Tonight’s episode of American Idol had its usual range of performances. Melinda finished the show off strong, Blake tried to mix things up a little (And honestly, I don’t think he has the range to sing that chorus), and most performers certainly did better than in recent weeks. However, despite it being British Invasion Night, it didn’t seem like that was the theme at all. Because, you see, the real theme was: “Aww, look at the crying girl!”
I don’t believe we got the girl’s name [Ed. – It was apparently Ashley. They didn’t mention it very often.], but Ryan felt like pointing out the amount she was crying during all performances. She’s your usual little cutie-pie, even with the stereotypical pigtails. As her favourite, Sanjaya, took the stage, she couldn’t contain her tears. While the audience struggled to find the melody, the tune or the singing, period, within the song, she seemed content to cry and ogle his…hair? I don’t know what makes him cute, he’s so strange.
After the performance, Sanjaya headed into the crowd to hug her, and she had her little moment in the spotlight. Now, to this point, the show was certainly turning to her for an emotional tug, which is something which I discussed during the audition episodes. However, they weren’t done yet! As a I sat down to write this blog post during Melinda’s performance, they cut to her again! She was balling, of course, and while I know ‘Oliver!’ is kind of sad I don’t think it’s nearly that depressive. By this point, I was convinced that they should seriously consider psychological counselling for this girl. It can’t be healthy. Continue reading
There’s only 8 guys left, which 6 go through to the finals? At this point there are only a few who stand out as egregiously horrifying, which is an improvement over the last few seasons. Also of note: Ryan promises a long-awaited announcement on Thursday’s show, which could be one of many things. If FOX was smart, they’d throw together an All-Star edition of the show for the Fall starting in August.
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.
Let’s face it, these early episodes of American Idol are designed to make people laugh and make fun of people who can’t sing in the least, or are entirely oddball in their ways. It’s important for them to do so because they want to hook people in their story. People with short attention spans are immediately drawn into the humour of it all, and you can’t really blame them. The segments are lasting a bit long this season, but let’s face it: it’s still funny to watch people get horribly rejected.
Not looking to lose those viewers who entered for the funny, they parade some of the worst singers doing one of a multitude of things. They could all be butchering the same song, all pleading for an opportunity to do better, or all having major problems with their pitch.
Here, the show provides two things: singers who have potential to be good but fail to live up to it, and individuals who can actually, you know, sing. These include people from previous seasons who are back to audition, people who have training but just try too hard, or people who can belt out a good tune.
So, anyone who’s been watching American Idol this season may have noticed a slightly more dramatic tone to the proceedings, especially those auditions that would normally be laughed off. We’ve always seen the people who swear and become extremely angry, and they’ve always been good for a good laugh. However, for some reason, we’re not just seeing the angry ones anymore. We’re starting to see people who are honestly terrible, and who the producers must know are terrible, and yet they give them detailed introduction videos, detailed stories, and then absolutely destroy them from a singing perspective. We’re even starting to see montages of them all performing the whole song, which are clearly being created for the sake of producers. They give the bad singers these songs to learn overnight, and then have them sing them purely for the purposes of making people look silly.
Cultural Learnings 