Music Club Poll

[laynie.livejournal.com]

Music Club Members!

I'm trying to plan a contest, or perhaps an ongoing activity. If you all will PLEASE fill out this poll, I would appreciate it. If for some reason your answer is not on the poll, or you would like to say something further, just comment below. ^_^

[Poll #702096]

Brooke / Music Club Leader

Comments

[serpentine.livejournal.com]

what absolutely kills me is the movie "american dreamz" (with a z!!111!!!) coming out this summer. they picked THE best "reality" show to make fun of.

i've never liked american idol. if you want to be a singer, work for it. don't audition for a TV show and hope a stuffy brit, a washed up pop star, and the large funny man to enjoy you.

the concept isn't very "real". especially since "america" votes on who they want to win, and apparently, who gets the most votes wins. if every singer had to compete for the most votes to win, we wouldn't have trash on the radio like we do now. we also wouldn't have very many bands in existence since people don't ever agree on musical stylings.

i think enjoying music is a very personal, emotional, and deep thing that this show (and rock stars over the previous decades) have bastardized.

but that's just me :(

[laynie.livejournal.com]

I never really watched American Idol until this season. And I'm still not sure why I started.

And having gone to college for Music Business, I have slightly different feelings about the show...although for the most part, I agree with you. But here's a look at it from the Industry side.

I feel that 99% of the people on the show do not have extraordinary vocal abilities. But nowadays, it's not about talent, it's about being in the right place at the right time and having the right connections. For these people, they would have NEVER made it on their own (without American Idol). Nobody would ever know who they are, and no Record Label would ever sign them. No label would sign them because labels are like banks and they don't like taking risks. With American Idol, the 'artist' has already proven themself and built up a potential fanbase. The label knows that once they sign this artist, they will get at least 2 hit singles out of them and sell a good chunk of records. It's a sure thing. I guess American Idol is a fancy, public, Artist Development / A&R Period.

And if you look at it from another point of view, American Idol is helping the Music Industry. Not only does it help record sales, but it also helps ringtone downloads and digital downloads. People will hear a song on the show and want to go get the original recording. That means royalties for the songwriters and the original artist. Not to mention the fact that all the songs sung on the show...the songwriters and respective Publishing Companies get paid a nice royalty for the Performance of those songs. AND, when they have guest artists perform on the show (last week was Shakira, for example), the Artist gets paid Performance Royalties and the songwriter gets paid PRO royalties (the highest possible). And because of the Music Downloading issue, songwriters aren't making anything off of their songs (they can't go play concerts like Recording Artists can). So this performance money *really* helps them.

Now I don't know whether or not there are politics behind the votes each week (I would bet so), but I think that America seems to agree with the top couple people. Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken have scored some hits. And I know it may be hard to believe that the general public actually likes some of the shit on American Idol (believe me, I wonder how some people aren't in the bottom 3 by now). But here's what they told us in school. They said that we are among the Music elite. But when dealing in this business, we have to take off our blinders and realize that most of the population doesn't have the same music tastes as we do. They actually like the crap on Top 40 Radio. Even though I may find it to be "inferior" or you may think it "bastardized"...there are people out there who would listen to nothing else. And unfortunately, nowadays, music is a business and business is about making money. So therefore, the Industry caters to the majority. Oh, did you know that outside of the 45+ age group, 13-18 year olds have the largest expendable income and buy the most recorded music. Now think about that, then think about American Idol. You have just figured out who the show is targeted towards.

And I still find music to be personal and emotional too...I just have to know where to look for it. And I *know* it's not American Idol. ^_^