Susan Boyle proves American Idol is a waste of time

I have been asked in the past why I dislike American Idol so much. I have explained it many times, but I think the recent debut album of Britain's Got Talent winner Susan Boyle makes it crystal clear.

Susan Boyle is not a beauty queen. That reason alone is likely why she has not been scooped up by a record label long before now. Because she wouldn't look sexy in a music video, and she isn't so young she couldn't drink in America. She is an average woman, with incredible talent.



Adam Lambert, and all the other winners of American Idol are virtually all young, good looking, and marketable to teens and young adults. They can be marketed via music videos, dressed in all manner of revealing or seductive clothing, and prance around a stage in mock acts of lacivity that just draws censors and media attention.



The difference between the 2? Talent.

There is no comparison of the American Idol winners and Susan Boyle (or another surprise winner in England Paul Potts who sings opera like a knockout punch). Not even Jennifer Hudson, who is quite good, can match her talent. But then again, American Idol isn't about talent. It's about making money.

American Idol is simply a way for people to prove that they can sell according to a set of preconceived list of attributes that American record companies find important. It's a cookie cutter mold of throw away acts that make a quick buck. They are flash in the pans that are about as important to record companies as last year's ratings are to American Idol - they only count if money is coming in.

Hell, the proof of the pudding had to be William Hung. He wasn't attractive, he couldn't sing, he couldn't even shake rythmically. But he got ratings out the buttocks. So he got a record deal, and made 2 albums before he was discarded like day old fish. His shelf life was longer than his talent, but he was a useful tool to rake in cash on a gimick.

But in Britain's Got Talent we see singers that aren't confined to just pop music. They aren't molded to quick sales and gimmicks. They aren't just a means to the next buck, but are actually able to do something special. Well at least sometimes if we are being honest.

That's the point though. The concept was to find people with talent that were overlooked for whatever reason. To give them a shot at living their hearts dream. Britain's Got Talent does that, American Idol just goes for the superficial.

Why in the world would I, or anyone, want to watch a bunch of people embarrass themselves (in the early portion), and then sell their creative souls to become just another forgettable name on the one hit wonder list? Even if they survive for a while, all they are is mediocre and pop tarts that can be replaced in a year.

If I am going to commit to watching regular people trying to make it big, I'd rather go out with friends to see a live performance. I'd rather see people trying to make it with their creative souls intact and enjoying being what they dreamed instead of the prefab creation of a bunch of accountant and statisticians. I want to see talent, not marketing.

American Idol is literally the worst of programming on television. It takes your brain cells and life and gives you back reguritated mash.

And by the way, I recommend the album of Susan Boyle. I may one day recommend Adam Lambert, if he is around in a year or 2 and has more to offer than gimmicks and the insta-fame of pop television fluff.

Reality television is voyeur sadism

Well I was away at a wedding for the past couple of days, so I haven’t said anything. But the long trip did give me a chance to listen to some 20 hours of news. And it was quite interesting. To say the least.

The saga of Jon & Kate Plus 8 has hit a fever pitch. The likelihood of a divorce between the 2 is imminent. And the media is all over this. The speculation is filling the airwaves. Without a scarce thought to how the children will be affected, both now and in the future.

Just like how Susan Boyle has be led to exhaustion in England, I expect little better for Jon and Kate Gosselin. I can’t even imagine the effect on their children. Truly the outcome will be anything but good.

Yet swarms of people are circling around the carcass of this marriage via the reality television show and tabloids. The season starting episode drew about 10 million viewers, the most ever for the show and the best for TLC Network. In fact it was the most watched program of any broadcast or cable channel that day. Which really is sad.

But I don’t know if I should be surprised. I mean I just came from a wedding where the pastor essentially was inferring that there was a time limit on the marriage. That at best the expectation was years, and not a lifetime. With that kind of view, I almost understand how the relationship of Jon and Kate Gosselin is high entertainment.

Add to this the programs that fill the airwaves. The Real Housewives of D.C. is the latest in a series of shows about nothing. There is the Rock of Love, or Bad Girls Club, or I Love Money, or I Love New York (the nickname of a woman without talent and not the city). In each case we have a reality program, designed to highlight the most trifling of human emotions and reactions. And virtually all of them (and a multitude of other reality programs) are fictional to some degree or another.

But we have become a society of drama and disaster. The only reality that is worthwhile is one where someone is being devastated. Where we watch people act as buffoons, without common sense, all for money and/or a few moments in the national eye. And things are really interesting if we can gossip the next day about how miserable someone else’s life is on some show as compared to ourselves.

Of course we forget that for us, and any child that might see these same programs, we are instilling a sense of how to behave. We reinforce the expectations of society. We promote the very results we see. Because approval is something we all want, and if behaving like an ass, and having self-destructing relationships is what maintains our attention it is also what we will create more often. Television is a wonderful tool of subliminal teaching. If you see it often enough, it becomes the norm. And if we add the moniker of reality, then we are given the seed of thought that this is the most we are expected to live.

Reality television, and the nature of what happens on these shows, feeds directly into the ultimate lowest common denominator of society. It has no benefit to provide us. But it will sap away hours of our lives. And it will provide us with the impetus to repeat exactly what we have seen.

There is no upside to watching a family disintegrate. We learn no lesson in the manner this is being presented to us. The only people who gain from this are television executives and tabloids. Neither of those groups of people have a concern beyond the income they can generate.

The thing that just strikes me the most though is that so many are deriving pleasure from the pain of others. People are obviously captivated and interested in the suffering of Jon and Kate, and/or Susan Boyle. As if in some way it vindicates whatever ills they live everyday as well. Honestly I thought we all were better than that. But in 20 hours of news over 3 days, it seems that I am wrong.

So the losers right now are not just the children of the Gosselin’s, and/or Susan Boyle, but everyone that is drawn to these breakdowns like carrion feeders. We effectively have become voyeuristic sadists. That’s not entertainment to me, it’s just depressing.