Instruments, puff pieces and tour dancers among ‘Idol’ changes for Season 7
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- November
- 12
Sweeping changes are on tap for Season 7 of “American Idol,” according to TV Squad. And I’m squeamish about all of them.
Contestants will be allowed to play musical instruments while singing. Some of the time spent on celebrity mentors such as Barry Manilow and Diana Ross will be replaced with puff pieces about the contestants’ personal lives. And the top Idols will be touring with the top contestants from “So You Think You Can Dance.”
I’ll admit that I have additional respect for versatile musicians. But something about allowing singers to play an instrument in this competition format seems unfair. Although I can’t quite put my finger on it, I think my concern is based in the fact that I don’t want mediocre guitar, accordion or flute skills to con America into thinking a heartthrob with a wonky voice is worthier of an “AI” title than a vocal superstar. Contrary to Simon Cowell’s oft-repeated phrase, the show would be even less of a “singing competition,” assuming it ever was one. Besides, isn’t the atrociously unwatchable “Next Great American Band” supposed to be providing that very opportunity?
As cheesy as the celebrity guest spots are, I enjoy seeing their appearances because they’re water-cooler worthy. Barry Gibb’s awkwardness, Jewel’s kindness and Bono’s randomness resulted in fun discussions this year. In addition, the celeb cameos serve as legitimate music history lessons for the young (who learned about Tony Bennett) and old (who learned about Gwen Stefani). Yes, they’re there to sell records, but liking or disliking them has no impact on the voting. The contestant profile pieces, however, could be a disaster for the same reason. While I tend to pull for the “nice” contestants over the pompous ones with more attitude than talent, I doubt the profile pieces would serve talented contestants who don’t have a human interest angle that’s producer-friendly. Besides, the contestants’ short biographical blurbs already tell the story. Do bad singers who resonate with Tween girls really need more PR on American Idol? Have we learned nothing from the Sanjaya Malakar debacle? Let’s not stuff the ballot box with unfounded dreaminess. If cutting down on the celebrity storytelling must happen, then have the contestants sing longer songs rather than talk about astrological signs.
Last, I hate the idea of Fox force-feeding the “Idol” audience a spin-off (see: dismal failure “American Juniors” and the aforementioned “Next Great American Band.”). That said, adding the best dancers to the tour isn’t a terrible idea. I’m all for giving trained dancers more performance venues; their routines could even work nicely with the “Idol” tour—especially if they dance to the Idols’ songs. Then again, I doubt I’d ever see an “American Idol” concert, so I don’t really care either way.
American Idol returns to the airwaves in January.
(Logo courtesy of Fox.)
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 5:11 pm by Chris Serico.
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