Hollywood Week is perhaps the greatest thing ever. We start with people who think they’re good, and then we take those cocky individuals and throw them into groups where their personalities clash right into the middle of the night.
It’s where people forget their lyrics millions of times, to songs that they really should be able to learn much quicker than this (Harmonies aside). It’s where people who were cute stories back in the other auditions turn into the mediocre singers they are.
It’s also where a ringer, someone like Bailey Brown, gets dramatically cut after remembering about 5 words out of her lyrics. And then one of her groupmates explains that Bailey was cut because “God likes good people.”
It’s also where My Grammy Moment winner Robin Troup shows up in the Group singing competition only to end up being cut…and then months later ending up on stage with Justin Timberlake.
Really, Hollywood Week is perhaps the most satisfying part of the American Idol season. There are no hideously horrible singers, plenty of mistakes to make fun of, and some truly good singers who make it in the bigtime. It’s where we see them singing tough harmonies, weird song choices, and a WHOLE lot of crying.
What was really interesting to me was the difference in the endings of people’s journeys. For some that we might have expected to break down, like the girl who lied to her father, she was oddly calm about going in the first round, happy to have made her father proud. Others, on the contrary, were complete and total messes, fighting to the end.
Everything seemed topsy-turvy. They show us someone who did really well, who was really well-liked…and then they’re crushed. The show ended with people’s tears, all upset with the decision of the judges to cut them from the Top 40. It ended on a brother/sister pairing being split up, as well as a pair of snotty best friends (Including “God likes good people” girl. Touché, big guy.)
I don’t even know how to feel right now. Should I feel sad about the people who lost? Happy for those who won? What do I do with these close relationships? Should I be remembering those we chronicled and then lost on the way through? Or looking forward to some of these people that we never even got to meet? Honestly, out of the Top 40, I recognize almost none of them. All we got to see were those who lost tragically.
It’s really just another example of the schizophrenia within this season. Everything seems so strangely off-key, if you’ll pardon the pun, compared to past seasons. I feel like the rug is constantly being pulled out from under us as we watch, never really able to root for someone without worrying that they’re about to go out in a blaze of misplaced glory. It’s, honestly, quite unsettling.
Cultural Learnings 