“Hating” American Idol (August 20th, 2009)

i recently made a scalding comment about American Idol on the August 2009 issue of Pulp and i’ve been receiving flak from some of my friends ever since. let me have this opportunity to explain myself.
first of all, i don’t hate American Idol. i watch the auditions for chrissakes.

what i hate is what it has turned the listening public into.

let’s face it, the youth as a collective is highly impressionable. and if a young impressionable person watches the show, what he/she hears are “pointers” on how to become a star, how a star should perform on stage, and all the norms and mores and the hullabalooshit are unconsciously force-fed into said youth. so this youth, thinking that everything that randy, paula and simon says are the gospel to superstardom (hey, they’re on tv, they must be right), begins to pattern him/herself to this image of what a star should be. now, we have a safe and stale “artist” in our hands.

now this would have been ok if not for the fact that the masses tend to immerse themselves with this kind of “artist”. think about it. look at the current top 40 of music today. any artist in today’s list could easily fit into an American Idol competition. Katy Perry? Taylor Swift? Jonas Brothers?!?!?!?!

15 years ago, music was so diverse and exciting. in any top40 list, you’d probably find the Backstreet Boys, but you’ll also find Nirvana. on one side you’ve got Dido, but Wu-tang Clan is sitting just right beside her. music could be fresh, sweet, weird, and dangerous at the same time. one line of a song could immediately change the course of your life.

i badly miss those days.

so in conclusion, i hope i have made it clear that i don’t see American Idol as the enemy. it still boils down to us as a public to be discerning of the artists we support and listen to. here’s hoping that music can be once again exciting and life-changing as it used to be.