• 05-04-2004, 08:17 PM
    RGA
    American Idol - Some real talent!
    Yes I have been following American Idol - and I hate reality TV generally.

    Basically this is a glorified Star Search and most of it is considered pop fluff - but I decided to watch this after a very large unattractive man named Ruben won last year - so i figured the people must be voting for reasonable talent over just looks.

    This year the talent is insurmountably superior with two young African American women(can I just say Black these days or is it not PC). LaToya London and Fantasia have impressive pipes the latter reminding me of a Tina Turner/Macey Gray mix - only Fantasia has a much better voice...and I saw Tina live front row. Granted Tina was 60ish but still.

    The others are ok and certainly good enough to put out a pop cd or two - but these two women could front any Jazz band in the country and make Ella or Billie feel proud.

    Interestingly if anyone saw the episode where they all sang Gloria Estefan songs - my opinion of Gloria Estefan went WAY UP. All the singers had a lot of trouble with the fast beats and lyrics - I thought Gloria's music would be relatively easy and these Idol singers had more trouble with that than what audiophiles consider "Serious upper class more difficult" music -- when judging by this Estefan is far more difficult to sing than Big Band Jazz or everything else they've done.

    regardless how the stupid voting public votes already getting ridof a few who should be there still - You will see Latoya and Fantasia with a CD - I hope they don't go for the pop bucks and go for the Jazz bucks - so that Jazz can become more popular - or Big Band etc.

    If you have not heard em give em a go some time - try and see a couple of episodes because some nights they sing songs from horrible artists like Barry Manilow - and no one can pass that schlock off as decent...even Elton John didn't work.
  • 05-04-2004, 08:52 PM
    markw
    American Idol is vaudville at it's gaudiest. If you want to see and hear REAL talent, check out Nashville Star. These dudes (and dudettes) have more talent in their removed tonsils than any of the imposters on American Idol have. ...except William Hung. He's real.
  • 05-05-2004, 05:28 AM
    46minaudio
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by markw
    . ...except William Hung. He's real.

    Now that guy is gooooood!! Some of RGAs kin folk I think...
  • 05-05-2004, 07:26 AM
    Lord Nikon
    I dislike George Huff (African American male), simply because Pop is not his type of genre, and gospel is as he mentioned in the show. He also sounds like he has 2 q-tips shoved up his nose. His voice is very nasal. Now for Fantasia Barrino (one of the African American females). Her voice is god aweful. People are comparing her to Macy Gray, but it isn't even close. Fantasia's voice sounds like nails on a chalk board. I actually had to change the channel shortly in to her performance. Now for La Toya London, her voice is amazing and her performance has been good also. My top 3 pics are Jasmine, La Toya, and Diana. :)

    For those that have watched the show from day one this season, I would like to add that there was this fake-dyed red headed girl that had a better voice than everyone else but she got ousted off the show. :(
  • 05-05-2004, 07:31 AM
    F1
    Too bad the recording engineers did not put extra effort to justify those idol's voice. Listen to Clay's and Ruben's albums, both are poorly recorded.
  • 05-05-2004, 09:17 AM
    RGA
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Lord Nikon
    I dislike George Huff (African American male), simply because Pop is not his type of genre, and gospel is as he mentioned in the show. He also sounds like he has 2 q-tips shoved up his nose. His voice is very nasal. Now for Fantasia Barrino (one of the African American females). Her voice is god aweful. People are comparing her to Macy Gray, but it isn't even close. Fantasia's voice sounds like nails on a chalk board. I actually had to change the channel shortly in to her performance. Now for La Toya London, her voice is amazing and her performance has been good also. My top 3 pics are Jasmine, La Toya, and Diana. :)

    For those that have watched the show from day one this season, I would like to add that there was this fake-dyed red headed girl that had a better voice than everyone else but she got ousted off the show. :(

    The girl you mention Amy Adams was the red - or purple on my JVC LOL I agree with you ad more talent than most of what is remaining.

    As the others mention it does not help any credibility the show had or has by awarding Hung a multi million dollar contract and a cd -- which is actually selling.

    Bottom line though is that this show has two big record producers on the judging panel who are looking for talent. A lot of people who struggle to get by do not have the time or belief in themselves to give up everything and become another starving musician...so something like this affords them the opportunity to say what the hell let's give it a shot.

    I'm interested that the audio lovers on this forum seem to think the two black girls are not good when over on the high end forum Fantasia more-so got raves. I understand your particular aversion to Fantasia because her voice is different than the usual - but different can sell albums while London as strong as she is sounds like a lot of other women with huge pipes - like a Whitney(before drugs) Houston. Both will have mega selling albums. And I give credit to Fantasia for the songs she sings - not the safe stuff the rest generally choose.

    I have to agree with the judges and I said it a month ago - Fantasia and London are so far superior to the rest they should not even be in this kind of contest - but then again they need them to give the show some talent.

    I did not watch the first year at all and only a couple the second year when they didn't have pretty people winning.

    46minAudio - William Hung is to talent what Paradigm is to good speakers. And jeez lots of people buy both.
  • 05-05-2004, 10:24 AM
    topspeed
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RGA
    46minAudio - William Hung is to talent what Paradigm is to good speakers. And jeez lots of people buy both.

    Brother, you're going to get crucified for this!

    If La Toya put an album out now I'd buy it...as long as it isn't some overproduced pop shtick. Nora showed people that different can sell (boy, can it sell!) and I'd love to hear La Toya put out an album in the same vein. As far as comparing her to Whitney (pre-rehab as mentioned) I think that's a helluva compliment considering the paucity of singers that have that sort of range, scale, and sheer power. As cute as Jasmine is, she just doesn't have the guns to go to battle. She visibly and audibly ran out of steam during her performance.

    I respect Fantasia's talent and loved her rendition from West Side Story but her tonality is not my cup of tea. Still, along with London, they are by far the class of the field.

    You're right RGA about this year's talent surpassing last years. However, if you ever heard the first year winner Kelly Clarkson belt it out, you'd know she's right there with London and Barrino.

    What exactly does this have to do with speakers tho? ;)
  • 05-05-2004, 12:25 PM
    Woochifer
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RGA
    As the others mention it does not help any credibility the show had or has by awarding Hung a multi million dollar contract and a cd -- which is actually selling.

    Where did you get the info that William Hung got a "multimillion dollar contract" or that it was the show that awarded the contract? I work a few blocks from where Hung lives, and I can tell you that he sure as hell doesn't dress like a multimillionaire. FYI, Hung's recording contract was for $50,000, and he was able to sign a recording deal and do public performances only because he's no longer on the show. My understanding is that the AI contestants cannot do any public performances or recordings while the show is running, and only the winner gets a guaranteed recording deal. Everybody else is a freelancer once the show's done. Hung's CD debuted at #34, but I doubt it will stay on the charts too long (for one thing, what I've heard so far is beyond awful -- basically a karaoke bar from hell). My coworkers love the guy, so I guess he's got a pent up audience. In the end, Hung is a novelty act, and no different than any of the other novelty acts over the years that got their 15 minutes and then flamed out. Hung's had about 14 minutes already, and I can't wait for him to go away.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RGA
    Bottom line though is that this show has two big record producers on the judging panel who are looking for talent. A lot of people who struggle to get by do not have the time or belief in themselves to give up everything and become another starving musician...so something like this affords them the opportunity to say what the hell let's give it a shot.

    I'm not sure if AI is at all representative of the music industry. In college as part of a concert committee, I worked with record company A&R reps all the time, and most of the acts they were actively promoting wrote and played their own music. Cover acts make up a small segment of who gets signed.

    The acts that show up on AI do nothing but covers, and covers of songs that never interested me much to begin with. They might have songwriting talent, but the show's format doesn't showcase that. I might actually follow the show if they required the acts to write their own material. As it is, if I want to watch someone do yet another tired rendition of an overplayed pop song, the local karaoke bar might actually be more fun.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RGA
    46minAudio - William Hung is to talent what Paradigm is to good speakers. And jeez lots of people buy both.

    Oh please, let's not drink too much of the Kool-Aid or snort too much of the wafting haze before driving off a cliff. William Hung would make Bose the equivalent of Placido Domingo.
  • 05-06-2004, 01:00 PM
    Lord Nikon
    George Huff gone, YAY! Now Fantasia needs to get the boot! I still like Kelly Clarkson better than any of the winners from last time, and any of the finalist now!
  • 05-06-2004, 03:07 PM
    JeffKnob
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RGA
    46minAudio - William Hung is to talent what Paradigm is to good speakers. And jeez lots of people buy both.

    Is it really necessary to say that about Paradigm? I take offense to your comment because I am the happy owner of Paradigm products.
  • 05-06-2004, 04:24 PM
    RGA
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JeffKnob
    Is it really necessary to say that about Paradigm? I take offense to your comment because I am the happy owner of Paradigm products.

    This is to all rather than several small posts.

    The comment was directed to 46 minaudio not most of Paradigm's stuff - Indeed I can stomach about four tracks of the Monitor 5 which would be vastly superior to the .0004 seconds of Mr. Hung. I was proving that I can be just as big an ******* as 46minaudio.

    I didn't say Hung was awarded an AI contract - his cds are a novelty because he was the biggest laughing stock the show had - one episode was directed to the bigger laughs and Hung was the focus point for the show.

    Million dollar contract I assumed because his CD is selling here in Canada - so I figured it went global. If all he got for making an ass out of himself on a world stage was $50k then he's as bright as he is talented.

    I never heard the people from the first season - so maybe there are some good ones enough to warrant a second season.

    Song selection is for song writers. This is not a show for artists but rather singers. I don't understand why a singer needs to write their own songs to be taken seriously. The guy playing an oboe for a the Philharmonic is not judged by his ability to write symphonys but to play other people's work - and do it well. A singing voice is also an instrument. Some may write some don't.

    AI is attempting to play fair by changing the genre every week. One week it is country one it will be big band one is R&B and the rest that sort of resemble pop - or a chosen artist like Elton John, Gloria Estefan etc. The singer can choose whatever song they wish to sing from the genre which is pretty open ended. If they choose a song that bores the hell out of people or is overdone to death then that is their mistake.

    I personally think it's a mistake to sing songs very overplayed unless you're going to sing it better. People laugh at Celine Dion but as much as she annoys me she has the pipes to do the songs she does - and when De Garmo sung that Titanic song it was painfully obvious she is a rank amateur. It would make more sense to take a simpler song and push it a bit so you come off sounding original or better than the original. The judges constantly note that a singer is being too safe with a song and not experimenting/changing it to fit them.

    Listening to most of the garbage over the airways - the Idol singers left are not worse than most of that and the two I mention would be in the top 1% of actuall singing talent. What they choose to sing and the way they build their career will be marketing driven most likely. But i have no problem with fluff music so long as it's good fluff music presented way - sort of like a slick hollywood film like The Rock or enter your guilty pleasure here______. No deep thoughts but it's fun eye-candy. Music to me is the same - there are big degrees in quality of hollywood slick films.
  • 05-06-2004, 09:48 PM
    Woochifer
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RGA
    Million dollar contract I assumed because his CD is selling here in Canada - so I figured it went global. If all he got for making an ass out of himself on a world stage was $50k then he's as bright as he is talented.

    Actually, I think he's playing this whole schtick very smart. He knows he's a one-hit wonder and his clock is ticking. He cashed in while he was still hot. Keep in mind that the CD sales are not where artists make most of their money -- it's the live performances where they can really cash in, and Hung has been all over the place since his CD came out. Even debuting at #34, I read that his CD sold less than 40,000 copies in the first week.

    Given his nonstop playing schedule for the past couple of months, I would guess that he's pulled at least another $50k from his appearances. And what other bucktoothed scrawny nerdy engineering student do you know of that's living the life of a rock star on the road and getting flooded with marriage proposals on his website? I mean, Hung's gone from never getting a date, to half the coeds on the Berkeley campus trying to get face time (and perhaps more) with him. I'm embarassed for him, and find his music revolting, but all things considered, he's done very well for himself and he hasn't even finished his degree yet.

    Believe me, the UC Berkeley School of Engineering does not admit dummies, although I read that his life on the road has sunk this semester's grades down to a B average (which unlike at grade-inflation-central Stanford, is not easy to attain at Berkeley).

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RGA
    Song selection is for song writers. This is not a show for artists but rather singers. I don't understand why a singer needs to write their own songs to be taken seriously. The guy playing an oboe for a the Philharmonic is not judged by his ability to write symphonys but to play other people's work - and do it well. A singing voice is also an instrument. Some may write some don't.

    And that's precisely why AI poses no appeal to me whatsoever. If you look across the charts over the years, you'll see that the majority of what sells is original material. And in most cases, it's the artists who wrote the material that perform it. With most contemporary genres, it's the whole package that listeners are looking for, not only the singing ability of the singer.

    Just look at the alternative and hip-hop genres. The majority of those singers are far from technically perfect, but they have an innate ability to connect with the audience because of their songwriting, lyrics, musical acumen, stage presence, working together as a unit, general hipness, etc. As an A&R rep, those are the types of things that they look for when scouting new artists. If an A&R rep is scouting an artist, and they see nothing but covers, they'll likely move on. Great voices and great players, especially in L.A. and N.Y., are a dime a dozen. As a concert rep, I would get tape after tape from cover bands, and go from one gig to another where band after band would play derivative versions of songs that I'd heard dozens of times already. Most of them had musical talent, but guess what, NONE of them got booked by my committee. Why waste a spot on someone who can't even write their own material, when we had tons of equally talented artists out there who would actually play stuff that people have never heard before. I seriously doubt that bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Van Halen, or the Go-Gos would have emerged out of the L.A. club scene if they had stuck with playing other people's material (not to mention even get a club gig in the first place).

    AI is a very one-dimensional format in that regard, and that's why manufactured pop idols have historically flamed out very quickly if they have no talents outside of just singing stuff that other people wrote for them. The very nature of getting their break via national television makes them very low on the coolness scale, and if they can't evolve into a multidimensional original act, the audience will tire of them very quickly since they're starting their recording career already overexposed. An artist like Mary J. Blige can continually connect with her audience because her music is intensely personal (she writes most of it), she's got immense talent, her material is daringly original, and she works with equally talented producers who can keep the sound fresh.
  • 05-07-2004, 05:50 AM
    goatspeed
    Quote:

    If you want to see and hear REAL talent, check out Nashville Star
    Does it take any real talent to put twang in your voice? You don't even need to be from the south to do so.
  • 05-07-2004, 01:16 PM
    RGA
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Woochifer
    And that's precisely why AI poses no appeal to me whatsoever. If you look across the charts over the years, you'll see that the majority of what sells is original material. And in most cases, it's the artists who wrote the material that perform it. With most contemporary genres, it's the whole package that listeners are looking for, not only the singing ability of the singer.

    Just look at the alternative and hip-hop genres. The majority of those singers are far from technically perfect, but they have an innate ability to connect with the audience because of their songwriting, lyrics, musical acumen, stage presence, working together as a unit, general hipness, etc. As an A&R rep, those are the types of things that they look for when scouting new artists. If an A&R rep is scouting an artist, and they see nothing but covers, they'll likely move on. Great voices and great players, especially in L.A. and N.Y., are a dime a dozen. As a concert rep, I would get tape after tape from cover bands, and go from one gig to another where band after band would play derivative versions of songs that I'd heard dozens of times already. Most of them had musical talent, but guess what, NONE of them got booked by my committee. Why waste a spot on someone who can't even write their own material, when we had tons of equally talented artists out there who would actually play stuff that people have never heard before. I seriously doubt that bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Van Halen, or the Go-Gos would have emerged out of the L.A. club scene if they had stuck with playing other people's material (not to mention even get a club gig in the first place).

    AI is a very one-dimensional format in that regard, and that's why manufactured pop idols have historically flamed out very quickly if they have no talents outside of just singing stuff that other people wrote for them. The very nature of getting their break via national television makes them very low on the coolness scale, and if they can't evolve into a multidimensional original act, the audience will tire of them very quickly since they're starting their recording career already overexposed. An artist like Mary J. Blige can continually connect with her audience because her music is intensely personal (she writes most of it), she's got immense talent, her material is daringly original, and she works with equally talented producers who can keep the sound fresh.

    I'm not going to argue about music since that is pointless because it's all taste. Celine Dion is as big as it gets and she does not write songs - if you run down her hits some of them were done years before by someone else. Power of Love was one of the early ones that projected her to star-dom probably because most people felt she sung it better than original - or that younger people never heard the song. Take some 60s hits and play them to today's 15 year olds in a revamped style and it's NEW to these people. Or Madonna - most of what made her famous was written by a member of her crew. So what I am saying is that it is not necessarily up to the singer to write the music - why can't it be the band's guitarist? Maybe the guitarist is a great song writer but can't sing so he goes out and HIRE a singer to sing it properly. I remember the popular band Roxette - still popular in Europe - and the guy had a song all lined up for himself and could not sing the notes so he gave the song over to the girl Marie Fredrikkson(wow I remember a name). That song was a smash hit that still gets overplayed and was in the movie Pretty Woman. Point is the guy wrote it.

    Kimberly Lock the best singer from last year's Idol who finished third is singing some songwriter's song "Eighth World Wonder" which is your typical pop catchy stuff -- better than most other in the genre lately. You either like pop Fluff or you don't I suppose. For instance I dislike most rock like the Chilli peppers, DYLAN, Nirvanna, REM, U2, the Stones - to me it's all noise. Now give me the liner sheets and let me look at it as poetry and that might be something else - but poetry I generally pull out Plath, Coleridge, Shelly etc. I know people who say you have to FEEL Nirvanna for raw emotion - It's just not my thing - I'd rather the pop fluff. There is no rhime or reason to my taste in music - it is gut emotional reaction and I don't want to bring an intellectual study to it. I do enough of that with movies and other entertainments - I want music to relax to.

    Skeptic earlier wrote what seemed like a 3000 word paper on his dislike for Coltrane's Love Delux or some other album. Sorry but I don't see the use of destructing every note the guy plays an attributing some theory as to the origin and use of a C and why the percussion was not used at 2:03 of track four but was used at 2:08 at track 1. Who cares? Does it work or not. Kenny G worked on me - once because then it all sounded the same after a while to me...but the guy can certainly play his five notes really well and he sells a kabillion albums more probably than way more talented musicians - Or those considered more serious pieces.

    Trouble is like film you have sub-sets of people who place value on certain things. Drama is considered more serious and GENERALLY wins an academy award - same for DRAMATIC actors. Ask the actor and they usually say comedy is tougher to act. Ralph Fiennes can do serious and intense give him Maid in Manhatten and he even said it was difficult(ie; he misfired). Art critics will say Kane is the best movie ever made. But Film Critics are not too different than PHDs in English that decide upon what is the canon of given literature. Then they smack every first year English Lit student with all the "BEST" stuff. Some of it like the Great Gatsby I'm scratching my head like "so-what?" Despite the technical flaws of time and place it's a simplistic and obvious book to me.

    Music to me is even more difficult because in this day and age it seems like every decade it is revamped almost completely - what stays is classical music so I suppose Skeptic is correct on that regard. The Beatles if anyone are king from their decade - how has it held up with the 15-25 year olds of today? And 30 years form now? And Nirvana? or Rage Against the Machine? Which is kinda of a funny name for a band in the machine.
  • 05-07-2004, 02:39 PM
    Woochifer
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RGA
    I'm not going to argue about music since that is pointless because it's all taste. Celine Dion is as big as it gets and she does not write songs - if you run down her hits some of them were done years before by someone else. Power of Love was one of the early ones that projected her to star-dom probably because most people felt she sung it better than original - or that younger people never heard the song. Take some 60s hits and play them to today's 15 year olds in a revamped style and it's NEW to these people. Or Madonna - most of what made her famous was written by a member of her crew. So what I am saying is that it is not necessarily up to the singer to write the music - why can't it be the band's guitarist? Maybe the guitarist is a great song writer but can't sing so he goes out and HIRE a singer to sing it properly. I remember the popular band Roxette - still popular in Europe - and the guy had a song all lined up for himself and could not sing the notes so he gave the song over to the girl Marie Fredrikkson(wow I remember a name). That song was a smash hit that still gets overplayed and was in the movie Pretty Woman. Point is the guy wrote it.

    Kimberly Lock the best singer from last year's Idol who finished third is singing some songwriter's song "Eighth World Wonder" which is your typical pop catchy stuff -- better than most other in the genre lately. You either like pop Fluff or you don't I suppose. For instance I dislike most rock like the Chilli peppers, DYLAN, Nirvanna, REM, U2, the Stones - to me it's all noise. Now give me the liner sheets and let me look at it as poetry and that might be something else - but poetry I generally pull out Plath, Coleridge, Shelly etc. I know people who say you have to FEEL Nirvanna for raw emotion - It's just not my thing - I'd rather the pop fluff. There is no rhime or reason to my taste in music - it is gut emotional reaction and I don't want to bring an intellectual study to it. I do enough of that with movies and other entertainments - I want music to relax to.

    Skeptic earlier wrote what seemed like a 3000 word paper on his dislike for Coltrane's Love Delux or some other album. Sorry but I don't see the use of destructing every note the guy plays an attributing some theory as to the origin and use of a C and why the percussion was not used at 2:03 of track four but was used at 2:08 at track 1. Who cares? Does it work or not. Kenny G worked on me - once because then it all sounded the same after a while to me...but the guy can certainly play his five notes really well and he sells a kabillion albums more probably than way more talented musicians - Or those considered more serious pieces.

    Trouble is like film you have sub-sets of people who place value on certain things. Drama is considered more serious and GENERALLY wins an academy award - same for DRAMATIC actors. Ask the actor and they usually say comedy is tougher to act. Ralph Fiennes can do serious and intense give him Maid in Manhatten and he even said it was difficult(ie; he misfired). Art critics will say Kane is the best movie ever made. But Film Critics are not too different than PHDs in English that decide upon what is the canon of given literature. Then they smack every first year English Lit student with all the "BEST" stuff. Some of it like the Great Gatsby I'm scratching my head like "so-what?" Despite the technical flaws of time and place it's a simplistic and obvious book to me.

    Music to me is even more difficult because in this day and age it seems like every decade it is revamped almost completely - what stays is classical music so I suppose Skeptic is correct on that regard. The Beatles if anyone are king from their decade - how has it held up with the 15-25 year olds of today? And 30 years form now? And Nirvana? or Rage Against the Machine? Which is kinda of a funny name for a band in the machine.

    It's not really an argument about taste in music, it's about how acts get signed and which ones eventually go onto establishing a long and successful run. And just looking at the charts, you'll see that the majority of what music buyers buy is original material written by the artists (hip-hop especially is a very personal type of music). Sure, you got some megaselling acts who get manufactured by corporate handlers, but they don't constitute the majority of the acts that get signed and they rarely last long.

    And that's why AI is such a one-dimensional talent show, why I don't care much for it, and why it's only representative of a very narrow segment of the music industry -- it only shows how well someone can sing material that's already gotten overexposed to some degree. From having talked at length to A&R reps, they know that audiences generally connect a lot more closely with artists for whom their music is a personal statement. A band like The Red Hot Chili Peppers is a no-brainer for an A&R rep. Before getting signed, they had a fanatically devoted following in the L.A. club scene, they played intensely original material, and they had an intangible charisma on stage. You don't have to like their music to recognize their high potential. Cover acts? Forget about it -- audiences burn out on them easily and they're a dime a dozen. Even manufactured pop idols that have teams of songwriters and producers at their behest, eventually they have to show more than just a talent for singing other peoples' songs well if they're going to last.
  • 05-07-2004, 05:20 PM
    92135011
    GAH!

    I dont like American Idol...
    actually maybe I dont like it because Ryan Seacrest sorta pisses me off
    Watched his talkshow once too...it sucked ass...
    quickly switched to Jerry Springer to get more excitement
  • 05-07-2004, 05:59 PM
    RGA
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Woochifer
    It's not really an argument about taste in music, it's about how acts get signed and which ones eventually go onto establishing a long and successful run. And just looking at the charts, you'll see that the majority of what music buyers buy is original material written by the artists (hip-hop especially is a very personal type of music). Sure, you got some megaselling acts who get manufactured by corporate handlers, but they don't constitute the majority of the acts that get signed and they rarely last long.

    And that's why AI is such a one-dimensional talent show, why I don't care much for it, and why it's only representative of a very narrow segment of the music industry -- it only shows how well someone can sing material that's already gotten overexposed to some degree. From having talked at length to A&R reps, they know that audiences generally connect a lot more closely with artists for whom their music is a personal statement. A band like The Red Hot Chili Peppers is a no-brainer for an A&R rep. Before getting signed, they had a fanatically devoted following in the L.A. club scene, they played intensely original material, and they had an intangible charisma on stage. You don't have to like their music to recognize their high potential. Cover acts? Forget about it -- audiences burn out on them easily and they're a dime a dozen. Even manufactured pop idols that have teams of songwriters and producers at their behest, eventually they have to show more than just a talent for singing other peoples' songs well if they're going to last.

    I agree with you if we're talking generalities - and naturally there are exceptions like Linda Rondstadt. It also depends on how long one has to stick around. American Idol is in season 3 and has been getting the number one spot still in the ratings - add the money from all the votes $1.00 a vote and the guy that got voted off had over $4million votes - they are making just in phone vote revenues close to $30 million each week. This with singing re-tread songs. I don't know how well some of these people are selling but Clay Aiken had a number one album for a few weeks up here at least - I don't like his singing but people do --- and the show is not sing your own songs --- if that is what people really wanted to hear then why is there no show --- more people would buy into that? Then there is some serious money being missed out on.

    People are not going to buy Madonna sings Sinatra I agree - but just so long as the song is new and written by someone I would rather hear it sung by someone who can sing. I'm sick of listening to music where I can't make out a single lyric and someone says wow look how profound so and so is? The same people who will blast Madonna for not being able to sing will support the Stones or Dylan as "serious" music or serious artists which may be song writing wise but Jagger and Dylan SUCK donkey balls when it comes to singing.

    I guess it is more of a genre thing than anything. Rock requires energy and presensce and a look. Marilyn Mason has lasted and sells and will keep selling and what it's a decade on for him now. Good for him he's actually an intelligent well-spoken down to earth guy(at least in the Bowling for Columbine), but his music to me is kaka.
  • 06-02-2004, 10:21 AM
    ameri_fan
    Josh Gracin
    Speaking of American Idol talent, while interning at Universal I caught Josh Gracin's first single "I Want to Live" off of his website joshgracin.com. I heard that his album is set to be released in a couple of weeks on Tuesday, June 15th. His first single was actually very impressive and I encourage all of you American Idol and country fans to check out joshgracin.com to listen to the song and watch the video. Also, I clicked on a link on the site to join his street team. You can win a bunch of prizes, such as signed photos of Josh by helping out the street team. http://www.ufanz.com/teams/joshgracin/ Reply back to me and let me know how you feel about his new single!