American Idol Begins Tonight

I've mentioned American Idol before. Honestly, I don't feel like I can summon enthusiasm for it this year. But I say that every year. My wife likes the show and I'll most likely be watching it with her.

Something about the show seems wrong to me. It's basically way too artificial and manufactured. I don't like what it says about the music business. I might be wrong, but I'm guessing a lot of people feel the same way.

I don't want to knock the performers from the show that have done well for themselves and gone beyond their roots and developed their own career. They deserve their congratulations. However, picture the world without the show. We already had way too many Pop / Rock / R&B stars than we really needed. Now they are not only going to inject --almost forcibly-- one more star into the mix in the case of the winner, but also we are going to get the runner-ups and top ten or whatever.

There are already too many starving artists of all varieties out there. There are too many bar bands and not enough bars. There are too many amateurs and not enough open-mike nights. There are too many wanna-bes and too many divas.

The industry big shots and lobbyists blame the internet and file-sharing for the shrinking sales. But is it possible that they have oversaturated the market with too many flowers for the flower shop? Basic supply and demand people!

I get the appeal of the show on many levels. There are the good singers and the crowd favorites. People get tied up in the people and get divisively devoted to one particular performer that they want to win. It's the competition and the betting on your favorite 'horse', if you will.

Also quite entertaining are the flops. These are the losers who for some reason think they can sing but that cannot really sing. Nor can they really understand what music really is. Most of them probably have never tried to sing outside the shower. Some look genuinely surprised at either the sound of their voices in a public space or at the judges reactions to them. Some really are idiots, some are faking it and some have to be plants by the producers of the show just to illicit the right fiery responses from Simon.

And there is all the range of human emotion in between. Like most 'reality' shows, when it's good it's good, but when it's bad it's even better. It's similar to staring at the accident victims as you pass them on the highway. It's sick, it's wrong and we can't stop doing it.

I'd write more, but ... ooh, it's coming on soon! See ya!