Thursday, March 4, 2010

DIVERSITY DAY: I say it often, but it's as true as a matter of both voting and talent this week -- none of the four people sent home tonight had yet demonstrated the talent sufficient to become The Next American Idol.

Next week, though, will be a bloodbath of democracy -- taking the pool from 16 down to 12 means each singer has only a 75% chance of survival, tough odds they won't see again until it's May and we're down to the final four.

In the meantime, we can debate the relative douchiness of Danny Gokey's unawaited return to the Idol stage versus twenty people lip-syncing "I Gotta Feeling" without the L'chaim!, and whether there's any possible pattern to these week's evictions.

20 comments:

  1. Hmm -- John Park, Jermaine Sellers, Michelle Delamor and Haeley Vaughn all out in the same week.  Cue Adam's standard argument about the Unbearable Whiteness of Idol.

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  2. Bloodbath of Democracy is totally my next band name.

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  3. My boyfriend was pleased to learn that Danny Gokey was the person first tagged by my sister as a "douche casserole."  He heartily agreed.  I have yet to mention that Danny is opening for Sugarland, whom we have tickets to see in May.

    It has been a bit disconcerting to see so many of the first eliminations be among the racially diverse.  While it is the case that all of the minority performers who have been cut have been among the weakest performers, with the possible exception of Joe Munoz, it is also the case that there were arguably stronger minority performers rejected in favor of these folks, and that Joe and Michelle got about miniscule airtime before the semis.

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  4. Sheila6:09 AM

    We never know for sure who the actual bottom 4 are at this stage, but it was interesting that the two men given last-minute reprieves were also non-white. After seeing what happened with the men and seeing how the women were arranged, I called that Michelle and Haeley were out and my husband thought I was wrong. I told him he hadn't been watching Idol as long as I have.

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  5. Agreed and agreed. I don't feel any great loss here. Michelle was the best of the four, but watching her performance bored me so much that I fell asleep and missed Lilly, whom I like. Losing Ashley last week surprised me so much more. But, yes, hard not to wonder, though, who didn't make it to this stage who might have thrived.

    Watching has felt like a bit of a chore this year, but I'm trying to have faith that once we're down to 6 or 7 that there are actually some very interesting people in the mix (and, yes, more women than men). I'm just dreading the loathesome middle when America insistts on keeping folks like Tim and Aaron beyond their expiration date.

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  6. Paul Tabachneck10:29 AM

    I haven't watched this week (life is too hectic for 5 hours of AI right now, unfortunately), but I have read Jacob's recaps, and from what I've seen, I'm inclined to agree.  Haeley was so interesting, but I always felt like the rims were spinning way too fast on her wheels, and those babies were going to go flying off the sides at any moment, destroying storefronts and making young parents thankful they invested in the good baby carriages.

    I'm sure I'll have more to say when I do get around to watching this weekend (if I don't catch up and/or remove the HD overflow from the DVR, I anticipate a conversation with my roommate that I would totally deserve.)

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  7. Genevieve11:36 AM

    I do find it somewhat disturbing that everyone who was out was non-white.  (Was Andrew Garcia in serious danger, or were they just messing with us?  My guess is messing with us.)  But I also agree that none of those four would win,  I was very happy to see Jermaine go, and completely agree with Paul's description of Haeley (I liked her and her performances, but her send-off was exactly when those wheels came off).  Tim Urban and Alex Lambert did step up their game this week, which could be why they weren't at risk.  Lacey, I don't know why she's still there, and I like Didi but thought she would likely be out. 
    I wish John Park had performed Gravity on Tuesday the way he performed it on Thursday - much more connection with the son (as Kara likes to say), and much better when not seated on a stool.

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  8. Mr. Cosmo12:32 PM

    Adam -- remind me what the standard rant is?  Glancing through past seasons, it appears that African-Americans have been over-represented in the top five and overall winners, that Hispanic/Latinos have been under-represented, and that Asians have been virtually missing (although after the Jasmine Trias experience, one could understand).

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  9. African American males are deeply underrrepresented, especially in terms of just making it into April.  Allison Iraheta helped balance the numbers for Latina women, and for Asians in the finals you've got Trias and Desai.

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  10. I thought Haeley should have gone home last week (in fact, I didn't think she should have even made Top 24), but I felt awful for her last night. I felt almost as bad as her voice. It was so pitiful: crying but trying not to cry is the saddest of all. I wish the judges had turned her away in Hollywood and advised her to come back in a year or two. Poor kid.

    I noticed a bit of a pattern with the eliminations last night (and I think last week, too). Once they had it down to the final two, if the person on the left went home in the first group of guys, the person on the right went home from the next final two from the other group of guys. Same thing with the women. John Park was eliminated, so Andrew was safe. And since DiDi stayed I knew Haeley was definitely going home (and I don't think Lacey was good enough that it was a given she was staying).

    BTW - At the top of the show Simon talked about watching the show back when he got home and how one of the contestants was much worse than they originally thought.  Would that maybe have been Michelle?  Or Paige?

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  11. Mr. Cosmo4:35 PM

    Adam -- OK, that's clearer.  Approximately 7% of the U.S. population are African-American males.  That's less than 1 in 12, meaning that purely on the numbers, there should be one African-American male in the top 12, and over the course of 9 seasons, there would be one or two Top 12's with no African-American males.  During the first four seasons, we had EJ Day (10th), Charles Grigsby (11th), Ruben S. (won), George Huff (5th), Niko Smith (9th), Anwar Robinson (7th).  That's good representation, and a reasonable distribution.  No African-American males in season 5.  Season 6, Brandon Rogers (12th); Season 7, Chikezie (10th); Season 8 none.  So over 8 full seasons, 8 African-American male finalists -- no problem there.  One winner -- no problem, but obviously a small sample size.  I agree, however, that the last four seasons have seen underrepresentation and early exits.  I would also agree (if you were to argue it) that Brandon and Chikezie probably got booted too soon.  On the other hand, under the tier theory neither of them had a chance to win.  It's an interesting question.

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  12. You're using the wrong baseline -- it's not compared to percentage of the overall population, but to "percentage of popular artists in the music genres in which Idol viewers are interested," or something like that. 

    Also, the aarly ouster thing: when when the judges/producers are able to get folks into the final 12, they don't last as long.  Would any of the non-Ruben folks have won?  Perhaps not.  But final five gets you much closer to a record deal.

    Also, you left out Corey Clark.

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  13. Mr. Cosmo5:16 PM

    It's your argument, so you can define the baseline however you'd like.  But, of course, this moves the discussion into a very subjective realm.  Obviously, rap/hip-hop are massively dominated by African-American males.  Just as obviously, AI has no interest whatsoever in those genres of music. So we could play definitional games all day long trying to determine and carve out genres in which "AI viewers are interested".

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  14. Mr. Cosmo5:18 PM

    There's a second half to this post, but I'm getting an error message.

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  15. Mr. Cosmo5:18 PM

    Maybe we should be looking at this question upside-down.  Every African-American male on the show seems to have trouble breaking out of a box bounded by Motown, Marvin Gaye and Peebo Bryson.  Maybe this AI-created genre just isn't too popular with AI viewers, regardless of the quality (or color) of the singer.  Maybe the better question is what can AI do to give African-American male singers a better or more viable platform, resulting in an AI top 5 that looks more like the actual pop charts?  Frankly, I think this question is going to become a lot more important if this season remains the snooze-fest it is shaping up to be, and if AI wants to recover from Simon's departure.

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  16. Rap is off the table, but r&b in the Usher/Chris Brown/Ne-Yo (or, going back, Bobby Brown) vein shouldn't be.  (Basically, folks like Todrick Hall.)  It's the failure of that subgenre to break through on the show which is troubling, and part of why for years I've suggested a New Jack Swing Night on the show. 

    Really: what's Crystal Bowersox doing on Motown night?

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  17. J.O'Connor7:45 PM

    Another way to think about the question might be to look at what type of recording artists appear on the show.  I haven't been watching AI that long, but I can't think of any African-American male singers who've appeared on the show except Lionel Ritchie and Chris Brown with Jordan Sparks in that No Air duet, while there've been a much larger (and more prominent) number of female African-American artists like Mariah Carey and Mary J Blige who've appeared (at least in my limited viewing beginning in Season 6).   I don't know whether that's due to the unwillingness of R&B artists like Usher to appear or the unwillingness of AI to have them.  But given how big AI's audience is, I would think either side's unwillingness would disappear if they thought those artists would be a good fit for the AI audience.  My tentative guess is that male "R&B" music today (for want of a better term) is too sexual for AI.  As a generalization, R&B songs sung by women can concern "safe" topics like heartbreak (Mariah) or empowerment (Beyonce), but R&B songs sung by men concern sex and seduction.  To bolster my case, I'd point to Glee where the two male R&B songs I recall sung on the show are Usher's "Confessions" and BBB's "Poison," both of which concern topics and lyrics that work in a Ryan Murphy show (and are sung by goofy white guys), but don't work in show that's pitched to a mega-audience that includes elementary school kids and grannies.  Even sweet and nonthreatening Anoop couldn't have gotten away with singing "me and the crew used to do her."

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  18. Black Eyed Peas (yes, Fergie, but also Will.i,am) and Flo Rida both appeared last year on Idol, so....

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  19. Paul Tabachneck11:49 AM

    I already want a Siobhan/Bowersox finale.  I'd love to care about anyone else, but I just.... How can you compete with those two?  They're so weird and pretty and cool, and they're picking straight-up perfect stuff.  Yeah.  Rasta hippie versus neo-punk Ally Sheedy.  I'll TAKE it.

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  20. Alan Sepinwall6:18 AM

    Adam, on Motown Night Crystal can do either of the songs Joan Osborn sang in "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." Easy. I don't know if you can condense that arrangement of "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted" down to 90 seconds, but if you can...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA0GcXV2njY

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