Last week I had a conversation with a guildmate of mine while playing Everquest 2. We were discussing American Idol, the talent show that has taken over America. Even Tony Kornheiser can’t go a single day on Pardon the Interruption without mentioning his love for all things Idol.
My guildmate made the argument that Idol was everything that was good and right about music in America today. He said that for all the people who have a problem with the music industry today, Idol was the answer. He said it was, “real people singing real songs.” My reply was that I thought exactly the opposite. Idol is everything wrong with music. It is the antithesis of great music. My guildmate asked me to elaborate on that, but time did not permit. And as I thought about why he made his comment and why I made mine, it became clear to me that, although we both love music in a general sense, we don’t hear the same things when a song is played. And I think I know why that is.
I think there is a huge disconnect between musicians and listeners.
I am a musician. Not the best one, for sure, but a musician nonetheless. I picked up my first instrument at age 19, much later in life than most musicians. Because I started so late as a musician I can remember clearly what it was like to think about music before knowing anything about it. To be a truely uninformed fan. Since I started playing guitar, however, my views on music have changed drastically. I understand a lot more about what is actually going on in a song when I hear it. I understand that a song is much more than lyrics and singing, and I’m far more interested in what the instruments are doing than what the singer is saying.
Real music, at least to me, is art. It is not commercialism. It is musicians bearing their souls to the world, not just through singing, but through all the things that make a piece of music great. It requires knowledge of music theory (at some level), excellence with instruments, and the ability to actually compose notes. When most people hear that someone “wrote” a song, they are likely thinking about the poetry – the lyrics. That is not the music, however. Lyrics are only one facet of a song, and a very thin one at that. Music is the stuff on the staff sheet. It’s the actual notes, the time signature, the key signature, melodies, harmonies, and everything that happens in between the first measure and the last. The real “music” of a song is much more difficult to create and reproduce than the words sung over the top. And you can bet that when a musician writes down a note, whether it’s a whole note at 90 bpm or a 16th note at 170 bmp, it is an important note. The artist puts that note in that song at that exact location for a reason. It belongs there. It was not mean to be chopped, edited or removed.
Idol is that antithesis of great music because it strips away everything that makes music an artform (and thus great), and reduces it down to the one commercial thing that every non-musician can understand: the lyrics. The producers of the show chop songs in half, cut out instrumental passages and destroy the very soul of the songs so that some “real people” can show off their singing ability. I understand why they do this; they have to cut time off already short pop tunes to make room for commercials and witty remarks from Simon (by far the best part of that show because he’s the only one there with the guts to tell the truth). But that still doesn’t change the end result. The songs are butchered in the process, and the real music – the art – is lost.
When I watch American Idol (which is rare, but since my wife watches it I can’t help but see it while walking through the living room) I feel very sad for the original artists who wrote those songs. I know many famous artists actually work with the singers on the show, but I bet every single one of them, in private, would tell you they hate having their songs chopped on national television. It’s a bastardization of their songs. It’s a cheap immitation of art. What people are hearing on Idol is a knockoff. A counterfit.
When I meet someone who loves Idol for the music (I can understand someone loving the show for the theater of it) I feel compelled to help them. I want to rush out and buy them albums from real musicians, and then lock them in a room for a week with nothing but food, water, and a CD player. They need a healthy dose of Dream Theater, Rush, Yes, Kansas, The Beetles, Led Zepplin, Liquid Tension Experiment, Steve Morse & the Dixie Dregs, Rick Wakeman, Motzart, Beethoven and Bach.
Then, after a week, they can come back out into the real world.
American Idol is many things, and some of those things are very positive. It’s a chance at stardom, at living a dream. It is hope to a lot of people. I personally think that’s the greatest appeal of the show; it represents the American Dream, that we can do anything if we’re talented enough and work hard enough.
But Idol is not what is best about music. It is a prime example of what is worst about the music industry. It is a commercial vehicle designed to exploit young, talented singers and their dream to become famous. It is a cash cow for Fox and Simon Cowel. It is the antithesis of great music. It is the anti-art.