Comments on: Blame Your HVAC

By: Mary Beltran

Mary Beltran — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:08:39 +0000

I have no great comments to add, but wanted to note how much I enjoyed the post. Thanks, Norma!

By: Norma Coates

Norma Coates — Mon, 31 May 2010 13:30:05 +0000

Hi Derek. My original point was more of a rant about tween girls and middle-aged women (which about covers the gamut in our house if you don’t count one of the cats) are consistently blamed for “bad” music, even by those who should know better. But the feedback from you and Kelli, and Vicky Johnson via off-line communication, has raised some other interesting areas to explore. I love your idea of a visual hum and think that there’s something there. I sense a SCMS panel coming together… You’re very right, Bowersox never looked comfortable with her makeover, and still kept the dreads and the just-below-the-lip piercing throughout the competition. DeWyze really cleaned up and seemed to become more comfortable in his skin. He fit the visual hum; she (and Adam Lambert) didn’t.

I’m serious about putting a SCMS panel together. Anyone?

By: Derek Johnson

Derek Johnson — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:34:41 +0000

Great post, Norma! I usually find myself underwhelmed by both finalists, but I too appreciated Bowersox’s talent.

Is your point here that success on Idol is all about the voice, and not the look, or is there room for the image of these performers in this critique as well? Is there a visual “hum” that winners are supposed to fit into? Bowersox, with her dreads and her awkwardness in evening gown and heels, didn’t fit the “pleasant” visual hum of most commercial media and their representations of femininity, whereas what’s-his-name (I can’t even remember off the top of my head he blends in so well!) meshes with the general mix of dudes we usually see on television, in print ads, etc. That’s not all that clever or revelatory a point, on its own, but I like the idea of a “hum” to make sense of this homogenized visual culture too.

By: Norma Coates

Norma Coates — Sun, 30 May 2010 11:44:30 +0000

Sorry for not getting your meaning! Yes, absolutely. But I’d also say that there was a lot more behind Lambert’s defeat, based upon gender, sexuality, etc. I only started watching the show in season 6 (around the time my daughter became a ‘tween). The runner-up that year was Blake, but he was rather horrid in my opinion. Jordin Sparks fit the hum very well – bland, forgettable but not entirely unpleasant. The best of the bunch, also in my opinion, was Melinda, but perhaps like Crystal, her voice wasn’t right. I almost wrote “ethnic” there, and I think that’s probably something to consider.

Of course, I don’t know how David Cook fits into this. That “classic rock” sound is another type of hum. I could probably link that to the recent resurgence of Journey, thanks to Glee and the Sopranos. And maybe the fact that men do vote for Idol factors in, too. (I must admit to liking Cook more than I’ve liked any other contender on the show except maybe Bowersox.) I suppose that there’s a paper in this, but I’m not sure I want to do the research to write it!

By: Kelli Marshall

Kelli Marshall — Sun, 30 May 2010 01:59:31 +0000

Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear above. Sorry! How’s this? Wouldn’t you say that a/the reason Kris Allen won last year is that his voice, like Lee’s, has a “nice, hum, one that does not require the least bit of attention but does provide a bit of distraction from the tedium of an office job, or sitting in a waiting room”? And that Lambert’s voice (as well as his look perhaps), like Bowersox’s, doesn’t fit that (bland) mold?

By: Norma Coates

Norma Coates — Sat, 29 May 2010 13:11:06 +0000

No, not Lambert. He didn’t win. My point is about the winners.

Since writing this, I happened upon a tidbit on a Twitter feed. Someone who claims to have been in the audience at the finals said that every man he spoke to voted for DeWyze. So maybe we should be blaming the guys, not tween girls. We need to question why the default position is always to blame girls and women for what some perceive as triumphs of musical (and other?) mediocrity – something that’s been happening for 50 years.

By: Kelli Marshall

Kelli Marshall — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:16:36 +0000

“DeWyze’s voice fits into the hum perfectly. It’s pleasant but doesn’t make any demands on the listener. Bowersox’s voice, with its rougher edges, stands out too much.”

— I’m assuming you’d argue the same for Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, the latter of whom, I would argue, is far more talented?