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'American Idol' Season 11 on FOX HD

48K views 968 replies 75 participants last post by  jandron 
#1 ·
#778 ·
PP has been the only one that gets me to tap my feet for weeks now. He's interesting, entertaining and I hope he wins.
 
#780 ·
Jessica is the most wholly derivative performer I can remember at the top in AI. There is not a phrase she utters which did not come directly from another artist.
 
#781 ·
When you learn an instrument at a high level you have to be able to do certain repertoire that has often been around for hundreds of years. You don't do it by building on low level repertoire. That is what you do vocally as well. Jessica is capable of singing at a very high level as was Joshua. With time you develop your unique style, but even top jazz musicians mainly play licks that have been around for ages. Every now and then they come up with something unique. Every singer on AI has basically done the same thing, so this parrot accusation about Jessica is just uninformed. What is different with each performer is the tone of their voice, the way they look, personality and do on ... . From a vocal ability point of view you have Joshua, Jessica, Elise, Holie, Sklar and so on. All have instruments that can be molded into whatever. PP is weak vocally but has his own pluses in the way he plays the guitar, his voice, type of music he like and maybe he's a good songwriter. Don't know. Can't quite get the hatred for Jessica here. Obviously not everyone agrees with you just as not everyone doesn't agree with my opinion that PP can't sing. He certainly strums well on the guitar but this isn't a guitar competition. In any case even from that perspective he wouldn't be in the same category as Casey James or even Casey the bass player. There are just many fine guitarists around. As I have said before his performance of Volcano, which was very good, is identical to one you can find on You Tube. So let's stop kidding ourselves that you've got major creative jazz types up on stage. They are pop singers and very good ones at that.


Philip
 
#782 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd /forum/post/22041403


When you learn an instrument at a high level you have to be able to do certain repertoire that has often been around for hundreds of years. You don't do it by building on low level repertoire. That is what you do vocally as well. Jessica is capable of singing at a very high level as was Joshua. With time you develop your unique style, but even top jazz musicians mainly play licks that have been around for ages. Every now and then they come up with something unique. Every singer on AI has basically done the same thing, so this parrot accusation about Jessica is just uninformed. What is different with each performer is the tone of their voice, the way they look, personality and do on ... . From a vocal ability point of view you have Joshua, Jessica, Elise, Holie, Sklar and so on. All have instruments that can be molded into whatever. PP is weak vocally but has his own pluses in the way he plays the guitar, his voice, type of music he like and maybe he's a good songwriter. Don't know. Can't quite get the hatred for Jessica here. Obviously not everyone agrees with you just as not everyone doesn't agree with my opinion that PP can't sing. He certainly strums well on the guitar but this isn't a guitar competition. In any case even from that perspective he wouldn't be in the same category as Casey James or even Casey the bass player. There are just many fine guitarists around. As I have said before his performance of Volcano, which was very good, is identical to one you can find on You Tube. So let's stop kidding ourselves that you've got major creative jazz types up on stage. They are pop singers and very good ones at that.


Philip

Well said. An intelligent analysis.


We all have our own tastes, likes and dislikes; there's no way everyone will agree about who deserves to win and who should go home. But the fact that we spend time debating the singers and their performances means that the show still has legs.
 
#783 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd /forum/post/22041403


When you learn an instrument at a high level you have to be able to do certain repertoire that has often been around for hundreds of years. You don't do it by building on low level repertoire. That is what you do vocally as well. Jessica is capable of singing at a very high level as was Joshua. With time you develop your unique style, but even top jazz musicians mainly play licks that have been around for ages. Every now and then they come up with something unique. Every singer on AI has basically done the same thing, so this parrot accusation about Jessica is just uninformed. What is different with each performer is the tone of their voice, the way they look, personality and do on ... . From a vocal ability point of view you have Joshua, Jessica, Elise, Holie, Sklar and so on. All have instruments that can be molded into whatever. PP is weak vocally but has his own pluses in the way he plays the guitar, his voice, type of music he like and maybe he's a good songwriter. Don't know. Can't quite get the hatred for Jessica here. Obviously not everyone agrees with you just as not everyone doesn't agree with my opinion that PP can't sing. He certainly strums well on the guitar but this isn't a guitar competition. In any case even from that perspective he wouldn't be in the same category as Casey James or even Casey the bass player. There are just many fine guitarists around. As I have said before his performance of Volcano, which was very good, is identical to one you can find on You Tube. So let's stop kidding ourselves that you've got major creative jazz types up on stage. They are pop singers and very good ones at that.


Philip

Woohoo, Casey James shout-out! I don't have many man-crushes but he is one.
 
#785 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by BoilerJim /forum/post/22054533


Can't believe I'm the first to comment on last night's performance...


I finally became a Phillip Phillips fan last night. His final song is one that I would buy and put on my iPod. Jessica... not so much.

I think you were the first to comment because of the oh-so exciting nature of last night's show. I mean, really, is that supposed to be entertaining? When Sanchez' feet weren't stuck in cement, her butt was glued to a piano. It was nice of her to prove everyone wrong by not always singing a ballad and displaying a real stage presence. She really progressed a lot in the last 12 weeks, didn't she? She's a singer, not a performer. Which doesn't work so well on a visual medium like television. So boring that I was hoping for her alter ego to show up.


Phillips wasn't much better, but at least he was strumming a guitar-and had the (apparently legitimate) excuse of his physical ailment.


Not much better than last year's horrific final, or the year before that.
 
#790 ·
Holy crap what a terrible hour of TV with the rare exception of one of the original songs being really good. Loved Phillip's song enough to buy it on iTunes. Really good. Jessica was every bit as boring and bland as she's been all season. She's not a performer, she's just a lump on the stage that sounds emanate from.


The Voice finale was infinitely better than this. Probably due to the fact that they have 4 finalists instead of 2 and on top of that all the judges get in the mix and sang with the finalists.
 
#791 ·
I agree, not the most exciting hour of television. I'd definitely pick Phillip any day of the week at this stage of their careers.


It also felt very out of place for me to have the Derulo and Scotty songs last night. It seems to me that the final night of singing should focus on the last two singers, shouldn't it? It would also have felt less rushed if they moved the guest singers to the finale tonight.
 
#792 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by rsambuca /forum/post/22055077


I agree, not the most exciting hour of television. I'd definitely pick Phillip any day of the week at this stage of their careers.


It also felt very out of place for me to have the Derulo and Scotty songs last night. It seems to me that the final night of singing should focus on the last to singers, shouldn't it? It would also have felt less rushed if they moved the guest singers to the finale tonight.

It's not the first time this season they have had other singers on the performance show. It's a sign that Nigel and whoever don't think that the AI singers have enough to offer to fill a show. And they're right.
 
#794 ·
Well, Phillips won me over with that last song; I finally see where he fits in with the current music scene. In order for Jessica to sell records (or whatever the kids are calling them these days) her producers are going to have to strip all affectation from her voice so she sounds like all the other girls and she can do the same club/dance productions everyone else is doing. Sorry, no 80's style power ballads allowed.
 
#795 ·
Why is it that no matter what song Phillips sings, they all sound the same to me?
 
#796 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gmichael2 /forum/post/22055372


Why is it that no matter what song Phillips sings, they all sound the same to me?

Because they all sound the same ..
 
#798 ·
Jessica started strong and went downhill with every song, while Phillip did the opposite; his first was forgettable, the second was good and third was better. I'd buy a CD that had the second and third song on it. I think he'll win, and even if he doesn't will likely have a better career track than Jessica.
 
#800 ·
Last nights performances were ok, nothing special, especially from Phillip. I didn't see why his last song was praised here and from the judges. It was decent enough I guess and fits nicely into his "wheelhouse", but meh. Decently pleasant but I wouldn't rush out to buy it. Underwhelming night overall, but Jessica was better throughout. She's got great vocal ability but she has a ways to go and grow to become a truly interesting artist. While not a strictly paint-by-numbers singer in terms of delivering the emotion of a lyric, she needs more leavening in that regard. But she's only 16 so no great surprise there.


Gotta give it up for Phillip though if he has been battling such kidney pain throughout much of the competition. Serious wow, on top of all the other pressure of the Idol process. Impressive stamina and perseverance.

Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd /forum/post/22040114


I guess I don't share Jimmy's love for that Bob Seger cover by Phillip. Far prefer any number of great country artists who have performed that song in a beautiful, melodic but melancholy way.

I agree with many of your postings, including in regard to the weird overly-vitriolic response to Jessica. Disagree with you here. I thought it was very good. Maybe I was overly influenced by the fact that he finally sang a song much more squarely and heartfelt than is his usual approach. And that far off look in his eyes was just dreamy. /temporary man-crush off


And doubly impressive considering it being a Seger song that I could easily go without ever hearing the Seger version again (way overplayed on radio, piped-in store & doctors office music, etc.). Haven't heard any of the country artist cover renditions you referred to. I don't listen to any country, apart from the occasional "alternative" country or a little classic artist country stuff.
 
#801 ·
Reading this thread today made me realize all the more how opinions vary. I thought Phillips' (the apostrophy works either place) last song was horrible! His voice had a chalk board quality at the beginning, then it switched up to cheezy Blue Grass, just in time for the marching band. But he nailed the Billy Joel song.


Jessica did an admirable performance on a bad final song. How much input did the kids get? In prior years the coronation song was shoved down their throats, and almost never did well. Most seaons I was thinking "Why are they making the kids sing this crap" during the coronation song.


Jessica was very smart to do "The Prayer" as her choice. Many past finalists perform songs done too recently, so they lose the wow factor. (think McPhee re-singing "Over the Rainbow" or Blake Lewis doing "You Give Love A Bad Name") I thought "The Prayer" was the best song of the night, followed by "Moving Out."
 
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