A guy sets up a mic and sings for money out
here Saturday mornings. I heard him every weekend for a while. He's a bad singer,
clips all the words so he doesn't have to hold a note. He thinks his best song
is "My Girl" by The Temptations. But because he's chopping off all
the notes, that song only highlights his inadequacy. The original's strength is it has such strong phrasing.
This umpteenth season is very slowly announcing our newest idol--a woman: probably a woman named Kree.
The show American Idol puts contestants through a few rounds of singing talent and performance competitions. Then the finale crowns a winner--presumably, the best talent and performer who is an American idol. Whether you are watching from the show's judge's panel or from home, you judge the contestant, their talent, their look.
If a contestant sings well but looks unconventional, she can pass the first round. But then comes the problem: you have to be believable; the audience must think you are believable as a pop star, a pop idol. And that believability, no matter your personal preferences, depends on your preconceptions of what a pop star is. The believability is an extension of the theater of the show--the anticipation, the suspense, the competition, the deployment of sincerity, pain, disadvantage (as advantage), hopes, and dreams and effort. As theater, the contestant has her part, and the momentum of the show's theatricality inevitably leads to a climax demanding the idol be selected.
The selected contestant, the winner, is an idol before she even wins. She is merely crowned by the finale. The judges often claim that this is "a singing competition". No, it certainly isn't that simple. And that the show employs a democratic element makes no difference at all.
Notes: Nicki Minaj is probably a better judge than she's given credit for being. Unless she is given a lot of credit for this. I wouldn't really know.
I am pleased when I watch Robyn's Saturday Night Live performance of "Dancing on My Own" because what I see of her compliments what I hear. When I watch I detect a smidgen of awkwardness in her dancing, as if these moves are unpracticed, everything being improvised in unfamiliar space. And that fits the lyrics, which speak of a woman dancing alone in a night club, where it might be a little weird that she's dancing alone, emotionally, trapped between desperation and powerlessness; and it should be a little weird, noticeably so, that she's alone while the other dancers have paired off and bystanders drink among friends. She sings,
Yeah, I know its stupid, I just gotta see it for myself
I'm in the corner, watching you kiss her, Oh
I'm right over here, why can't you see me? Oh
Had the dancing looked choreographed, the effect would not be the same.
Notes:
It may be that these moves are not improvised, and that she's actually dancing flawlessly, comfortably (no doubt passionately). But this is just what I get out of it. And there's no way that Pete Townsend windmill move is choreographed.
