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So the woman who blogs the AI episodes each week pointed out something that I think we all know, but which still strikes a chord:
"When I was 16 years old, I was way too weird to be on 'American Idol.' They would have shut the door in my face."
Yes, in that one utterance, Gaga defined everything that is wrong with "Idol." She proved that pretty much no one on this show is ready to compete with what's really going on in the pop marketplace, which is total free-for-all weirdness: Gaga going out sans pants, Nicki Minaj rocking those flamingo-pink wigs, Katy Perry wearing bras fashioned out of cupcakes, Rihanna wielding day-glo whips and chains, Jessie J doing it like a dude, the glitter-and-filth-slathered Ke$ha, the kabuki-painted Florence Welch, the aerial-stunting Pink.
This sort of ties into an article EW did earlier in the week about why they've never had an openly gay contestant during the competition and yet The Voice has had four in the first two episodes alone. AI's response to the whole thing was as repugnant as it was condescending, which was basically that contestants are free to be as open or closed with their private lives as possible.
The problem is, though, that they set themselves up so that anyone who's anything more than "safely" weird doesn't have a chance. The complaints that the last three seasons have been won by the same guy over and over again (say what you will about David, Kris, and Lee, but they'd all be squeezed onto the same shelf at FYE) seems hilarious when you realize where the weak spot is -- the audience.
The reason that the contestants on The Voice feel freer to be themselves and be open is that the general public isn't making the decisions. That's why Frenchie Davis is having her own little comeback over there and someone like Beverly has a chance on The Voice that she wouldn't have elsewhere. The advantage of having judges in the music industry making the decisions is that they know what sells, and right now ... hell, most years, what sells is sticking out and backing it up.
AI contestants are silently encouraged NOT to stick out. Let's pretend that AI really doesn't tell contestants, "Don't tell people you're gay." (... yeah, sure, okay.) Why would you? Who trusts the American public that much. We're a big judgmental pile of dicks in this country, and if there's anything we're good at being judgmental about as a nation, it's the LGBT population. Even if we pretend that the AI producers are all, "Tell everyone exactly who you are! Go nuts! Be honest!", they undeniably create an environment where you can't, not if you want to get anywhere. If you want to win, you have to appeal to as many viewers as possible, and to do that, you have to be as bland, conservative, and safe as possible.
The whole thing just seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's easy to deny you're stifling the free expression of LGBT contestants when you've created an environment where the most standard contestant is almost a solid lock to win, with the one who's the most different according to publicly-allowed standards inevitably comes in second.
(That's why I'm placing a bet with myself that this season will come down to James v. Scotty, with Scotty winning.)
"When I was 16 years old, I was way too weird to be on 'American Idol.' They would have shut the door in my face."
Yes, in that one utterance, Gaga defined everything that is wrong with "Idol." She proved that pretty much no one on this show is ready to compete with what's really going on in the pop marketplace, which is total free-for-all weirdness: Gaga going out sans pants, Nicki Minaj rocking those flamingo-pink wigs, Katy Perry wearing bras fashioned out of cupcakes, Rihanna wielding day-glo whips and chains, Jessie J doing it like a dude, the glitter-and-filth-slathered Ke$ha, the kabuki-painted Florence Welch, the aerial-stunting Pink.
This sort of ties into an article EW did earlier in the week about why they've never had an openly gay contestant during the competition and yet The Voice has had four in the first two episodes alone. AI's response to the whole thing was as repugnant as it was condescending, which was basically that contestants are free to be as open or closed with their private lives as possible.
The problem is, though, that they set themselves up so that anyone who's anything more than "safely" weird doesn't have a chance. The complaints that the last three seasons have been won by the same guy over and over again (say what you will about David, Kris, and Lee, but they'd all be squeezed onto the same shelf at FYE) seems hilarious when you realize where the weak spot is -- the audience.
The reason that the contestants on The Voice feel freer to be themselves and be open is that the general public isn't making the decisions. That's why Frenchie Davis is having her own little comeback over there and someone like Beverly has a chance on The Voice that she wouldn't have elsewhere. The advantage of having judges in the music industry making the decisions is that they know what sells, and right now ... hell, most years, what sells is sticking out and backing it up.
AI contestants are silently encouraged NOT to stick out. Let's pretend that AI really doesn't tell contestants, "Don't tell people you're gay." (... yeah, sure, okay.) Why would you? Who trusts the American public that much. We're a big judgmental pile of dicks in this country, and if there's anything we're good at being judgmental about as a nation, it's the LGBT population. Even if we pretend that the AI producers are all, "Tell everyone exactly who you are! Go nuts! Be honest!", they undeniably create an environment where you can't, not if you want to get anywhere. If you want to win, you have to appeal to as many viewers as possible, and to do that, you have to be as bland, conservative, and safe as possible.
The whole thing just seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's easy to deny you're stifling the free expression of LGBT contestants when you've created an environment where the most standard contestant is almost a solid lock to win, with the one who's the most different according to publicly-allowed standards inevitably comes in second.
(That's why I'm placing a bet with myself that this season will come down to James v. Scotty, with Scotty winning.)
