American Idol Week Six – Pop Week

I am 7 for 12

Isn’t Gwen Stefani so cute? What a career. Mother, wife, singer, designer, and mentor, and she looks so adorable through out, very Orange County blonde – but I bet she’s never surfed. I am glad to know that she is going back to her band, and soon No Doubt fans everywhere will have new tunes from the pens of Kanal and Stefani to bop to.

Have you ever considered the impact that American Idol has on the American music charts? In truth it is mind boggling. My station plays a very eclectic mix of music; Adult Contemporary, Hot Adult Contemporary or CHR, a dose of Oldies (1967 to 1980), with some top ten Country thrown in for good measure. In today’s music market you don’t have a chart without it an American Idol or alum in the mix.

So what you are seeing today, will help calculate the Billboard Hot 200 album charts and Hot 100 singles charts. Consider the album chart and we’ll just look inside the 100 (because I don’t buy the subscription for the remaining 100 listings – cheap bitch, I know)

Formerly number one, Daughtry’s self titled debut is sitting at number 4 in its seventeenth week in the Billboard Hot 200, and has now gone platinum two times over, spawning to date two hits – the solid gold, number one for five weeks running It’s Not Over, and Home – this year’s Idol exit song.

Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts is enjoying it’s 70th week in the Billboard 200, has been certified platinum, by the RIAA, five times over. Singles from her debut effort have taken her into the Hot Country Tracks chart four times; Wasted (# 6 this week,) Don’t Forget To Remember Me(#2), Before He Cheats (#1), and Jesus, Take The Wheel (#1.) And those are just the ones in the top ten.

Katherine McPhee’s debut is sitting at number 73, after peaking at #2 in its debut week seven weeks ago.

As you can see, the impact is huge. Millions of albums and singles sold; the power that turns your radio dial on. So let’s see how they did this week.

Lakisha kicked off the evening with a cover of Donna Summer’s The Last Dance. My immediate response, I thought this was Pop night – er, I’m not a disco person. She has far too much voice for the song. I just didn’t like the performance, although she was good.

Chris Sligh – Performed the Police’s Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. Good song choice, when he started singing I thought of Christopher Cross for some reason. I didn’t think he was bad. But the darn echo effect was terrible, it kept pulling my attention away from the performance, but not enough to miss the flat spots.

Gina – I love Gina. Boy she picked a perfect song for her, The Pretender’s I’ll Stand By You. A great song choice, she performed it well, put her own mark on the song and sang her heart out. Kudos. She was the best female performance until Melinda sang. But I didn’t like the top she was wearing.

Sanjaya – Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!

So many thoughts, none are positive and ranting won’t make me feel better about this guy. First off, what a suck up, last week, this week, next week, and the week after he will suck up. What’s with the hair? A Faux Hawk for a Faux Singer. Dude, No Doubt is a Ska band, they sing Ska songs, get a clue. No amount of Bath Water will help you.

Haley – Looked pretty, she chose a pretty song, changed up the arrangement, and sang a pretty cover of True Colors it wasn’t Cyndi Lauper and definitely not Phil Collins. It just fell flat for me.
Phil – chose Every Breath She Takes by the Police. I was impressed. I remember several weeks back he did a song, I can’t remember which, but he impressed me. In the weeks since I’d wondered why. Tonight I remember why, he was very good, wonderful, his ability shown through, and he under played the song perfectly. But the echo, sigh.

Melinda – wow, she too chose Donna Summers, but it was night in day for me from Lakisha’s performance. I don’t even like Heaven Knows but OH.MY.GOSH when Melinda sings it doesn’t make a difference if you don’t like the song, she is so wow factor.

Blake didn’t beat box tonight – and for me it was down hill from there. I love his beat box, it gives everything a Blake touch, tonight’s song was bland, but it wasn’t terrible, it was just bland. Oh, Blake sang a love song by The Cure.

Jordin – I can’t believe this girl is only 17 years old. She is so incredibly talented. Covering No Doubt’s Hey, Baby she remembered it was Ska, she gave it her own personality, she made it her own and she had a good time doing it. I loved it.

Chris R – Sang No Doubt’s Don’t Speak and all I can say is Boy Band. He just doesn’t cut it for me.

My Favorites for the week…
♫ Melinda
♫ Jordin
♪ Gina

Malakar was by far the worst, and he has to go, but I know he will survive because the Dark Force is with him.

So have faith. I know that while Malakar and the Dark Force will prevail more often than I want, the cream of American Idol will eventually rise to the top. Claim music charts and make millions. While the Sanjayas, Taylors, and Reubens will fade into music obscurity.

And I want to say thank you to Karin Tabke at well Karin Tabke for allowing me to guest blog for her, covering this week's American Idol performances.

Sith.