WILL YOU EVER WIN? If you've subscribed to our Tier Theory of Idol -- that so long as The Ones Who Weren't Going To Win go home before The Ones Who Might, it's not worth freaking out over the results -- then there isn't much to say about tonight's Idol results. We did not lose The Next American Idol tonight, and it's not worth crying over the results.
Katie Stevens, Tim Urban and Did Benami were the bottom three; Didi went home. She was certainly more to my tastes than some of those who remain -- Aaron and Tim, in particular -- but we've seen all she can do, and it's not that much. Alan notes that with three straight women axed, this may not be Year of the Chick Singer after all, so if you want to shift your bets to a Crystal v. (Lee or TOCJ) finals, go ahead.
I don't know: It seems absolutely wrong that, given the talent imbalance that we had at the beginning of the Top 24, that we'd be at 6 men and 3 women now. But how's this for a theory: this increases the chances for Siobhan and Crystal making the top 4, as there are so few women competing at this point and, let's face it, one of them is Katie.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jenn! Plus, Casey and Lee are sort of interchangable, which hurts both of them.
ReplyDeleteWhew!
ReplyDeleteFrom Michael Slezak:
ReplyDeleteMoreso than for the existing gender disparity, though, Didi's ouster is troubling for another reason: With the number of competitors now down to the single digits, I feel like each of the remaining singers should have, at a minimum, two performances under their belts that signal at least an outside chance to make it all the way to the Nokia in late May. Didi had accomplished that much thanks to her lilting semifinal ''Rhiannon'' and her dark and jagged Rolling Stones-week ''Play With Fire'' — not to mention her tremendous Hollywood Week work on ''Terrified.'' Can Tim Urban, Katie Stevens, Andrew Garcia, and (no offense to fans of solid '80s cover bands) Casey James say the same? I'm not even sure wee Aaron Kelly has shown as much promise to date as The Lady Benami.
Whether you agree or not with the above, doesn't this kind of highlight the problem with the season? Unlike some past years, like Season 7, where by this point, a lot of people had had at least one really great performance, and several had had at least two, at this point, basically I'd only say that, of the finalists, only Crystal, Siobhan, Mike, Casey, and Lee have had at least one, and only Crystal, Siobhan, and Mike have had at least two. If we count Hollywood week, maybe we'd end up with one for Andrew, and maybe I agree with Slezak about Didi for at least one of those performances. But that still leaves a lot of dreck that has yet to pull even one of their hats with six opportunities apiece.
Well, wait. At this point in season seven, we were all afraid that Young David Archuleta and his Dead, Dead Eyes were going to romp over everyone. We knew that Michael Johns, Carly Smithson and David Cook were interesting, and that we were stuck with Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, Brooke White, and Ramiele Malubay in the interim. We were not that excited.
ReplyDeleteAdam -- Agreed that this season is shaping up along 7's lines. Three, maybe four of interest, and then cannon fodder.
ReplyDeleteThe final four should be Crystal, Lee, Big Mike, and one from the field, and I think Siobhan's leading that group currently. However, if she has little sense of vocal control.
This elimination is further evidence of a disturbing trend in Idol voting--discrimination against blondes. Given their proportion among the general population, blondes are seriously underrepresented both among this season's contestants and among winners of past seasons. It's time for someone to speak out against this blatant display of prejudice.
ReplyDeleteBut of all of the remaining contestants, who do you see doing an album that has any chance at modern popularity? At this point in Season 7 we could at least imagine that Johns, Smithson, and Cook might do something relatively contemporary. Other than Garcia, who has not been strong other than in Hollywood week and this week, who in this group sounds like they might record an album that would be popular today? Maybe Lee DeWyze in a kind of Nickelback-popular way, but that's about it. Bowersox and TOCJ are aiming straight at the music of two decades (or more) ago, and I can't even get a handle on the musical identities of anybody else.
ReplyDeleteSee, I'm going to disagree with that. By this point in time in the competition, most of the finalists in Season 7 had had at least one really strong performance and at least half had had at least two. Not true with Season 9. To check my recolleciton, I looked at What Not to Sing, and found that all but three people in Season 7 had broken 80 at least once by this point in the competition, and three people had done it at least twice. Half of the Season 7 folks had broken 70 at least twice. That's not true this year. Only four people (Crystal, Siobhan, Casey, and Lee) have broken 80, and only Crystal and Siobhan have broken it twice. Only four people (adding in Mike and Casey) have broken 70 at least twice.
ReplyDeletePut another way: In Season 7, a variety of people were providing at least one great performance, and at least half had put down two strong ones. You only had three people who had failed to provide at least one highlight, and one of those (Syesha) had at least never sucked. Season 9, you basically have Crystal consistently putting down great performances, Siobhan being inconsistent but great on a couple of occasions, and Mike, Casey, and Lee at least doing something, but the rest of the pack is pretty weak, and several of them have done one more rotten performances.
So, I submit that Season 9 is Season 6 over again. You have one truly great singer (Melinda versus Crystal), a few other people who sometimes pull a rabbit out of the hat (and I'm struggling as to whether Siobhan is Blake or LaKisha in this scenario, but I'm tagging Lee as a possible "hitting stride in early finals like Jordin") but otherwise, a lot of dreck/filler. Is Tim Urban the Haley Scarnato or Sanjaya of this group? Now, that's a hard question.
Agree that Lee is probably going to go the Nickelback/Daughtry route, and that probably fits him best at this point, but I think both he an TOCJ should be aiming for more of a Stereophonics, Kings of Leon or Foo Fighters vibe that really updates and uses the gruffness in their voices.
ReplyDeleteAnd, seeing as how we have a Lennon/McCartney songbook week coming up, thought a link to the Stereophonics cover of "Don't Let Me Down" might be appropriate.
http://www.youtube.com/v/cT9nPg82_hM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
He's more haircut than short shorts, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteBut there is an argument that he's being kept around because of his looks, right?
ReplyDeleteSimon pretty much came out and said it. Specifically, it's more his floppy-haired, Jonas Brothers-style appeal to 11-14 year old girls that keeps him in the competition. They, and their mothers, are the most powerful voting bloc. It also explains why all the prettiest girls (in a traditional sense) keep getting voted off: because pre-teen girls are catty as fuck.
ReplyDeleteIs the problem that we've seen so much Idol that everyone in the competition has a ready analogue from the past? Is there just nothing new for this show to do, because the voters will react to the same stimuli the same way every time?
ReplyDeleteI think we're romanticizing the past. It seems to me that there are at least five singers every season who are just clearly awful, and that as a result, the first six weeks are always the most boring and painful and the time when Idol fans complain that this is the worst season ever. But those six weeks also give the remaining singers time to either ripen or rot.
ReplyDeleteI see Lee and Big Mike as two contestants who have the potential to be much, much better in the Final Five than they are now. Until this week, I figured Andrew was one of those who would rot -- but maybe he'll surprise us, too. I'm not sure you can judge a season except in hindsight.
I like Didi, so I'm bummed to see her go home so early in the competition, but at least she made the tour. I wonder if she'll be allowed to perform "Terrified" on the tour. I'm guessing "Rhiannon" will be one of her songs.
ReplyDeleteReally, as long as Lee and TOCJ are in the final three it's all good. Personally, I don't think they're interchangeable and I wouldn't mind if Lee won the whole thing. Since the top two and sometimes even top three or four wind up with record deals, making it that far is almost as good as winning. I think Lee - moreso than Crystal - could really use the confidence boost of winning the whole thing. (And yes, I know that shouldn't matter, but I like both of them so I'm looking for a win-win.)
I was sort of hoping for a shocker like Siobhan going home. She is officially getting on my nerves.
<span>I'm going to leap to Siobhan's defense. That's a high-pressure situation, and she effed that song up good and proper, and she knew it. When Kat McPhee used to screw up, and just go, "Yeah, I did that badly," did we rail on her that much? Watching back, I don't see nearly the amount of douche that everyone else does -- maybe a shade of defensiveness in the face of a pile-on that, while deserved, went on forlikeEVER.
ReplyDeleteShe needs to stop the screaming, though. It was hallmark on Think, but she needs to get past it and just go classy on everyone's asses. Live and Let Die would rock every ass, but I totally believe she's going to pick Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite or some noise.
Big Mike: She's Leaving Home would sound AWESOME out of him.
Lee: Revolution, or something early and dirty. The Cocker arrangement of With A Little Help From My Friends?
Casey: will be singing Don't Let Me Down. Trust me. That, or Come Together.
Katie: What's pageanty enough? Yesterday on Piano would be awesome, but I'll guess at In My Life.
Crystal: Will probably pick Yesterday, because she's way better at this than Katie.
Andrew: If he did Michelle, I would change my mind about Andrew.
Aaron and Tim, I am stumped on, but that's partly because I don't care.</span>
(Edited for LANGUAGE!)
I think they staved off that sense of repetition by introducing musical instruments, but it's not clear what else they can do to create a sense of newness or intrigue. Crystal feels fresh to me, but she's the only one this season who I'm really excited about.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with this. I think that there's cannon fodder every season and it takes us a while to work through it. The show always seems much better when we've gotten down to five contestants or so.
ReplyDeleteI really liked Rhiannon. I would buy it on iTunes. I think if she'd stayed in that vein, she would have had a better run -- her detour into cabaret singing really hurt her.
ReplyDeleteOh, there always is cannon fodder. I just tend to think that the quality of the season is determined by how much of the top 12 (or 13, as the case may be) is true cannon fodder---never providing a great performance, apt to provide a crappy performance. Season 8 probably had about as strong of a top 5 as you can get, but my perception is still colored by the fact that so much of the rest of the top 13 was weak sauce. Season 7 actually ended up with a somewhat weak top 5, because of Michael Johns and Carly going home earlier and both Brooke and Jason having breakdowns (of varying sorts), but much of the season was pretty entertaining, because few of the contestants were consistently weak.
ReplyDeleteSince we're on the subject of previous seasons, I thought some of you might be interested in a link (via MJ's) that I ran across to Megan Joy's latest. I liked her voice, but thought she made some awful choices on the show. I think the link reminds me of what I liked about her in the first place: "Trouble Me"
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