TMC
02-10-2023, 06:16 AM
https://www.stereogum.com/2212298/the-number-ones-taylor-hicks-do-i-make-you-proud/columns/the-number-ones/
BY TOM BREIHAN
In The Number Ones (https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/10wx81h/the_number_ones_taylor_hicks_do_i_make_you_proud/), I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.
American Idol was always counter-programming. The show became a dominant TV-ratings force around the same time that club-friendly rap and R&B came to dominate the pop charts. Idol was at least nominally dedicated to discovering and building new pop stars, and it did manage to establish a few of them, but the show’s central idea of pop music was not the one that was actually selling records in the 21st century. This was not a failure on the part of the show’s producers. Idol didn’t care about finding an Usher or a Beyoncé, and it didn’t pitch its winners to the Americans who bought Usher and Beyoncé records. Instead, the show sold itself, not its singers. For a while, it was hugely successful at its mission.
Like pretty much every other TV show in existence, American Idol is all about narrative. The show built shiny, manipulative video packages out of its contestants’ struggles and journeys. Those video packages ultimately mattered at least as much as the actual performances. The show’s judges were all music-business professionals who helped nudge the contestants toward a version of pop music that could, at least theoretically, be sold to the people of America. But the American public is an unpredictable beast.
BY TOM BREIHAN
In The Number Ones (https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/10wx81h/the_number_ones_taylor_hicks_do_i_make_you_proud/), I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.
American Idol was always counter-programming. The show became a dominant TV-ratings force around the same time that club-friendly rap and R&B came to dominate the pop charts. Idol was at least nominally dedicated to discovering and building new pop stars, and it did manage to establish a few of them, but the show’s central idea of pop music was not the one that was actually selling records in the 21st century. This was not a failure on the part of the show’s producers. Idol didn’t care about finding an Usher or a Beyoncé, and it didn’t pitch its winners to the Americans who bought Usher and Beyoncé records. Instead, the show sold itself, not its singers. For a while, it was hugely successful at its mission.
Like pretty much every other TV show in existence, American Idol is all about narrative. The show built shiny, manipulative video packages out of its contestants’ struggles and journeys. Those video packages ultimately mattered at least as much as the actual performances. The show’s judges were all music-business professionals who helped nudge the contestants toward a version of pop music that could, at least theoretically, be sold to the people of America. But the American public is an unpredictable beast.