Post by Walker, Texas Ranger on May 19, 2009 22:24:32 GMT -5
Five months, 100,000 contestants, four judges, 35 million weekly viewers… and Tuesday night it all came down to two contestants, five songs, and one hour to make a case for who deserves to be bathed in confetti and tears Wednesday night in the cavernous Nokia Theater.
No, my math isn’t wrong, while there were six performances, there were only five songs and that was one song too many. I normally try to keep my reviews in somewhat of a chronological order, but I am so incensed with the banality of this year’s “Idol Song” that I cannot wait to get this rant out of my system. First of all, like a courtroom judge who recuses themselves from a trial because they know the defendant, Kara DioGuardi should have stepped away from the judges table instead of offering any commentary on the song that she co-wrote. Better yet, she should have never told anyone she helped write the piece of musical dreck in the first place. Best of all, she should have stepped away for good, acknowledging that Idol works best with the original trio and that she had long overstayed her welcome at the party. One can only dream.
To be honest, to steal a line from Simon Cowell, I have never been a fan of the Idol Song that ends each season. It is never a very good song, no matter who writes it, in large part because it wasn’t written for the specific contestants. The songs are always written well beforetime, and it shows. This season’s song did not fit either Adam or Kris one bit. Seeing them struggle to try to make the song even remotely enjoyable was both painful to watch and a real disservice to both them and us, the audience. Would it be too much to ask Idol producers to stop sabotaging their own show and do something truly innovative: letting the contestants pick the final song themselves, a song that they feel would best show their own style?
Last season, David Cook pulled a fast one on Idol by instead of playing his “favorite performance from the season” he instead went with Collective Soul’s “The World I Know”. It was risky, but I felt it was one of the main reasons he ended up winning. Of course, he still had to sing the Idol Song, but at least it was a shot of independence. This year, the producers weren’t going to have any of that, making certain the final two stayed on script. But the decision left me still wondering how much better the finale (and the entire show) could be if they truly allowed the finalists to stand on their own two feet. Alas, Idol is all about control, and producers are the biggest control freaks in Hollywood.
complete review at chattanoogapulse.com/music/music-feature/american-idol-the-final-two-the-final-review/
No, my math isn’t wrong, while there were six performances, there were only five songs and that was one song too many. I normally try to keep my reviews in somewhat of a chronological order, but I am so incensed with the banality of this year’s “Idol Song” that I cannot wait to get this rant out of my system. First of all, like a courtroom judge who recuses themselves from a trial because they know the defendant, Kara DioGuardi should have stepped away from the judges table instead of offering any commentary on the song that she co-wrote. Better yet, she should have never told anyone she helped write the piece of musical dreck in the first place. Best of all, she should have stepped away for good, acknowledging that Idol works best with the original trio and that she had long overstayed her welcome at the party. One can only dream.
To be honest, to steal a line from Simon Cowell, I have never been a fan of the Idol Song that ends each season. It is never a very good song, no matter who writes it, in large part because it wasn’t written for the specific contestants. The songs are always written well beforetime, and it shows. This season’s song did not fit either Adam or Kris one bit. Seeing them struggle to try to make the song even remotely enjoyable was both painful to watch and a real disservice to both them and us, the audience. Would it be too much to ask Idol producers to stop sabotaging their own show and do something truly innovative: letting the contestants pick the final song themselves, a song that they feel would best show their own style?
Last season, David Cook pulled a fast one on Idol by instead of playing his “favorite performance from the season” he instead went with Collective Soul’s “The World I Know”. It was risky, but I felt it was one of the main reasons he ended up winning. Of course, he still had to sing the Idol Song, but at least it was a shot of independence. This year, the producers weren’t going to have any of that, making certain the final two stayed on script. But the decision left me still wondering how much better the finale (and the entire show) could be if they truly allowed the finalists to stand on their own two feet. Alas, Idol is all about control, and producers are the biggest control freaks in Hollywood.
complete review at chattanoogapulse.com/music/music-feature/american-idol-the-final-two-the-final-review/
