Culture Watch: American Idol 2009

I. love. Kris. Allen.

But... can he actually win?

I hope so. Because I think a win would mean that maybe other cool kids such as myself, have found a place on Idol. When it gets down to the end, I feel like you're not really voting for a person as much as you are a genre. Danny Gokey is the older woman crowd favorite - big ballad soft rock. This is a GIANT voting category. This voting category lets people like Clay Aiken and Taylor Hicks get past round one. It is a force to be reckoned with and it scares the crap out of me. I won't mention his disastrous attempt at rock. I won't mention how incredibly DULL and AWKWARD he is on TV. But I will mention that I hate the judges. I hate that they make a choice in the first week, and then get their brains all twisted around so that they don't notice when a performer stops improving and when others start beating them. I won't mention it, because maybe it's harder to see than it looks. But aren't they supposed to be professionals?



Moving on...



Adam Lambert is the rock crowd vote. And, apparently, the MTV crowd favorite. Maybe it's the eyeliner and the alternative lifestyle. Who knows exactly why such an obvious rocker has made it so far on what started out as a competition to find the next big pop star. Other rockers have tried and failed to straddle the line between rock and pop, but Adam represents more than one crowd, and I think that's why he's been getting so much love. I also think that's why Simon Cowell has been out and about the talk show circuit chatting him up so much. It would look mighty silly for the show to have another soft rock winner that goes on to make subpar records that the show's target audience won't buy. For me, Adam's allure wore off after that beautiful cover of Gary Jules' version of "Mad World." Sidenote: I wonder how many Donnie Darko fans tune in to American Idol every week. This is where I think he's great. But he realizes that the crowd of people who dig that is much smaller than the crowd of people who love it when it wags his tongue, screams Aerosmith, and dances down giant stage stairs in neon pant suits. I have always thought Adam was a great performer, but I would never buy one of his albums. Shouldn't that play a factor? Apparently the show can't sail along on great vocals - there has to be excessive performance elements as well. Kris gets hammered week after week for not having enough energy on stage, but his emotion is so much more evident than anyone else's. As for musical ability - Kris has played three different instruments while singing, while Adam sticks to fashion accessories.



Which leaves Kris. Kris, from what I can tell, is our contemporary folk pop representative. Many a 20 something have tried and failed to win America's votes in this genre (most notably Megan Joy, who cites Bjork as her favorite female vocalist). All season long, the judges kept her around because she was so contemporary, but they take every possible opportunity to slam Kris' choices or give him lukewarm reviews. What? He has always been the most marketable contestant on the show and yet - gets no love from the four in charge.



It seems to me that the kinds of people who would dig Kris' music.... aren't watching American Idol. I had given up on the show for the past few years, and only started watching again this season because Margo was auditioning. Of course, once you start, it's hard to stop, especially since Margo and Anoop tried out in the same episode. But this is what worries me. If Kris is the contemporary choice, at least musically, but no contemporary music lovers are watching Idol - then should the show continue at all? If Adam didn't wear flamboyant white suits, eyeliner and scream at high decibels - would he be considered the amazing, hidden talent that is worth such excessive judge favoritism? And in the end, shouldn't the winner be my favorite, and not America's?

I think so.