A Note on The Voice

A couple of days ago, yahoo's Reality Rocks column claimed that The Voice is officially "the Anti-Idol."  She saw the results of the Idol process/machine that caused it to be "broken" and said that comparatively The Voice fixes many of these issues. I understand and agree with the sentiment, and while the writer made some salient points, she really only looked at the what is perceived as problems of the recent American Idol.

As to not gloss over these, here's a quick list:
- [previously mentioned on this blog] the final four of the Voice have greater diversity (it most definitely won't be a white guy with guitar winning)
- Voice judges seem more interested in their singers
- Voice producers don't gloss over idiosyncratic personalities (and lifestyles- there are gay people!)
- [adding my own] there's no predictable winner on The Voice- all are equally talented- and producers haven't pushed a winner in their scripting of judges critiques

But truth be told, I checked out of watching The Voice weeks ago- starting at the gut wrenching half cuts each week (battle rounds where the contestant pool went from 32 to 16, then 16 to 8, etc etc), with the mentors not always choosing the "better" singer. This leads me to the problems with the show that make it no better than Idol:

-The time frame of finding a winner has become sped up exponentially, but there is a ridiculous amount of wasted time. Voice judges heap praise on the live performances-- partially because they critique the singers in their mentor sessions. But we only see brief fragments of these sessions and then hear 5 minutes of how wonderful the singer is. This is no better than Idol's "you get a gold star for making a mistake on live television because it shows you are human" theme of positive-ism in the last season.
- The issue with having a sped up time frame is that we don't get to see the true essence of the contestants. They are characterature-d to an extreme. In the final four, we've got the tattooed bald lesbian, the short spicy rocker girl, the soulful R&B melismatic man, and the quirky indie girl who needs a little more confidence.The song choices thus become infuriatingly expected. The Indie girl will choose a song to "make her own." The country boy who lost his mom will sing a country song about God. The lesbian soul girl will sing Melissa Etheridge. They don't have time to break out of their mold. The best part of Idol? Having contestants who don't fit into a box (Melinda Dolittle's impeccable vocal ability and passion wouldn't fit on The Voice). Furthermore having contestants who grow throughout the competition and who choose unexpected genres (okay I'm biased with Haley Reinhart's recent glorious rise from "ugh that growl, again?" to "this is sheer bliss on stage").
- But the problem with having enigmatic performers on Idol, "undiscovered" talents like Haley or Melinda is that they don't translate into commerically viable recording artists. Today's industry wants nothing more than one-dimensional "we know who you are in 5 seconds" artists. It's less about the singing ability* and more about the spectacle that the artists are willing to engage in. And isn't that The Voice in its essence? Oh look, big name artist mentors, shiney stage, dancers, social media out the wazoo. The Voice is much more spectacle driven than Idol ever though of becoming.

* I also have a problem with the general level of singing talent of these four artists. Cracked notes, pitch problems, constant over singing from most. I can take this from Idol- where if you want to try out, you better not have even though of having a recent recording contract. Idol thrives on young talent. The Voice features all four finalists who have released albums in the past, have toured. So they are seasoned musicians. After hearing that, I had hoped they would have a greater command of their voice. For me, music is not always about stage presence and spectacle (link to the closing performance last night. enjoyable, yes. indicative of current pop music today, yes.good singing? not as much). It's reality TV. I really shouldn't expect to see true meaningful musical moments (okay you get to every once in a while - sorry had to throw that in).

I DVR'ed and then fast forwarded through the finale last night- only watching the mentoring and singing parts. The original songs and the duets given to these constants again were predictable played into their musical personas crafted on that stage. Their original songs all featured a ridiculously repetitive form, with the short "hook-driven"** chorus sung incessantly to pound it into the minds of the viewers. I stopped listening to the 3ish minute songs halfway through because I was so incredibly bored with it all.

** I use quotes because of the another music reality competition on Bravo- Platinum Hit- where songwriters write songs in the span of one or two days. Team captains for each challenge are chosen based on their "hook" alone. It's another blog post in itself. We have become such a twitter-ized nation with such a short attention span that songs have to be limited to a memorable hook or else they are doomed to fail in the music industry. [Platinum Hit is very enjoyable in my opinion. It's "hit or miss" as their catch phrase goes, but there have been some very interesting collaborations going on over there. Formulaic Bravo reality show editing, but still at its essence interesting.]

Despite my rant and misgivings, the fact of the matter is that these four finalists will likely be more commercially successful than any of the previous four Idol winners. Yes, Idol does need to limit viewer voting; it needs to find judges that don't follow producer's scripts. It needs to embrace enigmatic figures on the stage. But in this music industry of today you don't create music- you create an image, a show. Artists tell audiences who they are and what they sing very quickly. And The Voice, more so than Idol, does that.
So what I'm saying is that The Voice might fix some of the problems of American Idol. It might create a new viable pop star. But it doesn't even begin to fix the industry- it only makes our musical society's widespread problems worse.

re-assessing, Texas style

Lately I've been so incredibly indecisive. Unable to research without this knot building up in my stomach. Even the previous post (where I said I found comfort in the topic) led to great anxiety. I didn't end up submitting an abstract. I couldn't bring myself to write anything out- say definitively my stance on things. I'm happy with researching turn of 20th century musical women, but I couldn't get a foothold in the material. I couldn't find a focus that I was incredibly happy

So I punted. And didn't think about it for the last month. And have simply lived life without the thought of a dissertation on the horizon or conferences that I should present at. And a host of things have suggested to me to start down the path of an entirely new topic. Where it leads or if it goes anywhere, who knows. Sadly, this blog might quickly turn into a "look at this shiny new nook of musical history.... well onto the next one." But maybe there's something here.

First, the precepitating influences:
- this blog post about the self-identity of Texans
- finding out that my family's ranch is in fact 105 years old this August. there's no escaping it, I'm a proud Texan. so perhaps I should try to understand this state and what it means.
- an estate sale that led me to recordings of Bob Wills and other ensembles singing songs with themes of Texas and cowboys
- my previous post about dissertation topics (including Indians and a woman that wrote for a Texas stage show in 1936)
- the need for a topic that I can "get away" with working on during work (especially the idea of collecting new materials for the archive while researching at the same time)
- a specific collection we are processing that has old recordings of a vocal quartet of "ranch boys" from the 1940s


Now the themes:
-romanticizations of identity
- regionalism
-stereotypes and overt-characterizations
- popular music and culture, sheet music and promulgation
- staging, costuming, touring
- musical semiotic cues

As to not be quite so vague, something about the identity of Texas, Cowboys, and Indians in the first part of the 20th century that was built out of wild west shows and vaudeville. Not accurate portrayals but exaggerated depictions of the sentimentalized west as it was beginning to disappear in the technological 1900s. Looking also at how this state's musical performers have embraced this culture. Possible offshoots might get into country music, mascot selections, themes of musical reviews (this production started in 1938), and the WPA's works with folk music and art. This revelation of new topics happened last night. Background research and primary source hunting to commence as soon as work allows.