The American Idol Thread

[Eric]

I just realized that So You Think You Can Dance is the show I should've been hooked on the whole time. I'd like to see Taylor show up there!

[Sonic Youth]

I think I figured out the Taylor Hicks appeal. Very quickly, it's for the same reasons that has made Phil Collins so successful. And that's his ordinary blokedom (although since he's American, it would be called something else.) Collins has a very ordinary but affable voice, a pleasing unpretentious clumsy presence, a pleasing unchallenging repertoire, and a very unthreatening and likeable manner. Hicks even sounds a little like an American Phil Collins, although I think he sounds more like Steve Miller. I happen to like Phil Collins very much without liking any of his music, if such a thing makes sense. And I think people genuinely like Hicks and his klutziness. I still think he's creepy, but obviously I'm in a minority.

[Nik]

For her sake, I hope she doesn't lamd in New York City, unless she wants a career waiting tables. On the other hand, she could have a quite pleasant career singing in the lonuge of, say, the Little Rock Airport Hilton.

Taylor is a fine bar band singer. To think he has any potential as a real recording star is ludicorus. A life on cruise ships awaits.

LMAO! Hilarious Damien. This is partly why I come to this board and love you guys so much. It's refreshing that wittily bitchy comments like this can emerge to take the wind out of the Idol hoopla that permeates every other message board on the planet. And yes, I AM referring to Tom O Neil and his minions.

As for the other part? Um...I love Jews and queers.

[VanHelsing]

Is Clay Aiken trying to look like K.D. Lang?

[dws1982]

My favorite performances of the season:
1) Elliott, "A Song For You"
2) Elliott, "Moody's Mood For Love"
3) Elliott, "It Had To Be You"
4) Mandisa, "I Don't Hurt Anymore"
5) Paris, "Fever"
6) Chris, "Hemmorhage"
7) Elliott, "Trouble"
Elliott, "If I Can Dream"
9) Melissa, "What About Love?"
10) Bucky, "Fat Bottomed Girls"
11) Gedeon, "A Change Is Gonna Come"
12) Katharine, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"
13) Taylor, "You Are So Beautiful"
14) Paris, "Midnight Train To Georgia"
15) Lisa, "I Am Changing"

Worst:
1) Ace, "If You're Not The One"
2) Bobby, "Copacabana"
3) Sway, "Reasons" and "Overjoyed"
4) Katharine, "The Voice Within"
5) Kevin, "One Last Cry"
6) Kellie, "Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered"
7) Ace, "Drops of Jupiter"
Chris, "What If" and "I Dare You" and "A Little Less Conversation"

[anonymous1980]

Hmmm. I'm probably alone in saying this but I thought the Burt Bacharach medley was pretty good. It's the best finale medley they ever had. All the contestants were at their best, it was well-choreographed and staged, the extra oomph of bringing out Dionne Warwick. It was pretty darn good number.

[dws1982]

Taylor is a fine bar band singer. To think he has any potential as a real recording star is ludicorus. A life on cruise ships awaits.

I just wonder if Taylor's fans are going to enjoy him as much when they just listen to him on a CD; Part of his appeal seemed in watching him spazz out onstage. A friend of mine bought the cast album, and I listened to part of it. Based on the CD, Taylor has a fine recording voice, but he sounds just like Michael McDonald. A lot of the songs sounded like total karaoke: Katharine, Mandisa, Chris, Lisa, Kevin. (Chris at least had a very good recording voice; Kevin...needs work.) Elliott's song ("Moody's Mood For Love") was by miles the best. It blew every other song on the album away. Melissa's and Bucky's were both pretty good too.

[anonymous1980]

Elliott being voted off, I think, is a blessing in disguise. If he had won or was runner-up, he would have to sign his soul to the Corporate Devil that is 19E and churn out watered down packaged pop songs for years. He had enough exposure on Idol that people now know who he is and someone might and probably will sign him a record contract where he'll do music he actually wants to do.

[Damien]

Kat is beautiful--I mean, really beautiful--but has a mediocre Broadway voice. NYC is will she will land, I am sure.

For her sake, I hope she doesn't lamd in New York City, unless she wants a career waiting tables. On the other hand, she could have a quite pleasant career singing in the lonuge of, say, the Little Rock Airport Hilton.

Taylor is a fine bar band singer. To think he has any potential as a real recording star is ludicorus. A life on cruise ships awaits.

Tonight also showed that the best singer had been bumped off too early. Elliot's rendition of "A House Is Not A Home" put everyone else to shame, and also shamed this show for the nonsense it is. Elliot didn't have the right appearance for American Idol? Well, hell, Mel Torme was no looker, and neither is Joe Cocker or Tom Petty or Edgar Winter or Tony Bennett.

[99-1100896887]

Dreadful! What makes it worse is that I know Damien has been watching this atrocious show since the beginning, as, I am sorry to say, we have, and I have not mentioned it to you, D.
Kat is beautiful--I mean, really beautiful--but has a mediocre Broadway voice. NYC is will she will land, I am sure.
Taylor will go back home to the South and the trucker bars where things go on in the back rooms, and Opry or something. He is no Elvis, but really tried to be. If Chris had a larger set of cojones, he would have won. He seemed to be reticent the whole time--holding back. Does Taylor represent the best in American pop music? No. But on the other hand, none of the guests seemed to either: Meat Loaf was wrecked, Dionne's range was within an octave. All the guests were "pitchy".
YUK.

[Nik]

Ugh. Thanks for the update guys. I'm so glad I chose to have sex rather than watch this. I did my own singing.

[dws1982]

I think TPTB officially threw in the towel on this season when Chris didn't turn out to be as popular as they'd thought/hoped. They thought they had another Bo, and Chris had a decent voice, but didn't have any charisma. They probably hoped for a Chris/Ace finale, with Taylor as the class clown who'd go out somewhere mid-pack. But Ace tanked, so they abandoned him and decided to push Chris full-steam. When Chris ended up in the bottom two the first time, I had a feeling something was up when they didn't stage an intervention for him. But they seemed to hop back on the Chris train in full force the next week, and I assumed they were going for a Chris/Taylor/Kat final three. Chris was just too one-dimensional to grow beyond his core fanbase though, and ultimately I don't think they liked him enough to invoke The Clause when he had the fewest votes. (It was widely rumored that he was very difficult backstage, and no one could stand him.)

It was a very confusing season, in terms of the conspiracy theories. Usually they're very obvious--last season, Simon was pimping Carrie before they even aired her audition, and he declared her the winner on final 11 night. I don't think Taylor was ever TCO; I think that after they couldn't make Chris the frontrunner--after tongue-baths and lightshows and mariachi bands in almost every performance--they said "#### it" and decided that if Taylor couldn't be derailed, they might as well hop onboard.

[VanHelsing]

I don't hate Taylor but everytime he finished singing, he is quick to exclaim "Soul Patrol, Soul Patrol" umpteenth times!! Which gets utterly sick!! It feels like someone shoved a knive into my ear!

And whenever he shouted "SP, SP", I just felt like pointing a gun in his face just like Sandra had a gun pointed in her face in Crash!

JESUSSSZ!!!

[anonymous1980]

I think Taylor was NEVER the TPTB's pick. Chris was the Chosen One. They did everything to try to sabotage Taylor from last minute song changes to "meh" reviews from the judges particularly Simon but no matter what they did, he just can't land the Bottom Three, much less get kicked out. Chris was voted off and they just settled for Taylor since his popularity is wholly undeniable.

[dws1982]

Somehow I came to nont mind Taylor as the season went on. Everyone else seemed to hate him more and more every week, and I didn't really become a fan, but I don't think he's quite as awful as everyone else does. He's a curiosity at best, though.

As far as winners go, I think Ruben's still the worst.

But I'm just glad that mediocrity Kat didn't win. She's pretty and she's got a sweet rack, but as a singer she's just a flaming pile of "meh"; all training...zero substance.