"America, what were you thinking!" Topic

Before tonight I had never ever watched a version of American Idol (or Australia or UK or whatever idol either)

But a few days ago, I say part of this YouTube link
of Adam Lambert singing Whole Lot of love. I was blown away. So I have a confession. Tonight I watched (well most of it) the grand final.

How in hells name did he not win? I haven't followed the show or the goss or anything, so I don't know what the issues are/were whatever. but to say the other guy was better than him? he was brilliant in Whole Lot of Love. His performance tonight was way better than the competition. What was the problem?

Adam Lambert is nothing but a screamer, as far as I am concernedm but I am not the audience who votes.

My guess is that 45% of the people think Adam is brilliant, 30% like the other guy, and 25% can't stand Adam and would vot against him if he was up against Bin Laden.

Um . . . they were watching American Idol. Clearly they weren't thinking.

Screamer Boy was just ripping off somebody with *real* talent:

YouTube link

Viva Tortelvis!

Just got home from work. Had TV on another channel.

You do know there is an assumption in your question, don't you? Especially when it comes to the folks whose life revolves around a rectangular electronic image.

Not winning is no big deal. A couple seasons ago Chris Daughtry was 4th…he went platinum with his first album, the top two have for the most part dropped off the radar, the third place guy has done a little better than the top 2. Chris is certainly in the top 3 of idol artists with Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. The rest eh who cares. Adam may or may not have a great career. Kris may have a great career or just vanish…hard to say.

I am with OFM on this one fer sure.

Pure cruddadge. I will admit the guy had a vocal range, but it seemed like he was really massacring every song. I cannot think of one that I liked.

BTW, I really did think he as going to win. I was shocked to find out that he did not. Granted, I do not watch AI, but there is a gal here at work who gives the 'blow-by-blow' after every episode, so I don't even need to see it…

While I doubt that it had any real effect, there was allegedly a "campaign" by some to vote for the other guy due to Lamberts' sexuality.

More likely, it might have been a combination of "backlash" against the judges virtually anointing him from nearly day one, and the fact that he seemed to be coasting while Kris Allen constantly improved. Allen clearly wasn't expecting to win – and he even said that Lambert should have.

In reality, I think Lambert does better with a second-place position as he is not under contract to Simon after the summer tour. And, the runners-up in Idol seem to have much better careers than the winners. Now that Paul Rodgers is no longer working with Queen, they need a lead singer.

Wyatt

He will still get a recording contract.

And Adam WAS the most talented singer this year by far. There were several talanted folks in the top 10 this year. I didn't believe that Kris was even in the top 5. His range is limited and in duets he always showed a poor second. Adam will undoubtedly end up somewhere making music and achieving success. His longevity like all singers is a question mark. He did stand up well when singing with other established artists on Idol. By the way, this years finale was pretty awesome. I didn't like the result but the show was incredible.

If you don't like Idol that's fine. There are a LOAD of shows, movies and music that I utterly detest. I just don't find the need to chime in on the subject.

Thanks,

John

Yeah, well let's see who sells more records. It is all about homophobia. Hetero Americans voted over and over based on their hate for gays. That is the bottom line. They both have talent but c'mon. Let's be serious. If you think he is a screamer, you just don't know music. BTW, I like Idol and watch it every year. So what?

When they start singing songs that really mean something YouTube link I may start watching the show (no, no I won't).

If you think he is a screamer, you just don't know music.

Bull . You don't have to insult someone's appreciation of music just because you don't agree with it.
He is the apotheosis of the "interpreter" of music. He twists it into ways the original artist or writer never imagined. I happen to think he makes more bad choices than good.

As for the homophobia charge, that is bull too. It's a cheap copout because you don't want to acknowledge that not everyone has your tastes. That issue is completely irrelevant to me. Heck, I am a big fan of show tunes, myself! As I remember Mel Brooks saying in "To be, or not to be!", "Without Jews, Fags and Gypsies, you have no show business!"

There is way too much of the defensive "If you do not like Adam Lambert, you are an ignorant homophobe!" floating around, if you ask me. It smacks too much of the politically correct "If you do not agree with me 100%, you are a horrible person!" attitude.

John, you are way off on this. The guy was the best and most interesting stage personality there. The other guy is a normal guy with a nice voice. Adam can really sing. He has tremendous range. He lost cause he is gay. I never said you were a homophobe rather that many are who voted for the other guy are. Ever since the anti-gay slander campaign started his vote total began to drop. He was in the bottom three at some point. I don't think you are being objective about this. Facts are the facts. Idol is a prime time show and the market isn't one that accepts gays. This is a nationwide talent show and the nation just isn't ready for a openly gay idol.

Personally after he masacred U2's 'One' I was hoping he would lose. I'm not the worlds biggest U2 fan, but that was aweful. And he does scream, loudly and high pitched, but it is a scream. For some styles of music a good scream is well, good. David Lee Roth had a great scream. Adam's made my teeth ache. Nothing to do with him being gay or not (actually I thought he was just a typical modern freak and didn't think he was gay…) Frankly I also thought the kid that won was pretty lame.

And how sad was Kiss last night? Man they aged poorly. Paul Stanley needs to rethink live TV….

The guy was the best and most interesting stage personality there.

In your opinion… That's why people vote on AI, and enough disagreed with you.
I don't need to be objective, since I have never voted on AI.
I didn't like the guy simply because I don't like his "style" of singing. His gayness has nothing to do with it.
Being gay does not entitle him to any awards, either. I judged him on his style, wheich I did not like. I do agree that the rest of the field was nothing but boring vanilla Timberlake or "tight jeans" country wannabes. Being the only one not categorized as boring is hardly a ringing recommendation.

As I said above, he probably had more people like him than the other forgettable guy. But, enough did NOT like him to turn the vote.

*************
Devadip Carlos Santana is the one I felt sorry for… "Who are all those guys ruining my songs and prancing around???"
KISS has always been a bloated joke…

Gay or not has little to do with it. You see this type of thing all the time on Idol. Cute guys who appeal to the type of people who vote, are going to do better than their vocal abilities warrent.

It was obvious that the majority of people who were voting for Danny Gokey, went with a similiar second choice and that was Kris. Adam, while more talented, just wasn't going to have the broad appeal. Regardless of what the judges say, it's not a vocal competition, it's a popularity contest once the voting starts.

combatpainter… There is no anti-gay voting block conspiracy. Get real.

If true, it would be seriously unjust. So I started digging…

Google, Yahoo, etc. and key words and strings like "campaign against adam," "vote against gay adam," "gay vote chris," "defeat adam lambert." Not one hit to a website or blog that favored, or recommended, or focused, or organized Idol voters to defeat Adam down.

Quite to the contrary, almost every hit was on gay lifestyle or pro-homosexual websites and blogs who were convinced of this conspiracy against Adam because of his sexuality;

The reason this anti-gay voting assumption has legs is because it feeds into the pre-conceived notion that there are large, organized, hate-filled alliances that mobilize against anyone who is gay. But the facts do not play out supporting their paranoia in at least this case.

So go beyond the lack of evidence on the net of any organized voting-block-mobilizing… let's talk the voting mechanics themselves. There were over 100M votes. Since everyone can vote 5 times, that represents at the very minimum, 20M people. Over half of those evidently voted for Kris.

If there was a "Christian voting block" that organized and generate enough to turn the tide on a 20M+ voter pool to defeat a gay entertainer, why would they waste that kind of power on something as trivial as American Idol? Think about it – even with the huge win President Obama had in the last election, less than 10M votes spelled the difference. Why waste that kind of power voting for/against a TV entertainer?

So then another question – Is there really a "Christian voting block?" Well, yes. Same as there is a "gay voting block," and "female voting block," a "Jewish voting block." It does not mean they are all unified and organized, taking orders from some spokesperson on high for some nefarious purpose.

There is a far more logical reason why Kris won than attributing it to some imaginary Christian Coalition repression…

1. The votes were very close between the top three finalists from the previous week.
2. Kris and Gokey had similar styles.
3. Since Gokey was voted off, it stands to reason that more of his voters would fall into voting for Kris on the final since he had a more similar style to what they preferred than Adam.
4. Pretty much case closed right there.

Adam Lambert is an entertainer with real charisma and definitely oozes personality. He has the potential to become another David Bowie or Freddy Mercury if things go hie way, despite not winning the final vote, he has a HUGE future ahead of him.

oops, sorry to stir up such a controversy. I only heard him sing Whole Lotta Love, and in the Grand Final.

To hear Chris at his best, what song should I search for?

Kris probably did his best on the first song of the Finale.

I like Adam. But the anti-gay thing is way exaggerated. I believe most folks could care less as long as it isn't aggressively thrown in their faces. Teeny bopers thought Kris was cute. In reality Adam is probably much better off without an Idol contract hanging over his head. He can sing. It may not be to everyone's taste though.

Thanks,

John

It was an easy upset to call. The rundown was Adam, Kris and Danny (sp). Goaky was much closer in style to Kris than he was to Adam. So, it would be an easy choice for Danny followers to pick Kris over Adam. Coupled with the fact that Adam is an acquired taste (You love him or you hate him), it really made it an easy one to guess.

They both are very talented in their own rights. Adam is easily the most creative contestant in the show so far. Kris had the most mass appeal between them. The voting wasn't even close. They would have announced how close it was if it was really close.

My 2 bits.

Google, Yahoo, etc. and key words and strings like "campaign against adam," "vote against gay adam," "gay vote chris," "defeat adam lambert." Not one hit to a website or blog that favored, or recommended, or focused, or organized Idol voters to defeat Adam down.

OK

Fair enough.

combatpainter, My expressed apologies for being strident on this subject.

It was actually something I looked into because of things my daughter had heard about in school (us being in San Diego County, you could well imagine exactly who the favorite was for teenagers around here.)

When he didn't win, she expressed her disbelief by buying into the rumor, so I did my best to get her off the emotions and rumor, and encourage her to think critically and logically based on what evidence one could find.

So – I'm sorry. I really did not mean to unload both barrels, and after reading this thread all over… I am actually embarrassed now at how strong I came across.