I am 40 and a female, married to a 53 yr old man who listens to a different style of music than I do. (he fits your description of who you think would be part of Taylor's fan base.)
My 52 year old husband is "not" overly thrilled with any of them and he has stopped watching AI because it is getting boring to him. What little he has watched of AI this year, he liked Chris the best.
It took me about 2 years to get hooked on AI, while my husband loved watching it for the first 3 years. My husband has not bought a single piece of music (CD-Album-Cassette) in the last 15+ years that I have been with him. I am the one in our household who buys CD's of music I like or that we both like. I have a CD collection of over 500.
Also I know very well who Joe Cocker is. I listen to all types of music from classical to alt (with a little bit of everything in between). Joe Cocker is ok.
IMO Chris would be the moneymaker of the bunch due to the age group of fans who would like his music (13 to 50 yr olds). Taylor will sell but I doubt he would out sell Chris in this day and age. Like you said older folks don't go out buying CD's. I don't buy as many as use to, but what I have been buying in the past couple years is strictly ALT.
The problem is only one person can win. If the last two on the AI stage are Chris and Taylor. We will eventually see who will end up selling the most CD's. Chris will be signed and so will Taylor. I don't know if being the winner of AI is such a good thing.
The voting/busy signal numbers we are seeing really means nothing. Look at Kellie being in 2nd place. Who wins really means nothing. Rueben and Fantasia's CD are not doing that good. It could be that many of Chris' fans are not voting because they would rather see him get a deal that is not attached directly to AI 2006. Maybe folks voting for Taylor think that Taylor needs to win AI to get a decent recording contract. So many possibilities.
I feel Chris does not need to win to get a decent recording contract. Even if he got voted off next week he would still get signed.
I hear how people who don't care for Chris who say he sounds just like any other ALT singer, these people mainly don't care for ALT music to begin with. Well I feel the same way about Taylor that he sounds no different than any other singers who cut albums back in the 60's and 70's who are no longer on the current charts and their CD's are on the discount racks.
that's true.
Look at last year. I recall many people saying that Bo would outsell Carrie even if she won.