Come on, y'all! Get on your feet!

[vovat]

Is it just me, or is the way they're handling the semi-finals for this season of American Idol pretty stupid? Why are the contestants being separated by gender? Isn't that rather sexist? I thought the whole thing was supposed to be based on talent. Also, the way they ran the show in the past two seasons (four groups of eight, plus the Wild Card show) gave the audience more chances to vote for their favorites. The way they're doing it this year, the judges have already narrowed the whole thing down to 24 contestants (as opposed to 32), and we're going to have to see most of them week after week, even BEFORE the final twelve are chosen. And I guess they're not going with a Wild Card, which means no one has the chance to come back.

Anyway, in last night's show, I genuinely liked Nikko Smith, Bo Bice, and Anwar Robinson. Constantine Maroulis didn't choose a very good song, but I still like him pretty well. I believe Simon Cowell said something about how, as far as the two "rockers" go, Bo did a better performance this week, but Constantine has more charisma. I think I would have to agree. Really, bad song choice seemed to be an epidemic with the guys, with the worst offense being Joseph Murena choosing to sing a Michael Bolton song, but I think Scott Savol also could have chosen a better song. On the other hand, one of the other contestants (Judd Harris, I think?) actually DID choose a decent song with some energy, but I didn't like the way he sang it. And I really don't like Anthony Federov, but I have a feeling he's going to get a lot of votes, because 1) he's a pretty boy, and 2) people like the story about how he miraculously regained his voice and started singing. I mean, sure, it's cool that he got his voice back, but I don't think he's all that good.

As far as the girls go, Carrie Underwood, Vonzell Solomon, and Aloha Mischeaux were pretty good. I really didn't like Amanda Avila, Janay Castine, or Melinda Lira; and Lindsey Cardinale reminds me too much of Julia DeMato. (I wonder if they're going to make her sing the last note of a Burt Bacharach song, too.) Oh, and anyone starting their performance with, "Come on, y'all!" or something comparable automatically loses points with me.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I don't know how they're doing it, since I don't watch the show, but my guess is -- more record-deal-tie-ins. Since how it seems now is that the Winner and the First Runner Up (along with the Novelty Choice) seem to get record deals (though the Runner Up unofficially, right? Like, the Winning Prize is the recording contract, but a label who may-or-may-not-be-the-same-one basically pounces on the loser anyway knowing that with the "OMG! AMERICAN IDOL!!" sticker they can put on, it'll sell a billion copies) -- now, if they've got two prizes, one male, one female, they've now got _four_ people they can feed songs to and Move Units with. Though, even if the Best Man and Best Woman face off for the Best Total, I'd still be surprised if the Second Best Man And Woman didn't get contracts, too, in addition to whichever gender-representative blows it. So, yeah.

(Apparently, this show is actually lauded among radio higher-ups, just because it's a way to get songs/artists that have already been cross-promoted so much that you don't have to worry about breaking a single or anything, since the show's already broken it. I'd probably be annoyed if, well, I didn't really dislike 99% of the non-AI singles on pop radio either.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the males and females are only split up until they come up with the top twelve, so there's still going to be one overall winner.

I remember seeing some complaints that the show was going to hurt the chances of new artists being signed by record companies, which might be true if they're trying to do the solo pop singer thing, but these people were also trying to apply it to rock bands and such. While I think record companies are often stupid and short-sighted in terms of signing and promotion, I really don't think they'd put all their eggs in one basket, and say, "Hey, who needs to release music in more than one genre? Let's just sign only American Idol rejects!" So there's some merit in the argument, but it can be taken too far.