American Idol?
I don’t watch American Idol. If I had to do a rough estimate of how many minutes I have spent watching American Idol I could possible add up to 45. The 45 minutes I was watching wasn’t the competition either. I was watching the auditions; the bad ones. William Hung, known for singing the song “She Bangs�, is the biggest winner of all the losers. He recently has been offered a record contract by Fuse Music Television and has gone onto sing on both the Ellen Degeneres show and the Early Show on CBS. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/19/earlyshow/leisure/celebspot/main601111.shtml)
He considering the deal, but he may want to look at how the past winners and runner-ups of the show have fared with their record labels. Katherine McPhee, Taylor Hicks, Ruben Studdard, and Blake Lewis have all been dropped from their record contracts. Fickle Americans, you vote them your winners and almost winners, but then don’t buy their albums. Give the losers a chance though and the tide turns a bit. Jennifer Hudson has an Oscar under her belt, Kellie Pickler has a top selling country album, and Chris Daughtry has had a few top charting songs. Maybe William Hung really does have a chance.
Given poor album sales, Americans love American Idol and the contestants that go along with the show. American Idol tours sell out tickets and stadiums city after city and the show is ranked 1 and 2 in the 0708 broadcast season. (http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/07/03/top-season-to-date-broadcast-shows-by-viewers-2/4319) Obviously the market is there and American Idols demographics show that. With 50% of its viewers between the ages of 18-49 the country is watching and voting and waiting for the next big controversy. As read in the week 3-4 syllabus, Brian Dunkleman, a former co-host of the show, claimed the contestants were owned by the show and record companies associated with the show and that the Idolists were not treated right. Paula Abdul opens her mouth and the comments that spew forth end up on the front page of the variety section or on the cover of US weekly. Even Simon, known for his rude comments, makes the entertainment headlines for how he rips into the contestants. Viewers aren’t watching for the music, they are watching to hear what is going to be said after the song has been sung. Along the way, favorites get picked, voted on and booted off knowing that they will be back to tour with the rest of the gang.
As a music consumer, I don’t watch American Idol to help me pick out the next CD that I am going to listen to. I listen to multiple radio stations, I take into account what my friends are listening to and I read reviews in magazines about CDs. This is the case with many of my friends as well. While American Idol does have very good singers on their show, singers are a dime a dozen. The contestants are covering songs that have already been recorded or popularized by other artists. Karaoke bars do the same thing. I didn’t buy the Carrie Underwood CD because I saw her on American Idol. I bought it because I liked hearing her take apart a cheating boyfriends car. I bought it because even after I was bombarded by her song on the radio every hour and a half when it was first released on the country station, I didn’t change the station. Also, I didn’t watch Dreamgirls because it had an American Idol alum in it. I watched it because it looked like a good film, the reviews and nominations it received were above average and the music was emotionally packed, something you could feel in a 30 second preview. I watch and listen to something because I like it, not because it’s number 1 on the Neilson ratings.
So, back to you William Hung. Good luck on being a loser and laughing off the comments and parodies that were made in your name. But no matter how much you are played over the air and pasted in the entertainment section, this music consumer is not buying it.