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Well said smarrin15.

I have been watching AI simply as a hobby, a distraction after I come home from a hard day'w work and simply want to get my mind off the political discussions in FR. I was largely immune to the Kelly/Reuben/Fantasia craze.

I liked Clay and Carrie because their music appeals to me but never posted for them, never lobbied for them, never had any "passion" for them other than mere interest. I bought Clay's Christmas CD for a keeper but simply borrowed both his and Carrie's CD from our library.

However, as I began watching season 5, complacently expecting more trainwrecks and some good singers, I was suddenly and unexpectedly moved by a gray-haired singer from Alabama. I immediately googled his name for any information. As I listened to his old MP3s, I rediscovered something that I seemed to have forgotten: great music is still being made all over the fruited plane ( as Rush Limbaugh with say it).

My music collection had become stagnant, discouraged around the time of the “boy-band” explosion. I looked into the past for great music, but have not really listened to new artists in over 5 years ( I am not 40 ).

My liking Taylor has nothing to do with his looks, or his dancing, or “personality”, but rather it has to do with his talent and love for music. YOU DON'T GET THAT VERY OFTEN -- SOMEONE WHO DEVOTES OVER 10 YEARS OF HIS LIFE SINCE TEEN TO JUST MAKING MUSIC EVEN IF HE DOES NOT MAKE MUCH MONEY OUT OF IT.

As he said "It's all about the music... you play it, you sing it, you perform it, you bust your buns doing it and that's what it's all about" ( quoted from him after Ryan interviewed him in his post LEVON performance ).

YOU SELDOM SEE THAT IN SOMEONE. All we see nowadays is some young punk coming out and some corporate producer trying to make something out of him/her. Heck even basketball players like Ron Artest are trying to hawk their own rap CDs.

Taylor made me remember why I like music in the first place, something I hadn’t experienced since I was a teenager listening to the likes of Don Mclean, Jim Croce, Ray Charles, etc. for the first time. Taylor is akin to these people in that he not only SINGS, he actual CREATES, WRITES AND ARRANGES his own music. WHERE HAVE ALL THESE PEOPLE BEEN ALL THESE YEARS ?

He opened my mind and my heart, and has made me seek out others who are still waging the good artistic, musical fight against corporate marketers.

Which brings me to Simon. As amusing and dead-on as I have always found him, I think he just doesn’t know what to make of true artists like Taylor.

In his world view (remember he unleashed the Spice Girls into our world), “fame” is something CONSTRUCTED, MARGINALLY RELATED TO SINGING ABILITY, CREATIVITY OR TALENT.

His business is NOT ABOUT ART, IT's ABOUT CREATING A PRODUCT. As an analogy to food, it's not about creating the gormet dish but creating the latest fast food, the same burger that you get from Mcdonalds, Wendys and Burger King and other places that try to immitate them.

American Idol is really designed to be the focus group for the next musical product coming out of FreeMantle or 19 media. They really don’t care about sustainable careers or artistic contribution. They want the next Britney, Jessica Simpson not the next Jim Croce.

When Simon sees Taylor, he sees a middle-age looking, drunk dad, with an excellent yet odd voice. He is not sexy, not young, not hummable and as said before, not hip-hop. In short, Taylor is a risky product.

I suspect that even if Taylor wins and becomes an incredible success, Simon will never get it. It is outside his paradigm. So what to do if you are Simon? Resort to the low blow, to the ridicule. Of course, he doesn’t realize that this will only continue to galvanize an army of music-loving fangirls (and boys) who will take this as the fight against the evil powers of “product”.

Now here's where a savy marketeer can step in and say -- LOOK, IF SIMON DOES NOT GET TAYLOR, THEN LET ME TAKE OVER AND PROMOTE HIM.

Taylor actually has a pretty wide appeal across generations, though his largest audience is most likely over 30. This demographic actually does buy music, maybe even more than the younger audience who might be more prone to pirate their music.

Marketing gurus are realizing (or should be) that baby boomers and post baby boom are the hugest market and 50 is fast becoming the new 30. Our tastes in our teens and 20s were eclectic and that has remained with us.

I couldn’t tell you how many of my friends are iTunes junkies and have considered putting limits on their spending there.

If I were Taylor's agent I would think that Buzz is everything in marketing and Simon would be stupid not to promote an album if Taylor were to win.

Firstly, I would not ask Diane Warren to compose a song for him ( singing what Kelly and Carrie sang in their coronation night would be trying to force a round hole in a square peg ).

Secondly, I would ALLOW Taylor to highlight his own composition in the finals sing off as a nod to the millions of Soul Patrolers. LET HIM SING — Soul Thing or Heart and Soul ( there you go --– HEART AND SOUL, what a promo catch phrase).

Thirdly, HERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN CONSIDER :

TREND SETTING.

Elvis and Tom Jones started the side-burns trend, John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever started the DISCO and Bell Bottom trend, Tom Cruise started a mini sun glasses trend with his TOP GUN movie in the 80’s.

Folks, American Idol clearly INFLUENCES BUYERS. You just cannot ignore a 35 million audience folks. THAT’s HUGE. If only 10% of these are Soul Patrolers and another 2% are his overseas fans ( of which there are many from as far as Canada, the UK, the Philippines, Singapore and Japan ), you have potential 3 million records right there.

Look folks, people of all generations from 15 up to 60 don’t watch AI simply because of ONE STYLE of music. I don’t believe young kids for instance are so inflexible and incapable of re-discovering good music when they hear it.

The VERY POPULARITY of American Idol and even the peak audience they experienced during the 50’s night shows that there is CURIOSITY from the young ones regarding their own heritage and history.

Granted that I observe a “generation gap” in regards to the music industry.

Older people abhor popular music. Formulaic, boring, no talent, over-produced, poorly written, non-instrumental crap.

But here is what draws people to a person — PASSION.

Young and Old fans are drawn to Taylor because of his passion for music and artistry. It pours from his soul (thus Soul Patrol). You can see it on stage that he was born to do this. Give me a passionate person any day over one that is “designed” to just make music through crappy music. I BELIEVE THIS CONSUMER ATTITUDE *CAN* TRANSCEND AGE and *THIS* is a potential marketing tool Simon has overlooked and not tapped.

And in terms of CREATING trends like Elvis and Tom Jones did with their sideburns — hows about this — GRAY HAIR (remember the Soul Patrol Kid in 21st century song night who powdered his hair gray ?).

Jay Leno can even promote the gray hair schtick and George Clooney will be thanking heaven for the free publicity.

etc., etc..

SIMON MY MAN —- USE YOUR IMAGINATION. GET OUT OF THE BOX. And THINK OF AMERICAN IDOL AS A TREND SETTER, not a trend follower. IN OTHER WORDS — DON’T MAKE SOUL PATROL YOUR ENEMY BUT ENLIST THEM AS AN ALLY.

At least that’s what I would do in terms of selling this so called “nightmare”.