Difference
American Idol is among the most popular television shows ever in the United States. In case you've been living under a rock, here's how the show works: each season the judges sift through thousands of contestants to find the 24 best singers. Once it gets to this point, the contestants perform weekly and the viewers get to vote for their favorite singer. Each week, one or more people gets sent home until the final episode, where one person is crowned the American Idol (and gets a record contract). So far, they show has named nine champions:
Kelly, Ruben, Fantasia, Carrie, Taylor, Jordin, David, Kris, and Lee (DeWyze, the newest Idol) all have one thing in common - their position as American Idol winner. However, beyond that the differences between the group are vast. For example, when you compare Ruben Studdard to Kris Allen you have a large black man with a buzz cut who sings soulful songs and a short white man with legendary spiky hair and a voice more suited to sing a genre similar to The Beatles and The Fray. The women Idols, although outnumbered, hold their own: Clarkson, Underwood, and Sparks are probably the most successful of the group. Time will tell how much success Lee is able to achieve, but the men are hoping that he's able to make it onto the Billboard charts more than any of the male winners before him; between the four of them they've yet to produce more than a few songs that got substantial radio play.
Besides basic, obvious characteristics like gender and race, the Idol champions also come from varied socioeconomic backgrounds that interestingly overlap. Underwood was raised on a farm in Oklahoma and began her singing career in a baptist church in a nearby town; Studdard lived in Birmingham, Alabama as a kid and also sang at a Baptist church for much of his childhood; Barrino dropped out of high school to tour the east coast with her family and ended up becaming pregnant at age sixteen; Allen came from a fairly well-off family in a relatively wealthy part of Arkansas. Kris also began singing in church, although the churches his family attended were non-denominational. While there is an age limit of 28 for Idol contestants, there are a lot of changes that take place between teenage years and early adulthood (see Clay vs. Ruben or Jordin vs. Taylor). In any given season there will be at least one very young contestant who is still in high school and another who is pushing the age limit and may even have kids that were conceived on purpose. So although the Idols are very different, they all fit a general model of home-grown children who sang in church and developed that talent into a career when they were in the "target" age range of 17-28. Why Idol refuses to allow older contestants to participate is a mystery that will probably never be solved - I think it's very unfair.
However, by mixing other contestants in with the winners, the differences between the people that America "Idolizes" become even more profound. Take, for example, Clay Aiken, Bo Bice, and Adam Lambert:
While these men hardly fit the typical view of someone that Americans strive to be, they each made it to the final night of the competition and came in second place. They lost to Studdard, Underwood, and Allen (respectively) - does this mean that Americans Idolize strong black men more than small gay men, beautiful blondes more than hippie rockers, and classical "cool" more than homosexual flamboyance? It would appear so. Personally, I think our culture isn't ready to say that any of these men is our idol. While American culture is slowly moving past discriminating based on our differences, so maybe in the near future someone who doesn't fit yesterday's view of an "idol" will be able to say that he is, in fact, idolized by an entire country for standing up to the public and being himself. But for now, it seems like to win American Idol you need to be a good singer (obviously) and you also need to conform to what the viewers of the show want to see. Many people don't want to watch Adam Lambert's on-stage antics (although we do love watching Madonna and Britney Spears kiss... That's a different story) but nobody would turn down watching a live performance of Kris Allen's heartbreaking rendition of The Beatles' Let It Be.
When the United States is ready to actually move past discrimination of people who are differ in race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and age, the first place is will be noticeable will be on the stage of American Idol on the final night of the season. When a person who is part of a small minority (not women or black, those minorities aren't small enough) is crowned champion, then we will be able to say that we've moved past our differences.
American Idol is among the most popular television shows ever in the United States. In case you've been living under a rock, here's how the show works: each season the judges sift through thousands of contestants to find the 24 best singers. Once it gets to this point, the contestants perform weekly and the viewers get to vote for their favorite singer. Each week, one or more people gets sent home until the final episode, where one person is crowned the American Idol (and gets a record contract). So far, they show has named nine champions:
Kelly, Ruben, Fantasia, Carrie, Taylor, Jordin, David, Kris, and Lee (DeWyze, the newest Idol) all have one thing in common - their position as American Idol winner. However, beyond that the differences between the group are vast. For example, when you compare Ruben Studdard to Kris Allen you have a large black man with a buzz cut who sings soulful songs and a short white man with legendary spiky hair and a voice more suited to sing a genre similar to The Beatles and The Fray. The women Idols, although outnumbered, hold their own: Clarkson, Underwood, and Sparks are probably the most successful of the group. Time will tell how much success Lee is able to achieve, but the men are hoping that he's able to make it onto the Billboard charts more than any of the male winners before him; between the four of them they've yet to produce more than a few songs that got substantial radio play.
Besides basic, obvious characteristics like gender and race, the Idol champions also come from varied socioeconomic backgrounds that interestingly overlap. Underwood was raised on a farm in Oklahoma and began her singing career in a baptist church in a nearby town; Studdard lived in Birmingham, Alabama as a kid and also sang at a Baptist church for much of his childhood; Barrino dropped out of high school to tour the east coast with her family and ended up becaming pregnant at age sixteen; Allen came from a fairly well-off family in a relatively wealthy part of Arkansas. Kris also began singing in church, although the churches his family attended were non-denominational. While there is an age limit of 28 for Idol contestants, there are a lot of changes that take place between teenage years and early adulthood (see Clay vs. Ruben or Jordin vs. Taylor). In any given season there will be at least one very young contestant who is still in high school and another who is pushing the age limit and may even have kids that were conceived on purpose. So although the Idols are very different, they all fit a general model of home-grown children who sang in church and developed that talent into a career when they were in the "target" age range of 17-28. Why Idol refuses to allow older contestants to participate is a mystery that will probably never be solved - I think it's very unfair.
However, by mixing other contestants in with the winners, the differences between the people that America "Idolizes" become even more profound. Take, for example, Clay Aiken, Bo Bice, and Adam Lambert:
While these men hardly fit the typical view of someone that Americans strive to be, they each made it to the final night of the competition and came in second place. They lost to Studdard, Underwood, and Allen (respectively) - does this mean that Americans Idolize strong black men more than small gay men, beautiful blondes more than hippie rockers, and classical "cool" more than homosexual flamboyance? It would appear so. Personally, I think our culture isn't ready to say that any of these men is our idol. While American culture is slowly moving past discriminating based on our differences, so maybe in the near future someone who doesn't fit yesterday's view of an "idol" will be able to say that he is, in fact, idolized by an entire country for standing up to the public and being himself. But for now, it seems like to win American Idol you need to be a good singer (obviously) and you also need to conform to what the viewers of the show want to see. Many people don't want to watch Adam Lambert's on-stage antics (although we do love watching Madonna and Britney Spears kiss... That's a different story) but nobody would turn down watching a live performance of Kris Allen's heartbreaking rendition of The Beatles' Let It Be.
When the United States is ready to actually move past discrimination of people who are differ in race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and age, the first place is will be noticeable will be on the stage of American Idol on the final night of the season. When a person who is part of a small minority (not women or black, those minorities aren't small enough) is crowned champion, then we will be able to say that we've moved past our differences.