American Idol

[kybearfuzz]

Not sure what to make of American Idol. I know it's very popular and most people love to watch it. Tonight I gave it a brief chance. The problem I have is that I empathize too much with the people putting themselves up for criticism after warbling some ditty. Don't get me wrong, some of them deserve the Simon blast of sheer meanness. Others do not, I think.

Case in point, the young lady who was in the Air Force was first up and sang "Dancing in the Streets" beautifully. She was pleasant, bubbly, and appealing and even had Paula and Randy dancing along. However, the consensus of them was that she wasn't good enough. What?? Now I'm no expert, but I thought she had some talent and would love to have heard her try different things.

Listening to the young lady sing was great, watching the terrible trio rip her apart was painful. And it's not like they are perfect at this themselves. The lady sang better than Paula, and these are the people who thought that Guarini guy would be a success....

Comments

[mat-t.livejournal.com]

As a fan of the show (started watching at the beginning of last season), I'd say to not judge the show on this week's episodes. The first 3 or so episodes are the initial auditions. This is where the primary point is to show the viewers just how many BAD singers there are and to humiliate those "singers" as much as possible. Last year I was all about the evil glee watching these eps. This year, I didn't really enjoy the episode. Try watching when it gets to the next round, aka "Hollywood". That's where it starts getting a bit like the real show.

I just wrote a really long thing about how the show works, but realized that it's quite possible that you already know that and don't need/want me telling it to you. So, if you're curious, ask. *g*

I didn't get why they rejected Air Force Woman either. I thought she was pretty good, and better than some of the final 10 last year.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... maybe I'm missing the point of the show. I may need the explanation after all.

American Idol format

[mat-t.livejournal.com]

Of course, this is after I deleted my explanation. I knew I should have cut and saved it instead. *g*

The show's got something like 5 rounds. The first round is the initial auditions in the various cities. This is what you saw tonight, and will be for the rest of the week probably. IMO, the point of televising this round is for laughs. They want to show the bad people in the most humiliating light possible. Which is pretty awful, but I admit that last year, I was loving it. Laughing my ass off. Today, not so much. The contestants sing a capella.

The second round is "Hollywood". If I remember correctly, they line them up in groups of like 15 and make them sing again. Then they eliminate people, leaving some number that I don't remember (48 maybe?) A capella again.

The third round, I remember them having the contestants sing in groups of 3, where they actually had to do a group sing. There may have been more to this round, but I can't remember for sure. From this group, the judges pick 32 people. Contestants get some canned music for this round to sing with.

The fourth round is where the judges lose most of their power. From now on, they become critics and don't actually get to affect much directly. They put the 32 into groups of 8 and have them perform, 1one group per night. The audience votes and the top 2 from each group go on to the next round. Then the judges pick some number of non-winning people from this current round (last year they cheated by bringing back a few people who didn't even make it into the top 32) for the wildcard show. My understanding is that in AI1, the judges picked one contestant from the group to go on, and the audience picked another, making 10. In AI2, they let each judge pick one and the audience pick a fourth, making it a top 12. Contestants sing with just a piano accompianist in this round.

The fifth and last round is where they do the big stage thing. This is the "main" part of the competition. From here on in, each contestant sings once a week, and after the audience votes, the person with the least number of votes is eliminated.

Re: American Idol format

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the background Mat, sorry you had to retype everything... I do appreciate it ;)

Re: American Idol format

[mat-t.livejournal.com]

For you cutie, no problem. ;)