Everybody Deserves a Shot at an American Idol Ford Commercial

By now most people who follow American Idol are already very well aware with the ouster of contestant Joanna Pacitti.  I figured it was going to be only a matter of time before some controversy arose since well, it just wouldn’t be American Idol if there wasn’t some kind of controversy now, would it?  As for Bikini Girl?  Her fifteen minutes came and went after she got the boot.

I had some familiarity with Joanna after I caught her video on some teen television network I used to watch and I specifically remember her failed album “This Crazy Life” because of its cover artwork which I really liked.  After I saw her dismal placement on the Billboard album charts I knew she was destined to become another failed pop star.  But enough digressing.

Each year there’s the group of people who lambast these former contestants that once had record deals, like last year’s Carly Smithson (nee Hennesy) citing an unfair advantage over others.  This is completely understandable but I see things differently.

In Joanna’s case, apparently she had some ties to American Idol’s production company and I can see how that may affect her outcome behind the scenes but do potential music stars like Joanna Pacitti and Carly Smithson really deserve not to have a chance?

The way I see it, while these kinds of contestants may be more familiar to music aficionados like myself who follow one hit wonders (or lack thereof), they’re still starting from scratch.  They had their chance and due to whatever reason (e.g.: bad reviews, poor marketing, or in Carly Smithson’s case horrible timing), they failed to make an impact and disappeared into the musical abyss that so many other potential pop stars have before.

What’s that?  They’re trained singers? Joanna Pacitti would not have fared any better or worse than Carly Smithson.  After all, Carly was trained and she still failed to win American Idol during her season.  And have you heard anything from Carly Smithson since the end of her season and the subsequent tour?  Exactly.

And lastly, who’s to say failed singers will fare any better with a 19 Recordings contract and the American Idol juggernaut behind them?  Taylor Hicks won and the “Soul Patrol” apparently didn’t do their job, earning him one of the lowest selling American Idol albums in its history and causing him to part ways and go the indie route.  On a side note, I’ve listened to “What’s Right is Right” off of Taylor’s upcoming album “The Distance” and he seems much more in his element. I hope he becomes another indie success story.

So at the end of the day, even failed pop stars with former record deals deserve their chance to pick up the pieces and try again.  The music industry is brutal and just the thought of having to prove yourself [again] amongst a sea of people looking for their big break after you already had yours and lost it well, it’s tough.

Joanna Pacitti, may you find another opportunity where you can utilize your vocal talents and not get fired or disqualified for it.

Britney Spears “Womanizer” Review

I often engage in random musical discussions with my co-worker who apparently is impressed by my so-called “pop music expertise”. Now I like to think that while pop music does remain my forte, it’s not the only genre I’m knowledgeable in but there’s no more need to digress.

Sometime last week he explained to me that had heard Britney Spears’ new tune “Womanizer “off of her upcoming Circus album and wasn’t too thrilled with it. My own listening to popular radio has been sporadic but I did manage to listen to a little of the tune although I was too distracted to really pay attention to what the song was saying or whether it was any good so when he asked me whether I liked it I told him I would reserve my judgment of the song until I actually gave it a thorough listen.

After listening to “Womanizer” I’ve concluded that while it’s not a bad song, it is a bit of a letdown. The song almost comes across like a middle or high school girl calling her boyfriend names in order to hurt his feelings. This could be because the word ‘womanizer’ is repeated so incessantly in the chorus…but then again so was “Gimme More”.

What made “Gimme More” sound a little more grown up was the minimal yet very catchy and sexy beat that perfectly went with the song and evoked the actual setting of being in a club with the temperature set to “borderline stifling” and seeing Ms. Spears getting down on the dance floor.

To illustrate, consider “I’m a Slave 4 U”. I obviously can’t speak for everyone in terms of how they reacted to the tune back when it was released but every time I listen to the song that killer beat by The Neptunes sounds dirtier than it did before, thereby giving more emphasis and credibility to lyrics like “Don’t you wanna / Dance up on me”.

Again I don’t think “Womanizer” is bad. The relatively simple and frequently repeated chorus can quickly become ingrained but I think Ms. Spears could do a lot better, especially after the strength of the follow up singles from “Blackout” like “Piece of Me” which did a perfect job of blending hard beats with defiant lyrics.

Despite being slightly underwhelmed (perhaps my expectations were too high) with the lead single from Circus, I still have high hopes that the Circus album will be an even stronger album than “Blackout” which was sadly overlooked and will help Britney in her slow but steady return to the limelight. She’s proven that when she’s given the right team of producers, the results make for some truly killer pop music.

Do You Still Buy Albums?

I used to be one of those people who purchased an album after listening to a single tune, particularly when I was young. I’d say about six or seven out of ten times whenever I did this there was, as usual, the one hit tune and the rest would be mostly filler.

Times have changed and I’m older and most of the music I purchase comes from money I work to earn which means I need to be much more selective about who I choose to support. Then again, artists can’t really get away with releasing an album full of subpar material and just one really good tune, especially when major labels sometimes have to settle with an album selling less than 500,000 copies and achieving gold status.

Today I went on a shopping excursion intending to purchase computer peripherals when I started browsing the shelves of the store that has a red circular logo. Most of the time they have reduced items temporarily on sale, which varies between albums nobody bought to surprising gems, such as when I found Coldplay’s Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends there, which I immediately purchased.

Let me stop for a second by making a contradictory statement: I purchased Coldplay’s latest after listening to “Viva la Vida”. I suppose I did perhaps listen to the free “Violet Hills” tune they were giving away but it was “Viva la Vida” that made me want to purchase the album. The thing about Coldplay however is that they’re one of those established bands where you almost know for a fact that whatever material they decide to release is going to be nothing less than excellent. That is unless you decide to go and do something crazy like Garth Brooks and his questionable “Garth Brooks in….The Life of Chris Gaines” stunt back in 1999.

It’s also worth noting that when I happened to spot Coldplay on sale I was already very well aware of the heaps of critical acclaim the album had received, which also swayed my purchasing decision beyond the temporarily more affordable price of course.

Critical reviews and accolades have also influenced me to purchase an album on a whim as I did so today during this aforementioned shopping excursion. Last night I was reading my May issue of Blender. Every issue they focus on an up and coming artist that happens to be the latest…”musical act of the month”.

May’s issue of Blender focused on Santogold Santigold, an artist that sounded vaguely familiar. Apparently Santigold is something of a slightly easier to digest version of M.I.A., an artist who I also discovered through Blender and is finally (and thankfully) getting the popular recognition she deserved way back when she first released Piracy Funds Terrorism mixtape. After reading that Santigold received Bjork’s seal of approval I figured I’d keep a lookout in case I ever came across her self-titled album which consequently I did and purchased without knowing at all what it sounded like.

Santigold was among four other albums I ended up purchasing on sale, the other ones being Nine Inch Nails — The Slip (copy number 93,485), Sarah Brightman — Symphony, the deluxe version of Maroon 5 — It Won’t Be Soon Before Long and We Started Nothing from The Ting Tings. In the Ting Tings’ case, I heard a remix of “That’s Not My Name” I downloaded for free from Zune Marketplace and I found it a little too catchy.

So ten bucks was all it took to make me renege on my decision not to purchase an album based on a single tune or in Santigold’s case any tune but for that price I figured it was worth helping out some musicians who could use what little royalties they get from album sales these days.

What does it take for you to make an album purchase? The one catchy tune and word of mouth or professionally written accolades from people who “know” what music is all about? I have yet to listen to Santigold nor do I have any clue what The Ting Tings sound like beyond “That’s Not My Name” but if the money is there and the music sounds good, why not help someone trying to make a living by doing what they love?