American Idol - Season 6 (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

I thought Chris's grungy vocals suited the song he was singing.

Phil brought some good loud, forceful singing to the show.

Lakisha started out shaky, but brought it home, though I didn't care for the song.

Jordin was out of her element for her song choice. It was more karoake-sounding this time around.

Blake was aight, a little self-indulgent in the middle, but spun an old song into something new.

Melinda still looks weird when she's trying to rock out, but her vocals are solid night in, night out.

I suspect the 2 going home are Lakisha and Chris.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Did you not notice that he sang the choruses very straight?

I do agree that in general, the songs chosen tend to be on the bland poppy side of the week's theme.

They should do something really challenging, like (wait for it) Iron Maiden Week!

 

[Phil Taylor]

At the risk of sounding like Paula -- I think they all did a very good job last night. Each performance had its merits -- yes even Jordin's -- although far from her best I still enjoyed it. Each performance had its flaws as well but overall a VERY solid night by all -- perhaps the most enjoyable night of performances ever that I can recall. In fact at the end of the show I told the wife I wasn't deleting from ye ole ReplayTV just yet as it was a keeper

As for the two who I think will be leaving tonight -- Chris and Lakisha... despite worthy performances last night I still feel they are the bottom two in the talent pool.

 

[Dave_Brown]

Why is beat-boxing suddendly considered new and fresh? I thought it died out in the 80's with parachute pants, the bandana around the ankle and muscle shirts.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Pants these days just don't have enough extraneous zippers.

 

[ChristopherG]

I don't think anyone here said that "beat-boxing" was new and fresh. What Blake did with a Bon Jovi Song from 1986 was new and fresh as compared to the original - there is a world of difference.

 

[Elizabeth S]

Since some are complaining Blake's rendition was not "rock", wasn't it simply "Songs of Bon Jovi" night and not "rock" night? And anyway, Bon Jovi is not a rock band in my opinion -- they're more "pop rock".

I enjoyed Blake's performance -- I was pretty "oh-oh" at first, but it was pretty cool. I'm of the opinion he has a good voice and CAN sing, though, so sometimes the beatboxing distracts from that fact.

Please -- Chris MUST go home tonight. He actually was decent on the first verse, but then his old shoulder-shrugging, run-ny thing kicked in again.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, it is getting pretty old. I haven't read a single article or watched an Idol story/interview on TV that didn't make the reference. It's kind of an insult to JT, too. Chris R isn't that handsome and while Justin's voice is rather thin, too, he's a much better singer with a lot more vocal range.

 

[RAF]

I'm looking at it another way. To me the four best singers remaining are Melinda, Lakisha, Blake and Jordin (don't read anything into that order except for the first name mentioned). Given that, I believe that the two people who deserve to leave tonight are Chris and Phil - and that's who I think will be going home.

At this point in the competition I think that more people are beginning to look at the complete body of work of all remaining contestants rather than at a single performance, but who knows? If people voted on a single performance last night then maybe Jordin and Lakisha have something to be concerned about as well as those previously mentioned.

I also find it interesting to listen carefully to the recap section at the end of each performance show. In my opinion, this gives one an opportunity to A/B (or in this case, A/B/C/D/E/F) the voices and each time I do this I find myself thinking that Melinda is the best singer, without question, regardless of song or genre. If this is, as Simon likes to point out, "A singing competition" then Melinda takes it, hands down. But this is American Idol, so anything can happen.

We'll see.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Most wouldn't want to continually be compared to someone else, especially someone contemporary. Chris wants to be known for himself, not because he has a JT vibe.

Speaking of JT, he beat boxes too. I don't know if he's done it on records, but I've definitely seem him do it in performances.

Aerosmith didn't do Hip-hop before there was hip-hop. Walk This Way existed before it was redone with Run D.M.C. Hip-Hop existed before Run. D.M.C. I believe Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang (which sampled Good Times by Chic) was the first widely played "rap" song. Anyway, I will always remember the Walk This Way collaboration for smashing boundaries. It made Rap fans listen to this rock band, and it made rock fans listen to this rap group. Since my love of music just about crosses all boundaries, I appreciated it. Note also that Run D.M.C. called themselves the "Kings of Rock". Genre's are helpful, but they're never going to define what I listen to or like.

If our resident Rock Queen could stomach it, I say Blake did his job.

 

[Scott-S]

Blondie's "Rapture" was the first rap song

As far as changing the songs goes, this isn't a competition to judge a persons ability to write and manipulate songs. It is about singing. All the little tricks (beatboxing, re-arranging songs, dancing, hairstyle choice) should not be part of judging a singer. I know that is hard to separate that out. I sort of wish they would stop letting the contestants tinker with the arrangements. Sure the tempo, key etc. should be left up to them, but don't let people completely redo songs. That only gives an advantage to some over others. Besides, how much control will they have when the winner is actually recording? I assume that the producer of the album would have a lot of control. I am not sure how much creative control the singer will have.

I know that will never happen, I can dream can't I?

 

[Jed M]

As far as commercial success (top 40), Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" had Blondie's "Rapture" beat by a year. As far as first rap song ever, neither of those two can claim that title.

 

[Bryan X]

How about "Life is a Rock" by Reunion. It beats Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" by about 5 years.

 

[Greg_S_H]

If we're going to go there:



There are many people to blame for rap.

 

[Bryan X]

Hey, he stole that video idea from INXS!

 

[Greg_S_H]

Here's another, that I wasn't familiar with. The INXS video is available, too. Gotta love Youtube.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, the farewells were predictable. Now it's up to:

Blake and his Beauties
to carry the next few weeks.

 

[RAF]

I'm spoilerizing this since it hasn't aired on the West Coast yet, even though people really shouldn't be reading this thread until after they've seen the show.

O.K. My prediction came true, with Phil and Chris R. going home. But I do have a question (which doesn't require spoilers since I will leave it "general")....

My Question, which might affect the "Top Ten" Challenge scoring: Two people went home tonight (positions #6 and #5) but was there any announcement as to who had the lowest vote total (making him or her 6th)?? I didn't notice this so I've tentatively assigned 5.5 points to each contestant who left tonight. In other words, can anyone provide information that one contestant was "officially" 6th and the other was 5th?

Thanks for any information on this matter. If there is definitive proof then I'll adjust the "Top Ten" scoring in that thread accordingly.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I voted, like, ten times last night for the first one who left. It's rigged, I tell ya. My ten should have made a difference.

Have been wanting to see the second one go for a while, but I'm sentimental enough that I didn't take joy in it when it happened.

I guess that Robin Thicke guy is Alan's son. He sure looks like him. That's what a number one sounds like these days, huh? Thank God for delayed viewing and a FF button. I'd hate to have been a fly on the wall in the Aaron Silverman home tonight. I think as a fly, I'd be even more sensitive to the smell of puke. Of course, now I'll find out he loved it.

 

[Malcolm R]

I don't see the appeal of Robin Thicke, either. Sounds like someone squeezing a cat.

The way they announced the departures, they didn't indicate at all what order the remaining four might have been ranked. All we know is that the two that left were the bottom two. The remaining four could have been in any order.

Ryan said there were over 135 million votes. So if they had around 70 million last week, this week had about 65 million. So the worries some people had about the charity show votes overwhelming the regular voting seem unfounded.

I voted about 50 times last night (first time voting this season) for two of those that remained.