[Dark Hunter]

Even if you don't usually watch American Idol, this guy is a must-see! Not because he's very bad (he's better than a number of try-outs), but because he is absolutely hilarious! Had myself and my family convulsed in laughter for the entirety of his performance.

[redsniper]

I snickered. He didn't sound too bad though, considering his accent.

[Dark Hunter]

Yeah, we weren't really laughing at him, we were more laughing at the judges' response... and especially at the effects they did on Simon after the audition (the music, and the light shining on him... ).

[G0atmaster]

Yeah.  I get the costume was a little ridiculous, but the judges should be able to tell if he means to be taken seriously or not, and act accordingly.  I thought their reaction was a little inappropriate.

[redsniper]

I see the word "ridiculous" misspelled so much. Bob's excused since he can do crazy-hard math in his sleep, but everyone else has no reason to keep misspelling stuff especially since Firefox has a built in spellchecker now. [/spelling nazi]

[Jeff Vader]

Not to mention the built-in Spell check almost right next to the Post button.

[Nuke]

american idol is for people who dont know what music is

[IPAndrews]

Nuke. I like you. But get off the trashing reality TV bandwagon and have a laugh will you . On that score:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gKaIK6OAEhA

[Flipside]

I'm still recovering from the shock of seeing a Reality TV Show called 'Can Fat Kids Hunt?' over Christmas, it was about that time I finally accepted that we are all doomed.....

[IPAndrews]

'Can Fat Kids Hunt?'

How dare you not have youtube clips.

[captain-custard]

american idol is for people who dont know what music is

american idol is for people who dont know what life is

american idol is for people who dont know what reality is

american idol is for people who dont live

american idol is

american

[G0atmaster]

3 definitions of "Idol" read:

a mere image or semblance of something, visible but without substance, as a phantom.
a figment of the mind; fantasy.
a false conception or notion; fallacy.

A very odd definition of "American" reads:

a steam locomotive having a four-wheeled front truck, four driving wheels, and no rear truck.

I'll let you do the math.

http://dictionary.reference.com

[Flipside]

'Can Fat Kids Hunt?'

How dare you not have youtube clips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTgKa_tIQUI

Welcome to Middle England....

[karajorma]

american idol is for people who dont know what music is

Whenever I see American Idol I just think of Bob Dylan. The man has got 20+ platinum and gold dics. Can anyone honestly see him getting through an American Idol or X-Factor audition? They'd tell him he couldn't sing and kick him out.

It's pretty obvious that the show only really gets a certain kind of singer through. And it's usually the kind who don't add anything to the world beyond a few very forgettable cover versions of songs sung much better by the original artist.


That said the deluded people who go on that show thinking they are good are hilarious.

[Flipside]

american idol is for people who dont know what music is

Whenever I see American Idol I just think of Bob Dylan. The man has got 20+ platinum and gold dics. Can anyone honestly see him getting through an American Idol or X-Factor audition? They'd tell him he couldn't sing and kick him out.

Well, typo not included, I agree, I've hated Idol programs because of the amount of people that wouldn't have got through, but just happen to be Superstars. Can you imagine Simon Cowell letting a young Mick Jagger through? (Pete Waterman, in fact, turned away the Stones early in his career iirc.) Can Mick Jagger sing, for example, something from an Andrew Lloyd Weber musical? Of course not! Mick Jagger can only really sound like Mick Jagger, that was why he was famous.

Idol programs are production lines, they aren't about finding stars, they are about finding someone who can appeal to the widest spectrum of listeners in the Bill-paying section of society, it's not uniqueness that counts, it's bland profit statistics.

[Roanoke]

Not quite. It's about making Simon Cowell, a very, very rich man, a little bit more very-rich.
But hey if people buy "his" stuff good luck to him.

[Nuke]

id like to put gaahl on american idol. the last guy he tortured is still incapable of breeding last i heard. id like that simon mother****er to get the same treatment.

[Ford Prefect]

Can Mick Jagger sing, for example, something from an Andrew Lloyd Weber musical?

Assessing someone's musical prowess based on their performance of Andrew Lloyd Weber is much like assessing a chef based on their preparation of a saltine cracker and a moldy piece of cheese.

[Flipside]

I'd say more along the lines of a Pot Noodle, it's about as middle of the road as music can get. That's where Idol programs live. It murders creativeness, and turns it's contestants into photocopied backing vocalists who just happen to have been given a lead role.

[MP-Ryan]

Hate to rain on the American Idol bashing parade, but the show has actually produced at least two decently talented and successful musicians (I speak of course of Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood).

I despise reality TV, and for the most part I ignore American Idol as well, but not all the vocalists coming out of that competition are commercial fodder, nor all they all merely cover singers without creativity.  It's unfair to the people with talent to lump them in with the rest of the American idol hacks just because they appeared on the same reality TV flick.

Fact of the matter is that Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger (to name two mentioned in this thread), and dozens of other extremely successful musicians wouldn't have known musical theory if it walked out of a page and smacked them over the head when they started out.  They weren't musicians - they were popular figures who started creating their own brand of music.  They had the creativity to make musicians out of themselves, but they didn't really know music when they started.  The same is true of the majority of extremely successful musicians.

As for lack of creativity and merely cover singers, some of the most famous musicians in the world (instrumental musicians, mostly) have never written a piece of music in their entire lives or played an original piece of their own - ever - and yet their talent is beyond dispute.

To summarize:  musical snobbery is idiotic, because it's an art form and has no set rules.