons, and what I'm noticing is that there aren't many contestants who seem to crave fame. Many of them want/need money to support their families, and I'm sure they'd love to be able to do that by singing for a living, but I'm not sure they desire "the spotlight" the way Adam Lambert obviously did last year. Michael Lynche is the only one who really lights up when he's the center of attention. The rest of them look like they'd be just as happy (maybe even happier) singing at a local bar or coffee house.
Back in AI7, Carly Smithson was another person who seemed made to enjoy "fame", whereas eventual winner David Cook had a difficult time in his transition from average guy to huge celebrity. Now Crystal is showing the strain of being under constant scrutiny, and I'm sure the rest of them are in a pretty similar state of mind. I sincerely hope the winner can handle being the winner.
Many years ago, I was on a popular TV show, and I often got recognized by "fans". It was really cool the first time it happened, but I never got used to it. Eventually I quit and became a radio announcer. I wasn't cut out for celebrity, not even for the money. I love blending in.
Michael Lynche wasn't bad but the memory of when the real Elvis came out with that song has always made it completely unbearable for me to hear .
Crystal alone is worth watching the show for--she reminds me of the first time I head Janis. Lee is easy on the ears, Tim is a fun underdog story, Casey plays great guitar, Big Mike croons, so what? He does it well, and Siobhan is what every art student wishes they could be. Only Aaron and Katie seem a bit lost up there, just too young. As for Andrew, he's got the whole Inland Empire rooting for him.
And there's always a choice moment like Ryan telling Adam how talented his tongue is. Come on, who didn't love that one?
Not every season has an Adam, and if it did, he wouldn't be so special. I like this group and think that melodically, they are very good. They sound really good together too. I'm not an professional musician, but have sat through enough voice lessons, I think, to recognize good...great? maybe not...good? definately. But then, maybe I don't know that much because I can't stand Carrie Underwood's voice. All a matter of taste, I guess.