You probably knew it when we first weighed in about halfway -- and half-heartedly -- through the ninth season and saw Crystal Bowersox as the only true talent among this year's menagerie of wannabees. We did mention somewhere along the elimination trail that ultimately the competition would be decided by tweens who love their boys to win.
So it really wasn't a surprise to anyone, except possibly Crystal, when upstart Lee DeWyze pulled off the win last night. Another admission: We caught only the last four minutes, preferring to watch the Brewers get shut out at home by the Astros rather than endure two hours of the dreadful finale.
Not only is Crystal not a boy, she apparently was viewed as a bit of a smartass by many would-be supporters. This naturally made her the Sanctuary shoo-in favorite. We loved this Q&A from her Idol webpage:
Question: What one performance in a past season will you always remember?
Answer: I don't own a television.
For our money -- wait, we wouldn't pay for any of this -- the best perspective on American Idol is provided by Washington Post reporter Lisa de Moraes, who seems to have the pulse on the fading show, which is some cross to bear. We're posting a few graphs of her story below, and here's a link to her recap, which is usually presented chronologically, making it unnecessary to ever watch the show live. Thanks for that!
Once again, texting tweener chicks and perimenopausal women, having not yet slaked their thirst for Super-Safe Rocker Boys, have added Lee to their list of "American Idol" winners, beating early front-runner Crystal. Lee becomes the franchise's third consecutive Super-Safe Kinda Beige Rocker Boy winners.
DeWyze follows the super-safe Kris (Allen) who, similarly, in 2009, beat the spectacularly talented but ultra-polarizing guy-linered Adam Lambert, and 2008'super-safe David Cook, who beat out the spectacularly talented but creepily daddy-dominated David Archuleta.
Weirdly, tweener girls and middle-aged women seem to love to vote for these super-safe guys - they just don't buy their albums or download their singles much.
We will miss Simon, who has found something better to do, and the chemistry -- contrived or not -- that once held the show together, albeit like loose baling wire. The rest, not so much.
That girl has a good voice and she will have a decent career and hopefully even make some good records. All the rest is notsomuch.
ReplyDeleteWow Lisa seems to be cheering for the female contestants by savaging the female voters? Is she a self-hater?
ReplyDeleteI'm just amazed that Strumbum, of all people, has weighed in frequently (and pithily, to borrow his word) with American Idol posts. It's like the alt-cool has somehow made the mainstream uncool ... cool!
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