Posted on 05/18/2009 11:53:48 AM PDT by lewisglad
I am a greenhorn in the music world. If you gifted me an Ipod, Id probably mistake it for a remote control. Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift are names I have heard, but faces I could not place. I cant operate a CD player and have always thought of concert-going as an activity other people do.
Until now. American Idol contestant Adam Lambert seems to have awakened my long lost music gene. It happened on a Tuesday in March when I coasted by the family room TV on my way to nab cashews from the kitchen. This male Elvira had cool, black nail polish, a Clark Gable confidence, an androgynous sex appeal and the ability to emote like Ive never seen.
Heck, this is a concert I could attend, I thought.
With an alluring combination of pure talent, charisma, unpredictability and eccentricity, Lambert will no doubt go down in history as a superstar, not to mention American Idols greatest success story.
Commentators call Lambert a polarizing figure: you love him or you hate him. Could this stem largely from the partisan divide in America?
Lambert is a blue state. He is Hollywood, glamour and bigger than life. Using struts, vocal acrobatics, and bizarre song renditions, he sticks it to 'the man' and orthodoxy. He upsets society, chastising manners and mores, much the way Elvis Presley did on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. Lambert is a comic book hero for those with an anti-establishment bent, such as 70s children like me who learned early on to distrust government and convention.
His competitor, Kris Allen, is a red state. He is good ole boy from Arkansas who attends church and married his longtime sweetheart. On stage, he is as placid as a lake, even against the raging waterfall, Lambert. Allen is humble, casual and could live in Pleasantville. Lambert would be the Picasso of Pleasantville, upsetting the status quo.
In many cases, Lambert clearly transcends the red-blue divide, as evidenced by the statistics presented on 'Dial Idol' and other websites that estimate the percentage of votes each competitor receives by state. But I have to wonder if some of his angry detractors are those with a deep-seated dislike for all things liberal and idiosyncratic. .
The controversy surrounding Lamberts sexuality also plays into this theory. Bill OReilly, for example, thought it newsworthy to ask his Fox News viewers if they thought the singer was gay. Successful same-sex marriage initiatives are sweeping this country, and opponents may see Lambert as a poster boy for alternate lifestyles and as a threat to conservative values.
Could an Adam Lambert victory represent a new level of acceptance for difference? Would a Kris Allen win reinforce communitarian values and the familiar? Some may see this seasons contest as a battle of hope and change pitted against tradition and custom.
Win or lose, Lambert will be a music icon. And win or lose, I guess Id better figure out what those shapes on the CD player mean.
________
Charlotte Laws, Ph.D. is a Los Angeles TV host and the author of the book, Meet the Stars, which explains how to hobnob with the rich and famous.
Uhm..isn't that what ACTING is?
Elton is gay?
“He’s a fag.”
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and a performer is just a performer.
Then again, maybe you need a few sessions with ol’ Freud to work through any latent angst you may have.....
One thing that I have noticed about Adam's singing, that really annoys me now that I have noticed. He breathes loudly and dramatically. I know he has to because of how he belts out his notes, but I find it more and more annoying as I hear it.. just me, maybe I am a hater..
Throw up time.
No, they haven’t.
His recent wedding was part of his backstory early in the show, and they’ve shown his pretty blonde wife just about every week, including her riding with him in the hometown parade last week.
Are they pimping Adam? Sure. And I’ve actually thought that showing Kris’s wife every week was part of the AI effort to get rid of him.
No, I have not listened to him sing those other songs. I missed your post but found the Brigadoon song on Youtube. The guy can sing when he wants to. But I don't understand the rock stuff.
Kris is good..but there are a million Kris’s out there. Adam is the real deal...
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
While I'm not a huge Chris fan, I could certainly see myself sitting down and listening to his album when it comes out. On the other hand, I can't for the life of me imaging being able to sit through 12 songs in a row of Adam screeching into the microphone. He's got a good voice but somewhere in every single song his shrillness drives me nuts. If I heard him on the radio I would likely change the station.
If he could control himself (this is apparently a problem in many aspects of his life) he would be a great singer, but he sounds like he's crying hysterically at some point in every song. Sorry, but that's not for me.
I’m not thrilled with his blue statedness, but it’s more that makes every song sound so much alike that bothers me.
I will be shocked if he doesn’t win, though.
A lot of people compare Adam to Freddie Mercury.
When Adam writes and sings his own songs, and plays an instrument like Freddie did, get back to me.
I don’t particularly care who or what he sleeps with, so long as he says “It’s none of your darned business” when asked. With the exception of season 1, I’ve watched all of them. And up until a few weeks ago, I’ve had Chris Daughtry & Carrie Underwood as my #1 & #2 respectively. Adam became #1 in my book after hearing his rendition of “Mad World.”
That sounds just like my grandparents who never understood Elvis, his talent or his appeal.
The redstate bluestate divide concept has entered the Idol competition. Politics has produced a stain on a singing competition.
The article in question notes that Adam is pretty much groomed to present himself as the ideal of the liberal urbanites who elected Obama. He is polite, speaks softly but with authority, fits the popular gay template, is the end product of the progressive revolution.
Meanwhile over at Newsweak, writers fret over Dannie and the Christian vote. Will the terrible Christian hordes turn out enmasse and destroy the competition by inserting religion into the mix. This is done while neglecting the fact that the apparent favorite seems to be or at least presents himself as queer.
What of the Queer vote? What of those who vote queer because and soley because it is trendy? Is that not equally bad as the Christian vote?
Alas the Christian vote either didn’t exist or was not nearly as strong as Newsweak feared.
There is one fact apparent however. This year, there is a little more to it than a singing competition.
I don't vote but would vote for Adam if I did.
AI is a talent contest---Adam has the most.
He's a ghastly, gothic screeching demon from hell, but he'll be big on Broadway, cause they love that crap on Broadway.
He's a ghastly, gothic screeching demon from hell, but he'll be big on Broadway, cause they love that crap on Broadway.
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