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that american idol and their ilk are popcult phenomena mystifies me: having people do covers of appallingly bad pop songs and then be subjected to the judgment of a panel of idiots seems abject. that american idol is in a position to launch careers is so strange...
i sometimes wonder if the concept behind the show was a joke at some level--we can sell people anything--anything at all---and we'll show you that this is the case. yes yes, it's all shit--but people like eating it. here, just watch.
that said, it's interesting at the same time...the ability to pull off versions of appallingly bad pop songs on television is itself an ability, and it's more difficult than it appears---try to do it yourself, particularly if you're not tempermentally inclined to do that sort of thing, and you'll run straight into how difficult it can be. so the show is creepy bad, but through it performers who are able to do, and do well, a skillset that is not obvious and not easy get exposure. so why not? it's the case that there's no requirement that everybody like everything. if there's a stratum of pop music that these folk can get streamed into and as a result they get to live out a period that otherwise would have remained a fantasy for them, where's the down side?
i'm not particularly impressed with susan boyle's voice, but the phenomenon that's been generated by this clip is kinda interesting.
one thing i am more sure of is that it makes little sense to apply standards that obtain in one form to those which obtain in another---what constitutes a "real" vocalist? it varies by form, yes? an operatic singer would approach his or her work in a way that would make them cartoons as singer for a punk band, yes?
i feel terribly andy warhol today.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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