Last night watching American Idol I realized that David Archuleta has totally spoiled me for any other singers. Whether they are seasoned by years of experience in the music industry or new talent being exposed on national TV such as the “American Idol” contestants, he has spoiled me!!
Critiquing young talent is difficult, especially when you really want to encourage them to be better than even their expectations may be for themselves. Having said that, Season 9 has been a disaster from the start and it just keeps getting more difficult to watch it go into the bucket. These young singers deserve respect and experienced judges that are professional, sincere, and can give expert advice on career moves. Sing the original song like it was written, no change it to match your personality, no that song is too old, no that song was a bad choice you need to make it your own. Well after listening to that constant verbal garbage after a few weeks no wonder they are not up to the judges’ standards.
I love MasterClass Lady’s comment from her blog: “Somehow, this season seems very ambiguous – I can’t for the life of me get a sense of the direction that Idol is taking this season. It’s a big, gooey mess – everyone is beginning to sound the same and all the guitars are really starting to wear thin.”
I agree totally, a gooey mess -and many times I wish I could have autotuned my TV as so many of the contestants were just not good. Yes! The guitars are really wearing thin. What happened to just singing? This just proves a point I made several months ago in an article I wrote about autotuning. Many singers today use lights, makeup, loud music, hair and instruments to cover the fact they can’t sing. That’s also where autotuning comes into play. David Archuleta, by the way, has mentioned he does not like autotuning. He always sound so great live as well as on his albums, obviously, he doesn’t need it.
There have been many comments about Season 9, good and bad, and I really don’t have a favorite at all, so to me they pretty much sound the same. I was surprised that one contestant was left on the show and one was voted off as I felt it should be the other way around but no one stands out. Season 7 was an exceptional group of young singers with David Archuleta and now many, many non-fans are coming out and admitting he did set the benchmark high and still does!
American Idol will never be the same since Season 7, but I do wish all the Top 12 the best of luck and hope their dreams do come true. America will be watching.
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Tags: American Idol · Autotuning · MasterClass Lady · Season 7
Filed in: David Archuleta|music|opinions|performances|voice
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Season 7 permanently jaded me as far as considering American Idol a singing competition. I’m in complete agreement with what Minna has said about the show being more about reality programming than about discovering the best talent. Simon kept droning on towards the end of the season about how dull he found all of the contestants. The problem was they were too well mannered. There was no animosity, no cat fights, etc. So, the folks at Idol decided to insert drama by “leaking” a phony story about David’s dad. Staging a story is more apropos. They figured that would spice things up plus it would draw votes away from David and give them to Cook, the producers’ obvious choice to make up for the Daughtry debacle.
Due to my revulsion of American Idol, I haven’t watched it the past two seasons. The problem is I’m looking for something more than simply being entertained. I actually care about music, about the state of the music industry, about the dearth of real talent on the music scene at this time. In addition, I hate seeing young people’s lives manipulated by greedy, unscrupulous television producers. I simply cannot support that by watching the program any more, the only exception being if David makes a guest appearance. It seems to me Idol could turn things around this season by demonstrating the ability to take raw, inexperienced talent and nurturing and guiding it to greatness. Gee, I guess that would be too boring to make for good television.
There surely will never be another David Archuleta. They don’t make many that special. And I agree, he has totally spoiled me for any other singers. However, a few years ago, Idol contestants didn’t get nearly the attention they are getting now. Especially now with ELLEN as a judge, she’s having these young people on her daytime show, she’s talking about everything that takes place the night before (which at this point is 3 nights a week). By the time she’s done, all these contestants will be a household name, thanks to her. I feel like our David has been left out by having been on Idol earlier. He did appear on her show after he came in second, but at that time, ELLEN just wasn’t as interested as she is now, and it showed. Sure hope when his new CD and book come out that all these talk shows will have him as a guest. I can’t wait………