At its heart, [American Idol] is an old-fashioned talent contest, in the mold of "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour," "The Gong Show" and "Star Search." But it added a few twists for the new millennium, noted Robert Thompson, head of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.
"This is to 'Star Search' what modern quantum physics is to Newtonian gravitational equations," he said. "It's big, so much more sophisticated and so much more conscious of how you gather an audience." -- from cnn.com
Physicists will understand why that last quote is asinine. For the rest of you, sorry.
But I did succumb to pop culture temptation and watched the finale of "American Idol". The public and the judges choices notwithstanding, I think the wrong person won. Kelly is by far the better singer, although her voice doesn't offer me anything new that we all haven't heard from Christina, Mariah and Whitney. These days, everyone is dead bored of Christina, Mariah and Whitney, so I guess Kelly qualifies as something new in that respect. But Justin is the "American Idol". He's an average singer at best, but the guy should teach a "Teen Idol 101" course in university. Effortlessly, and without seeming the least bit forced, he has every wave, smile, hand shaking with screaming girls, playing to a rabid crowd -- every last damned thing that you need to be a nice guy pretty boy teen idol, the magic that has impelled 14 year old girls from the 50's to the '00's to run to the nearest mall to buy posters of their favourite boy toys. Kelly has the voice, but to paraphrase Paula Abdul, she doesn't have "it". She's less congenial than Justin. Watching her reach out to the outstretched arms of her "fans", acknowledging the cheers, every smile -- it's as if she's following a checklist. In short, Kelly performs these nuances as though she feels she NEEDS to do them, whereas Justin does it because he WANTS to. Whether this accurately represents their true inner selves is not the point. This is the image they convey, and conveying a pop star image is what the show is all about.
And for a double bill, I watched "Josie and the Pussycats" immediately afterward. A more appropriate pairing of viewing enjoyment could not be possible. "Josie" is the best music satire film ever. With all the in-jokes, cool one-liners, and wonky characters, it boggles my mind that this film wasn't heralded as the new "Austin Powers" immediately upon release.
