American Idol-Season 10 Fox HD - Page 49

I'm fairly normal and I have never voted during any season. Looks more like they are just staying current and attracting viewers... we have been down that road before so that's it for me on this topic. If you want Viewer Guidance you can't say only one type is valid.

Enjoyed the show. Very predictable season.

I had Lauren and Scotty as the top two from the beginning and the southern votes proved strong.

What seems to have changed?

Themes seem to be easier to navigate, no Gloria Esteban night for example.

Less complete disasters. Not so many truly awful performances as in years gone by, where a weaker performer might survive a weak performance because somebody else really sucked.

The judges obviously got together this year and agreed to be much less critical of the singers.

Idol no longer gives back. Or maybe I missed that episode.

The judges sing and dance. Like Tyler last night singing a minute 30 version of Dream On. I was thinking while he was singing, hey, the final two are only 16. It's possible that when Dream On first came out, it wasn't their parents making out to it in the back seat of a car, it was their grandparents!

Hilarious. Scotty McCreery received a guaranteed $250,000 for winning the show and recording an album. David Archuleta, who didn't even win, received $360,000.

And the winner of The X Factor receives $5,000,000 (1,000,000 a year for five years)-just for winning the show.

^^
I wonder what Lauren's contract will look like?

"Sappy" is a damned poor adjective to describe Kellie Pickler's, I Wonder, which is perhaps the most heart-wrenching song I have heard in the last decade oozing with pathos from the pain and anger of not knowing a mother who abandoned her at the age of two. Lauren's paean to her mother was just the opposite and was sappy. I played Pickler's song again for this post, and wept again. For those of you deprecating country music as a whole and the two finalists as a result, I suggest you check again what the genre is at its best — earthy, gritty ... and adult. The last "adult part" is what inhibits young country artists like Scotty and Lauren the most. The best themes in country music - hard-living, boozing, f^&**$#@ & fighting, livin' & diein' - are necessarily precluded as subjects for 16 and 17 year-olds because they haven't lived it yet, or if they have we don't won't to know about it. When they cover those themes it just doesn't sell to me. As we saw with Pickler, their best is hopefully yet to be as performers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XdZ...eature=related


What happened to the scuttlebutt saying Haley's single was going to be sung on the final's show and released the next day on itunes? I'm still hoping to hear Haley cover a Sada tune.

If I'm remembering correctly, Scotty was the first singer on the first show of the season and obviously the last. I guess the stuff in the middle was just fluff.

I hate country music, but I wouldn't denigrate it completely. There's some good stuff. Scotty and Lauren aren't the "good stuff" though. Their two singles were complete garbage designed to sell huge numbers to very specific audiences. But music is a business afterall. Carrie Underwood has made quite a good living telling little country stories, but she does so with a big voice and a ton of conviction. I get neither of that from Lauren or Scotty.

I was also hoping that the rumor about Haley's single was true, mostly just to see what route she'd be taking. If she goes jazz, she'll probably lose me. Kinda hoping she takes more of an Adele/Duffy path.

I think it's somewhat unfair to compare this year's Idols to the current Carrie. I don't even think the Idol Carrie could compete with the Carrie of today (from my memory her personality at the time was more in the way of Pia's). Lauren and Scotty are age 16 and 17 (if I'm not mistaken)? I'd give them a few years before I totally dismissed them.

I agree. I had that performance on my DVR until the drive got wiped or sold. I used to show in my theater (120" screen) in HD and in life size with surround sound it was very moving.

Google or YouTube Jake Hooker. That's about as true as it gets. If you don't like it, then you can say you don't like country music. But at least you can say that you've heard some.

Carrie had the personality of a wet noodle on Idol. But she had a big voice. Something neither Scotty nor Lauren possess. You can take someone like Pia who has a big voice and get her to open up on stage like Carrie has. It's much harder to teach someone that can't sing well to sing well. At this point Scotty is nothing but a low-range gimmick. Whether thats enough to win over the country music fans is beyond me. If what I heard during Idol this season is what the country audience is looking for, then I knew I had a good reason for hating country music.

Carrie made it on her looks - IMHO. She's got a pretty decent voice but still has only nominal stage presence. Her constant "re-grip" of the mic is particularly annoying and I thought she looked better with a bit of "chunky" to her and that outfit with the shiny silver glitter-top and plain 'ol white shorts?? Seems like with her success she could afford a nicer outfit. Also I thought Lauren sounded as good if not better and with more power than Carrie the other night (and I replayed it to make sure of who I was hearing sing which part) ... again just my humble opinion.

I disagree about the singing. Lauren was over-matched and it was clear that Carrie was holding back out of respect for her lesser partner. I agree about the mic re-grip thing. It still bothers me, and she's still doing it. I liked her chunkier too, but I have no problem with her new legs.

Wow. Totally opposite for me. Carrie's voice is what is peaking my interest in that kind of country music. Her look is amazing and she is setting the bar high when it comes to stage presence. Whether singing or hosting award shows.

If you doubt this, just watch her sing How Great Thou Art with Vince Gill she did a month ago.

I'm not that impressed with Carrie Underwood either. Her voice just gives me a headache for some reason. I preferred Lauren in that duet too.

These are good changes. In some of the past seasons, it was almost like "So You Think You Can Dance" for voices. Singers spent several weeks forced to sing songs out of their comfort zones and away from the type of music they were intending to produce as artists. This frequently resulted in bad performances. This year, a contestant could choose to showcase his or her versatility (Casey and Haley) or choose to stay in his or her comfort zone (Scotty and Lauren).

I don't like that Pia and Thia were criticized for staying in their comfort zones, while Scotty and Lauren were given a pass for doing the same thing. In the first half of the live performances, Haley was critcized for being versatile (you don't know what kind of artist you want to be), whereas Casey was applauded for it. Poor Jacob was given such conflicting feedback and advice that he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

The best change for the finalists, is that the songs that have been chosen as their first releases have been customized for them. The old process of forcing the finalists to release some dreadful, cracker box song that was usually ill suited to the performer was a very bad idea and started their professional careers with a dud.

How many great singers were eliminated because of being forced out of their comfort zone? I think that great singers can sing almost anything. It might not sound great, but sometimes the challenge is to pick the best song from among a list of disagreeable songs and sound good enough to advance to the next week. This process really seemed to work on Idol because it exposed the mediocre singers for what they were.


I guess it depends on your definition of "customized." "Like My Mother Does" had already been recorded by 7th season AI contestant Kristy Lee Cook, and was recorded and released again last year by Jesse Lee. Not exactly what I would call customized, and good luck with a song that had failed twice on the country charts.

Kris Allen was forced to release "No Boundaries" as his coronation song. The song was so ill-suited to his voice, that the judges said it was unfair to judge him on it when he sang it in the finale.

Why all the hate for Scotty? If you don't like country then why extend that dislike to Scotty. I don't like metal and yet dont feel hate for James.

I wonder how those folks who rejected Scotty from their group in Hollywood feel about him now (especially the teacher).

Scotty imo won lots of votes for his character. Remember how he felt bad for not standing up for that very young little fat boy and said so. Remmember how he almost deferred to Lauren at the finale when the judges sided with Lauren. That stuff plus being very good on stage (just ask my wife...she loves him) wins a lot of votes.

He felt bad for what HE DID to the fat kid, but he still did it. How do we know that wasn't his true character and the apology after was fake? I don't even factor any of that in to my issue with him. My issue is he's a walking gimmick. He sings low. That's it. Any song that required him to leave that left him sounding awful. And because of that he was rarely asked to do so, in fact he was encouraged by Randy and the other judges to never veer away from the only thing he can do. Yet they held other contestants to a higher standard. Why? Because there's money to be made off the winner, and they figure if all those screaming little girls voting for him thousands upon thousands of time results in a high grossing album, the show wins.

But then again it's our fault (or at least many of us here) for once again hoping it would be a singing competition. It's not.

The results this year felt more stacked and pre-ordained than ever.

It felt like for the mediocre all the way through.

Moreso when you go back and look at how the fat kid ordeal played out. Producers went out of their way to make Scotty look like a saint, and everyone else involved look like the devil. Every other season contestants are told to take risks, yet week in and week out the judges and Jimmy told Scotty not to change. Never change. So in the mind of the audience Scotty is doing as he's told. But Pia is told to change. Haley is told to change. The week Lauren is told to change and she doesnt, she finds herself in the bottom 2. Scotty never criticized yet consistently was mediocre the entire season. There was definitely a plan, and the producers shaped it excellently. But it would have been for nothing without the legion of pre-pubescent girls voting every week.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMrFvrK7dw

All the armchair coaches here criticizing Scotty and Lauren should go back and listen to some of the live performances of big names. It is pop music and hence isn't a vocal competition anymore than rock guitarists could be put into the same category as the great jazz and classical guitarists. Young girls are the people buying the music and so they should have a greater say in who wins. I think Scotty was a good choice, though I would have preferred Lauren and in fact would have far preferred Pia to anyone else there. Haley was also very good but perhaps not as likable?

I actually thought this season was far better than past seasons, though I didn't care much for Jennifer Lopez as a judge. Simon and his antics had made the show into a joke.

There seems to be an incredible amount of negativity towards so many of the singers who were competing. I think we should all remember that pop music is mainly not about musical talent ( though you have to have quite a bit of that too, just not to the level of serious musicians).

Scotty will do well as a country singer, and he does seem like a very decent type.

Philip

"Now that rite thar's funny ... I don car who y'ar... "

Just an aside observation on her outfit...

I couldn't help noticing that they'd built for her a little glitter-covered wireless transmitter holster, made out of the same material her top was made out of.

I thought that was very cool. When they had back views of the two girls singing out to the audience, Lauren's transmitter didn't show because of her dark clothing, but Carrie's transmitter sitting in its little glitter-covered holder on the back of her shorts looked very decorative indeed! Much classier than if it were just a black device with wires and an antenna and red light.

(now I return you to your regular discussions)

Yes, I'm sure I'll see him on the casino circuit until his 15 minutes fades .. what you fail to notice is it takes actual talent in order to have a degree of longevity .. and those young voters grow up quick ..

When they showed a rear view of Carrie I wasn't looking for/at her transmitter