Today’s Music...Is That All There Is?
By:
Charese McLean-Davis
reseydavis@excapethematrix.com
For all of you reading this that actually remember real albums and cassettes, have a seat and go back in time with me. Remember nudging that old fashioned tape into the cassette player, (after you had to wind it up with your finger), finding “your” song, unzipping the plastic window in your Suzuki Samurai and singing as loudly as you could? Do you remember Atlantic Starr, Starpoint, Midnight Star, Shalamar…all those groups that began or ended with the word “star” or rhymed with it? Remember when folks on the radio could actually sing? I mean, even the teenagers were blowing us away (paging Stacy Lattisaw and Johnny Gill)! Do you remember watching Star Search and rooting for your favorite singer? Nobody could name one of those judges, yet they were reliable and non-judgmental. For the most part, the talent spoke for itself. If you were good, you moved on to the next week with the hope of winning the season finale prize of $100,000. Contrarily, if you were the less talented contestant, you were sent packing. My memory may escape me, but for some reason I don’t remember thinking that the singing contestants had no business being there. Oh, those were the days of old school.
Now, fast forward to the present with me and turn on your radio. Do you feel the same sense of doom that I do? Do you keep asking yourself if there any mainstream artists out there that are capable of recording without the auto tune function? Do you reminisce about your Cherrelle and Alexander O’Neal albums and think to yourself, where has all the real talent gone? How do we bring back the days of good old fashioned singing? What can the true music fans do to reverse the effects of the mostly bad music that has hindered our faith in turning on our radios? Why, we can choose our own future stars just like the good old days of Star Search, right? Wrong! (For those of you born in 1990 or after, the rest of this article is for you!)
Enter American Idol (AI). Unless you’ve been living in hibernation, you know that AI, is a “singing” competition that promises the winner a recording contract (and fame). Of course the twist is that America chooses that winner via telephone or text message. Now in its 6th season, it’s still a great concept, one that has the entire country tied to the television every week to see who will perform. However, the real issue is that the interest has been redirected, as most viewers (including myself) are now tuning in to see who will take their place in the “Booted Idol Contestant” history book, rather than find out who will win! Each season the contestants seem to be getting less talented, causing spontaneous “huhs?” heard ‘round the world. While there are exceptions (all hail current powerhouse, Melinda Doolittle), there is no mistaking the fact that something is very wrong with the process. The fact that judges Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul (yes, I said it!) can’t sing a lick is a major flaw! If anyone on the show should be judging, it’s the three female background singers that blow the roof off the building every week!
Is Sanjaya (no snickering!) our next singing star? Is this where we are musically? Someone please throw that Tony Terry tape in!