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American Idol - Season 10 (1 Viewer)

Adam_S

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Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman

Putting "Jesus" into a song sort of makes it a Christian song. :) Musically it's Country, but there are Christian songs and bands in every musical genre.


The worst was when Chris Daughtry tried to sing Innuendo, a 7-minute Queen epic. It's a brilliant song, but the 90-second version was awful. In fact, IIRC it got him eliminated.


good point, the cutdowns of Bohemian Rhapsody have been pretty disasterous as well.
 

Carl Miller

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I'm sorry, but I don't see Lady Gaga trying to do anything other than make as much money as humanly possible, and that's perfectly fine. She's talented in my opinion, and has a much better voice than most pop stars today. Above all else however, she's a marketing genius and that is where she bears the greatest similarity to Madonna.


Far as AI goes...I'm not surprised to see James get voted off. Not that I think he's overly talented, but talent rarely seems to win on this show. I'm actually happy James got voted off...I think he has a better chance of making a career for himself now, than if he had won.


Ditto what everyone said about Jordin Sparks.
 

Josh Dial

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Originally Posted by Jeffery_H


He could be another Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, etc. and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.


Some of the reasons Cash and Twitty were so popular were their willingness to dramatically alter the landscape of country music (at the time). Twitty was actually a rock singer early in his career, and ushered in a new era of songwriting in that he was one of the first artists to be sexually-suggestive in his lyrics. I don't think anyone needs to point out the changes Cash had on country music (and music as a whole).


For me, classic country isn't simply moralistic lyrics backed by acoustic and steel guitars. I have always viewed "real country" as constantly-evolving, changing with the times, like all music. Again, for me, country artists fall into two general categories: those who blaze trails into the future, while at the same time paying homage to the past, and those who merely emulate those who have gone before them. It's the latter, I submit, who ride on coat tails.


Is George Strait not "real country" because he uses auto-tune on songs (eg "Stars on the Water")? Is Alison Krauss & Union Station not real country/bluegrass because they have a drum player (something virtually unheard of in bluegrass at the time)?


I fail to see how someone like Brad Paisley, who is probably the best guitarist in country music today (maybe even ever, according to some critics), is that much different from Steve Wariner or Vince Gill or Chet Atkins--three renowned players who had tremendous success in their days.


Some artists like to challenge themselves, and the genres in which they have been (often arbitrarily) placed. I don't think it's fair to criticize someone for that. Ultimately, genres are generally pretty arbitrary to begin with: name an artist and a genre (especially country), and I can usually find a song--if not an entire album--which crosses over to another genre, or otherwise challenges the existing barriers of the time.


I like Scotty. I think he has an interesting tone and a welcome voice (though, he does sound an awful lot like Paul Brandt). He's safe, tame, and reliable. However, nothing he's done so far makes me think for a second that he will ever be more than what we've seen already. I doubt highly that he would ever introduce a new brand of country music, like Johnny Cash did with outlaw country and The Highwaymen (which, be very definition, was an attempt to change the genre). I still consider that group's version of The Highwayman to be the definitive version (never did like the Glen Campbell version), and one of the greatest country songs of the 80's.


Clearly when it comes to music, everyone's tasts will differ greatly. However, I take issue when someone dismisses music as "trash" and "not real ."


When the next Johnny Cash or Conway Twitty appears on the Idol stage, I'll be the first one in line for their album.
 

David Willow

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Rob Willey said:
Gaga mentoring the Idols looked like the love child of Alice Cooper and Lily Munster.
Please don't insult Alice Cooper like that again. :D I'm glad James was voted off. In the long run, I think it will be better for his career. Now he doesn't have to record that bubble gum pop song that "America" is writing. He can record what he wants... Even if it is not popular with the 11-14 year old girls demographic. Also, I will bet $0.50 that he will be on the finally singing with Steven Tyler. He will no doubt steal the show no matter who wins. :cool:
 

Adam_S

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So is Scotty going to sing Josh Turner's Your Man during the top three performances or during the top two performances? I can't really imagine him not singing it on one of these shows, and surely the producers will want him to sing it.
 

Aaron Silverman

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Originally Posted by Josh Dial

I like Scotty. I think he has an interesting tone and a welcome voice (though, he does sound an awful lot like Paul Brandt). He's safe, tame, and reliable. However, nothing he's done so far makes me think for a second that he will ever be more than what we've seen already. I doubt highly that he would ever introduce a new brand of country music, like Johnny Cash did with outlaw country and The Highwaymen (which, be very definition, was an attempt to change the genre).

To be fair to Scotty, the kid is only 17 and is choosing songs from a limited selection. Who knows what he might do in the future?


Cf. the infamous battles between Kelly Clarkson and Clive Davis over her sound.
 

Hanson

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Full version at http://hanson68.wordpress.com I finally liked something! While there were a bit too many country songs for my tastes, there were a couple of standout performances last night, which made this episode the best performance night of the season for me. I wish they flopped the order of the songs to let Haley close the show with What is and What Should Never Be, but I’ll take what I can get after weeks of boring performances. Singing three songs each, the Idols went through the cycle of personal pick, Iovine selection, and Judges’ pick. Unlike previous years, no single judge was attached the each song (or at least, it wasn’t explicitly mentioned). So gone are the days when Simon would pick songs for the frontrunner and Paula’s contestant had to bear the stigma of being the one the producers wanted gone. And Beyonce showed up to mentor the contestants with their personal selections — seeing her in the piano room of mansion interacting one on one with the Idols seemed like a throwback to seasons past. Scotty opened the show with his pick, Amazed. I’m not sure why he chose this song, as it was too high for him to comfortably sing. He strained for notes throughout, and the one big glory note at the end was flat. Watching him struggle with the song was not very entertaining. I suppose it doesn’t matter, as Scotty is so far ahead of the other Idols in popularity that he would have to literally poop on stage just to be considered vulnerable. He could probably poop on stage and throw his feces into the audience like a caged monkey and still win the season. Short of flat out quitting, there seems to be no way to stop the Scotty train. His fans are legion, and they are persistent and smart. Okay, maybe not that smart. But the mechanics of Idol reward persistence over smarts every time. Jimmy Iovine picked Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not for Scotty, and this was a cannychoice because a) it’s actually a good song, and b) it allows Scotty to ask exactly what his rabid fans want to hear (the answer is an emphatic yes). This was easily Scotty’s best performance of the year and the only one I actually enjoyed. It was hooky and was fell right into the sweet part of Scotty’s range. Playing guitar seemed to helped his performance greatly — having it on him stopped him from meandering around the crowd and falling into unauthentic BBoy poses. Sure, he flashed some crazy eyes, but not having to move around made a world of difference. J. Lo couldn’t stop gushing over Scotty and wanted to know if he’d shave his head for him. Randy suggested that J. Lo wanted to kiss Scotty, which she shrugged off by saying, “I’m a married woman”. Also, you’re 41 and he’s 17. Details, details. Scotty’s fans rebounded from their previous failure and came back to correctly spell a six letter word. For his final trick, the judges gave Scotty a snoozy, MOR Kenny Rogers chestnut in She Believes in Me. Sorry Gambler fans — this was quite boring to me, and in the hands of Scotty McCreery, it turned into a boring slog. It was too slow and had too many long notes that he couldn’t handle. Scotty threw in some vibrato to compensate, but it was occasionally a touch goaty sounding. Whereas Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not was breezy and effortless, She Believes in Me was a strained affair that had me fidgeting in my seat. And to show that Scotty’s fans are all shapes, sizes, and ages, they had him sit next to a vampire right before a commercial break. In the end, getting one great performance out of Scotty is more than you can ask for. And speaking of getting something out of the end, flinging poo into the audience would have rocked as well. Lauren kicked off her evening dressed like a kite. She chose to sing Wild One, a semi-fast song that should have been in her wheelhouse, but instead overwhelmed Lauren’s lack of breath control. She gasped for air frequently and couldn’t squeeze everything out of each note because she was so winded. Lauren told Beyonce that she was nervous about the “other 30 million people” watching her. 30 million? What season does she think this is? Outside of an occasional season finale, the show hasn’t sniffed 30 million viewers in years. At one point during the song, Lauren starting walking into the neck of the guitar in front of her. I’m not saying she would have crashed into it, but she seemed oblivious to the obstacle in her path, requiring the guitarist to maneuver the neck to allow her to pass. Before she was to take the stage for her second song, Lauren developed a rip in her stockings, which required her to take them off and have make-up applied. Iovine chose If I Die Young for Lauren’s second song. Lauren seemed to have some problems keeping up with the rhythm of the song, and she was unprepared for the modulation, singing the wrong note, stopping, and then jumping into the song again. She whiffed badly on a note and then shouted the rest of the song. For some odd reason, Lauren ended the song by awkwardly taking a seat on the steps. I’m not sure why she did this — for one thing, it was kind of distracting, and then she only sang a couple of more notes and stopped. The whole thing seemed unnecessary. Lauren closed her night with I Hope You Dance. The song started out on the boring side. But the last half of the song was really pretty — she had some nice sounding runs and a little falsetto that worked particularly well. And she totally nailed the note where she sings “DANCE” right after the song pauses. That was impressive because she sang the note blind and had to time it with the music and hit the right note. This was a mostly good performance on Lauren’s part, but the song itself is kind of a drippy, syrupy turn-off for me. Something about her dress reminded me of Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz. Sort of like a cross between the movie dress and the one from Wicked. I always love crazy signs, and one of Lauren’s fans obliged me with this haphazrd, almost schizophrenic mash up of sloppy lettering and glued on multimedia. There are so many things about the sign that make no sense — for instance, there’s an arrowhead coming out of the heart, but where’s the rest of the arrow? You know, the part with the feathers? The complete lack of planning with the lettering is comical and makes it difficult to read (at first glance, it looks like it’s saying, “I Lauren love my cousin too”). I think this is one of Lauren’s friends or family members. You would think they would put more work into it. Scotty’s fans would be this lazy making a sign. Persistence. Other odd audience sightings (other than Pricilla Presley) include a shout out to the Ford Motor Company (my wife assumes they helped the girl score tickets) and a guy dressed like, oh, I dunno — Rowlf from the Muppets? LA is so weird. They’ll do anything to get on TV out there. So between Scotty and Lauren, there were six country songs sung last night. Not being a big fan of the genre, and only knowing one of the songs to begin with, it really fell to Haley to deliver music more in line with my tastes. And even if she sang two songs I’d never heard before, her rendition of What Is and What Should Never Be just knocked it out of the park and then some. As a matter of fact, this performance was worth the price of admission. Now, I don’t want to take too much away from Haley, but this is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs. It’s just face-meltingly good, and that alone gave her a huge leg up over Scotty and Lauren. It is rumored that Led Zeppelin offered anything out of their catalog specifically to Haley, which is why she picked the song in the first place. Picking the right song is so important on Idol — some people consider the song more important than the singer. But Haley did a fantastic job with the vocals, going up higher than her normal register, and reining in the excessive growling and yodeling that I dislike so much. There were so many great things about this performance to make it memorable. It was a huge moment for her. Oh yeah, and she fell. I regret that we never got a great, tight shot of her falling. Had there been a close up of her falling, this would have been one of those Idol moments that people would talk about for years. It would have been epic. My only nits with the performance were the odd physical things that Haley does on stage. Like the hula dancing, the charades (like pointing up while singing, “way up high in the sky” or twirling while singing “see it spin”) and that move where she lets one arm go limp and then bends to the side. It looks like a robot being shut off, like when a crew member of the Enterprise powers down Data. These are the things that drive me mad. They worse than any collection of crazy eyes Scotty makes. I’m sure this performance will be buzzed about all day long. Haley has been gaining a lot of celebrity fans who have been tweeting in support. She can even count Adam Lambert as one of her biggest fans, a fact that was recently immortalized in ink. There’s a lot of support thrown Haley’s was because she’s perceived to be an underdog and being handicapped by the judges. Maybe that’s why she started the song coming out of a penalty box? Unfortunately, that was the highlight of her evening. Iovine chose Rhiannon for her, and while the intentions were good, the arrangement left a lot to be desired. It started off very strong — and after coming off WIAWSNB, it looked like Haley was going run off with the evening and punch a ticket to the finals with Scotty in her rear view mirror. And then the band kicked in. And along with it came… the wind machine. Apparently, wind machine is a bit overblown for what it was — it was just a fan. But when they turned it on and her hair and scarf or whatever the hell it was starting blowing around haphazardly, I started laughing. I get what they were trying to achieve, but the execution was so lousy and unexpected it became laughable. I could barley hear Haley over our giggles and guffaws, and it was pretty much over once the fan was turned on. The arrangement got repetitive at the end, and it never really went anywhere, petering out aimlessly amidst the laughter. I think the thing that made it look so comical was how weak the breeze was — her diaphanous cape or whatever would catch some air and then die down. Her hair would start flapping but never really blew out. It was like she was in her bedroom singing in front of an oscillating fan. What they really needed was more power. But not too much power. That opens up a different can of worms. And while she didn’t move around much in this performance to stay in front of the fan, all that air blowing about reminded me of those air dancers — those things businesses use to catch your eye when you’re driving down the road The way it bends, crouches, and sticks its arm out to the side like Haley is uncanny. Maybe a bit more manic, but it’s like she rented one of those things to be her choreographer. And finally, Haley was given You Oughta Know by the judges, which was just an awful choice — not only do you have to bowdlerize the lyrics for Standards and Practices (and who didn’t giggle at “go down with you to the theater?”), but the lyrics have a TMI quality about them — I’ve always thought the song tried to hard to be confessional. But at least Alanis sang it with venom in her voice — Haley could barely hit the notes in the verses because it was too low for her, and she completely screwed up the lyrics in the first verse. The chorus was good, not great, but then she goes back to the judges’ table and then sings, “And every time I scratch my nails down someone else’s back I hope you feel it” directly to Randy, which came off as creepy. In fact, it made her giggle a little, which just doesn’t work for the song. In the end, Scotty cemented his place in the finals with his second performance. Lauren held pat with what she delivered. Haley’s night felt like she blew a 3 touchdown lead. In a theater.
 

EricSchulz

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My first intentionally Idol-free week since season two! I keep up on the blogs, but no more watching the show...RIP American Idol.
 

Hanson

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Originally Posted by EricSchulz

My first intentionally Idol-free week since season two! I keep up on the blogs, but no more watching the show...RIP American Idol.

Try to catch Haley's version of WISAWSNB on YouTube. BTW, I have never advocated that anyone see any performance all season, so this is a first.


It's not going to change your life, but if you like the song, it's a good cover version.


Also, she falls.
 

Patrick Sun

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For me to have bragging rights in the AI challenge, I need Scotty to go home, but I just don't see that happening (meaning 2 girls in the finals, a la season 2). The big upset would be if Lauren got sent home tonight (since she's underage, don't they have to tell her she's going home before the show, I thought they had to do so with Thia? Let's see if Lauren can keep it together, or is really gleeful during the results show.
 

Hanson

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I don't think they do that (also, I believe I was the source of that rumor on HTF). Lauren was on the verge of tears last week. She obviously had no idea if she was going or not. Thia's robotic demeanor may have given you the idea that she already knew she was going home, but I think that's just her Vulcan personality showing through.


However, if Lauren does go home tonight without shedding too many tears, I will have to believe that they do prepare them.
 

EricSchulz

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Originally Posted by Hanson Yoo




Try to catch Haley's version of WISAWSNB on YouTube. BTW, I have never advocated that anyone see any performance all season, so this is a first.


It's not going to change your life, but if you like the song, it's a good cover version.


Also, she falls.

My friends that still watch it told me about the fall...I think that's a "must-see TV" moment to track down!
 

Ruz-El

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Paul F. Tompkins summed up last night and my feelings for the show perfectly in his masterful recap of last night:



I need Lauren to go home tomorrow night. In order to get through two long evenings of television next week, I need a 16-year-old girl’s dreams to be crushed. If I’m out of line, just tell me.
 

Patrick Sun

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Well, the finals are set. The home town visits captured strong emotions happening to teenagers on their special day, especially Scotty and also Lauren.
 

Tina_H_V

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Sorry to see Haley go. I really came on to like her in the end.

For the first time since I seriously started watching Idol in Season VII, I go into the championship round with the attitude of...
 

Jeffery_H

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Well, all I can say is FINALLY we got rid of Haley. She still comes across as a true Bitch (with a capital "B" on purpose). Seriously, I can not believe she made it this far and especially over James. Most everyone at work or others I have spoken with could not stand Haley, not just for your vocals but her personality. At least she did not make the final top 2, which I was really going to question if she had. Now, it's just good Old country Scotty and Lauren. If what they said over a month ago is true, Scotty walks with it easily. :)
 

Tina_H_V

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Originally Posted by Jeffery_H I am glad she made it as far as she actually did. I look forward to seeing what else she does with her talents and career as she goes forward. If she was P.O.'d over not making the championship round Tuesday night, and her facial expressions expressed it, very well. I'd rather see an honest P.O.'d look on her face than a painted smile.
 

Hanson

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Not only was it Led Zep, but it was an epic Led Zep song. While I like Whole Lotta Love, I flove What Is And What Should Never Be. That's the kind of song I don't think anyone would ever have guessed would be done on Idol. To have a rarely available songbook and then to reach for something like that instead of something better known was incredible.
 

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