Who cares?<\/p>\n
Let me be more specific.\u00c2\u00a0 Who, in their right mind, is eager to watch the new "Idol" to discover a great musical star.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s not why we watch "Idol", it’s to see the clueless wannabes skewered by Simon.<\/p>\n
Simon.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s the star of "Idol".\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, they replaced Dave in Van Halen, but the real star is Eddie, without him Dave and Sammy are journeymen.<\/p>\n
But at least Dave’s got talent.\u00c2\u00a0 If you saw him do "Ice Cream Man" on the last VH tour, you know it, you were converted.\u00c2\u00a0 And he has attitude.\u00c2\u00a0 He created a whole persona which worked on stage.\u00c2\u00a0 But not on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Gladwell told me you get credit for your 10,000 hours in one field if you venture into another, it’s not like you start completely over, but you don’t emerge fully-formed at the head of the class!\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, given years of work, maybe Diamond Dave could be a great broadcaster, he’s got the gift of gab, but his expertise is on the stage.<\/p>\n
Like Steven Tyler’s.<\/p>\n
Steven Tyler is one of the few rock stars who lives up to the image.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s left messages on my answering machine that I’ve played back for years… When I asked him what he was doing in the studio at 10 AM, long before I was awake, Tyler told me HE THREW OUT THE ROCK STAR MANUAL YEARS AGO!<\/p>\n
But Tyler’s nice.\u00c2\u00a0 Think of all the butt you’ve got to kiss to make it and stay on top of the heap.\u00c2\u00a0 Is he really going to excoriate the wannabes?\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, he’ll say a few suck, but his heart won’t be in it, Tyler wants to be LOVED!\u00c2\u00a0 And if he starts criticizing in depth, he’s gonna be hated, and he can’t tolerate this. Furthermore, TV’s a grind.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s fun to be a judge for a week, MONTHS?<\/p>\n
As for J.Lo…\u00c2\u00a0 Explain this to me.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s got a great ass, she’s the beneficiary of incredible plastic surgery.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll even say she was great in "Out Of Sight". But that must have been her twin, she’s sucked in so many movies since.\u00c2\u00a0 And movies are scripted.\u00c2\u00a0 And musically,\u00c2\u00a0 SHE’S A JOKE!\u00c2\u00a0 You might want to look at her, but listen to her?\u00c2\u00a0 Come on.\u00c2\u00a0 Even Sony dropped her.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe she could star in commercials for Auto-Tune, but to have her associated with anything musical is laughable.<\/p>\n
As for Randy Jackson…\u00c2\u00a0 Like they’re gonna fire the only black judge?\u00c2\u00a0 America’s a rainbow of color.\u00c2\u00a0 Now we’ve go the black, the white and the brown.\u00c2\u00a0 It looks like America.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, is the Tea Party gonna want to send J. Lo back to Puerto Rico?\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, do those right wing nutjobs who hate anybody who’s not white know that Puerto Rico, unlike Mexico, is part of the U.S.A?\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re born here, you’re a citizen?<\/p>\n
Randy grants continuity.\u00c2\u00a0 As for Ryan Seacrest…\u00c2\u00a0 He’s what’s wrong with America.\u00c2\u00a0 Rockers succeed by taking a side.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s a slippery fool whose only desire is money.\u00c2\u00a0 Fuck him.<\/p>\n
As for Kara…\u00c2\u00a0 Let this be a lesson for you.\u00c2\u00a0 That great job with instant ubiquity?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s not the road to stardom.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, Kara can still write her worthless tunes, but other than that, her career is over.<\/p>\n
So, first and foremost it’s a television show.\u00c2\u00a0 And TV shows only work if there are actors or there’s editing.\u00c2\u00a0 In this show, there’s neither (oh, we can say J. Lo’s an actress, but "Idol"’s GOT NO SCRIPT!)<\/p>\n
So there’s no tension.\u00c2\u00a0 And drama needs tension.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what Simon provided.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Better to take a chance on an unknown with attitude instead of another pretty, well-recognized face.<\/p>\n
Then there’s Jimmy.<\/p>\n
Jimmy plays Simon.\u00c2\u00a0 Like a member of the Hair Club For Men, Simon wasn’t only a judge, he was a record executive, who wanted the chosen Idol to succeed so he could get rich.\u00c2\u00a0 None of the judges have a piece of the winner, they don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy cares.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what the producers got shifting the label from Sony to Universal, from Simon to Jimmy.<\/p>\n
If only Jimmy was a judge.\u00c2\u00a0 With his New Yorkese skewering contestants.\u00c2\u00a0 That could be interesting.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, it would be even more interesting if his pay was linked to the sales success of the winner, then we’d get some truth.<\/p>\n
I expect Jimmy to will a hit.<\/p>\n
Then again, Jimmy couldn’t make Nicole Scherzinger a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 And GaGa, unlike the "Idol" contestants, came with talent.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, the Idols are malleable, but that’s what’s wrong with America, everybody willing to change to placate the gatekeepers, we’re looking for originals, and originals can’t win on "Idol".<\/p>\n
So, we’ve got a show that will continue to slide in the ratings that may generate a winner who sells more albums than Jordin Sparks.\u00c2\u00a0 Whoo-hoo!\u00c2\u00a0 Like I give a rat’s ass.\u00c2\u00a0 Like anybody gives a rat’s ass.<\/p>\n
We want drama, damn it.\u00c2\u00a0 Is Steven Tyler gonna go back on drugs and miss live tapings?\u00c2\u00a0 THEN, we’re interested.\u00c2\u00a0 Is Ben Affleck gonna come on as a guest judge, giving J. Lo the heebie-jeebies?\u00c2\u00a0 THEN, we’re interested.<\/p>\n
But none of these stunts have anything to do with music.<\/p>\n
We’re looking for a unique singer performing his or her own compositions.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the OPPOSITE of "Idol"!\u00c2\u00a0 "Idol" worked when we were all paying attention to the same media outlets, but has anybody realized that the decline in Idol sales has taken place against a backdrop of MTV airing no videos and radio becoming less and less relevant?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a paradigm built for a different era.\u00c2\u00a0 Like making riding crops when everybody’s driving a car.<\/p>\n
Then again, "X Factor" is new to most Americans.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s controlled by Cowell, who’s a TV STAR!\u00c2\u00a0 So, if you’re interested in televised singing competitions, take a year off, wait for the return of Simon.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll get some great TV.<\/p>\n
But you won’t get great artistry.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s happening off major media’s radar. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
By refusing to take any chances, "Idol" is consigning itself to the scrapheap.\u00c2\u00a0 GOOD RIDDANCE!<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Who cares? Let me be more specific.\u00c2\u00a0 Who, in their right mind, is eager to watch the new "Idol" to discover a great musical star.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s not why we watch "Idol", it’s to see the clueless wannabes skewered by Simon. Simon.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s the star of "Idol".\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, they replaced Dave in Van Halen, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-idol","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}