Music (and American Idol)

We won't know who went home until tonight. Matt is the guy from Kalamazoo and he is my most despised contestant. I find it highly likely that he will go home this evening. Thanks to the "judge's save" there will be two people eliminated tonight, and 3 of last night's performers were clearly standing out in the crap department (including K-zoo dude). Kris actually did a wonderful performance last night.

I don't think there is much originality in main stream country. If there are any, it is likely in the fringes of the genre. Some of the Bluegrass musicians are doing some amazing things. The Tony Rice Unit is almost more of a jazz band than bluegrass. Sam Bush and sone others have branched out form traditional bluegrass as well.

David

 

 

I had read a number of places that Kris did a bang-up job last night. It sounds like that other guy is really, consistently good, though, so maybe Kris won't be winning it all.

As soon as I saw you had commented, David, I thought of bluegrass - we saw some amazing young acts up in Eureka Springs, AR while we were there, and if they were indicative of what's going on right now, there's some crazy innovation happening.

I'll have to seek out those bands and give a listen!

I've not watched AI in years, but I would agree with the statements about bluegrass--some phenomenal stuff happening there, and more exciting than anything going on in hip-hop right now.  It's not hip hop, but Prince (and yes, he is Prince again) has a new disc set out, and not surprising of Prince there is a lot of great innovation musically, and lyrically, within his 2 discs (the third disc is a "protege" and well, I haven't even bothered to listen yet).

Hip hop, to me, is the new disco.  It is big, flashy and originally made you feel good before it fell into something else.  I don't see it going away the way disco did, but right now, it is more flash than substance and I find myself craving the likes of Dr Dre and Eminem to reinvigorate the genre like they have before--but then, that really isn't hip hop either anymore... it's the Marshal Mathers Show. 

We'll see some real innovation when the "reality" show is created that puts pairs like Allison Kraus on stage to perform with 50 Cent.  That could be some serious wicked.

We had a conversation about crazy pairings today - we listened to the new Morcheeba (well, new to us - 2008), and apparently they lost their lead singer, so they had a pile of songs 'featuring' people, none of whom were from their genre, really. And it was fascinating (and not always in a good way) to hear the two styles (theirs, and the people singing) come together. I bet you've got a real winner on your hands with that show, Nikki - take an AI type setup, with people who can really sing, and then make it all about duets and trios. It'd be nice to hear mainstream people harmonizing again....

You really need to watch American Idol just once to see Kris. He is good. However, I think 15,000 - 18,000 people in Conway just to see him sing 2 or 3 songs is a bit much.