vovat | Let's all get up and dance to a song that was a hit before your mother was born

I haven't been saying much about American Idol this season, and it'll probably stay that way, since I know not too many of you are interested. I did want to make a few comments, though. This week was Beatles Week. Oh, sorry, I mean Lennon/McCartney Week. (Anyone trying to sing "Here Comes The Sun" or "Savoy Truffle" was to be shot on sight.) I consider myself pretty familiar with the Beatles' catalog, yet a few of the contestants sang songs I can't recall having heard. And on the other hand, some of them were also taking about how they hadn't heard the songs they were singing until really recently. It reminds me of how, when they did British Invasion Week last year, Ryan Seacrest made a big deal out of how the songs were from before the contestants were even born. And here I forgot that there was no way to hear music from that long ago! :P But anyway, I think a large part of the British Invasion sound was simple melodies, which means they aren't really good for showing off a person's range. Oh, well. The judges only seem to want the contestants to do that about half the time, anyway. Other important things I learned from the judges about how to succeed on the show include:

You have to show you're a versatile singer who can handle a variety of stuff. If you're primarily a country singer, though, you should only sing country.
Being old-timey is good, but being old-fashioned is bad.
It's a singing competition, not a popularity contest, yet the results are based on a popular vote.

To me, though, the most interesting thing is that, until last week, the show had contestants named both Castro and Noriega. Was there also a Pinochet who got voted off when I wasn't paying attention?