Picture this: You’re wacthing American Idol and see a 16-year old participant singing and showing off her Mariah Carey song and you think “ugh”. This girl can’t sing.

Yet, the jury decides to give her a recall and she jumps with joy while half the viewership wants to punch her in the face (and the other half wants to bed her).

American Idol is never fair. Seldom musically correct. But aways dramatic for show. Here some hard facts you should’t forget:

1. Most AI contestants can’t really sing, even if they seem super-confident and impressive at the first casting. Fact is, they’re not using they’re voice correctly, and the trained ear will hear it. They can use their hand to show the pitch and close their eyes to show emotion and shake around their voice as much as they want, but that doesn’t make them musicians.
2. But they could learn. A recall by the jury often promises talent, but not always. Contestants hardly get the necessary musical education and development in my opinion, and AI is just not helping them. Period.
3. Women have to be super hot and super-slim. In our society, the social construction of women requires female artists who appeal to the mass market to be extremely thin and have what has been socially estblished as the ideal figure. On German Idol, a contestant was recently rejected for just being too fat.
   I’m not sure that would pass in the U.S. without legal consequences.

4. Idol winners seldom stay around for a long period of time because of a basic flaw: People can’t choose what they like and what they don’t. They can’t predict this in advance. Rating systems are psychologically flawed and can’t serve as a basis for business. The TV channels buy the show, and are interested in the revenue from the show’s run alone. What happens to the artist afterward is basically just icing on the cake.

Post from: The Good Musician

The Good Musician is hosting this group project and here’s my personal list:

1. Billy Joe Armstrong

Seriously, the kid has to play the same 4 chords in over 30 sngs at a concert. He’s got fame and money, but musical monotony will catch up sooner or later.

2. Janet Jackson

Besides having your name pulled into dirt by your brother, having to play second fiddle all the time whilst reminding everyone of Mister popstar pedophile thanks to inherited resemblance ain’t no sweet life.

3. Michael Jackson

Need I say more?

4. Britney Spears

Sigh.

5. Amy Winehouse

You know, I actually appreciate people who just are “themselves”, but Amy Winehouse has never shown me the necessary respect for her own music. She may have it, but she sure doesn’t make me feel that she takes anything in life seriously. And thus again we spin into discussion about childish musicians.

6. Joseph Haydn

This fine man lived through the entire span of the Wiener Klassik era of music and beside Mozart, heavily influenced it. The poor guy worked for the count of Esterhazy, who was one wicked guy: He’d have an orchestra ready to play at all times, and he never wanted to hear the same symphony twice. So Mr. Haydn here ended up composing over 100 symphonies, only the last few of his being highly remembered as the London symphonies (which he didn’t write for the count). Mr. Esterhazy desperately needed an iPod.

7. Ringo Starr

Being one of The Beatles is probably in itself a torture, as you can prepare for getting your hair torn out upon landing in America. But being a Beatle and being that guy in the back who plays the drums and no-one cares about anyway – that’s probably no fun.

8. Sean Callery

I think life as Sean Callery could be a happy one. Yet I fret from the notion of having to handyman together a fresh background score for every episode of 24 as much as I do from playing a guitar with no frets and only one string. Life can get heavily boring and tension-packed at the same time if you have to keep on mixing down electronic foreboding sounds to make people anxious about terrorist attacks on Jack Bauer. Still, great music, Sean. But dontcha get tired?

9. Scott Weiland (right)

I used to listen to a lot of Velvet Revolver when they published their first album. Yet, now, after having heard Mr. Weiland sing live (ugh) and read his drug stories, AND seen how thin he is with his slightly anorexic problem, I think I don’t want to be him. I’d like to be Slash though.

10. This guy playing guitar hero

Post from: The Good Musician

In future posts, I will explore each area deeper and try to size up digestible chunks that will join you on your career to a good musician.

1. Know Your Instrument

Every musician makes music using an instrument. Even our voice is an entire instrument by itself. When playing, we should be aware of what we are doing. We should try to learn as much about the instrument as we can gather, it’s history, it’s uses, it’s cousins, and we should develop our relationship to the instrument, why are we playing the instrument we play?.

2. Know your Music Theory

Britney Spears probably doesn’t know much about music theory, but as a self-made musician free from producers and American Idol, we should indulge in music theory. Music is a science, but an art form as well. That makes it very special, and thus we should attempt to grasp it as much as we can, which the scientific approach allows us to do easily. The artistic side of music is much more obscure and free. Many musicians fail trying to climb that high wall before getting familiar with the subject matter.

In subsequent posts, I will bring in lessons of music theory, and try to present it in a way that it’s understandable, and most of all, show the use of it, and answer that all-mighty question of “Why?”.

3. Brand Yourself

Whether you’re a classical interpret or member of a death metal band, you have to define yourself and place yourself among others. You have to develop your own uniqueness, and this is where the music ends and business begins, but it’s a part of being a musician. Even if just for your personal life, you should put a lot of thought into what you want to be as a musician, and what you can be as a musician.

Draw that mental picture of yourself you’re comfortable with and ask, what makes me so special? You’ll find a lot of things that make you unique, you just have to play them out.

4. Listen to music

Being a musician means making music, but it also means immersing yourself in music that others create. Listening to music shouldn’t only be something you do on the bus, while surfing or in the car. Listening should at times be an active process in which you slice up the music and study it. There’s so much out there, and once you develop an ear for it, there’s an equal amount to learn! Imagine if you can combine all that knowledge and create something new & wonderful!

5. Practice & Criticize

You suck. That’s what you might try pounding into your head every time you force a tortured note out of your instrument, whether a beginner or a wannabe-Hendrix. Well, the truth is: You really do suck. Everyone does. Paul McCartney sucks. Even I do. But the good part is, we can change that. With practice and constant self-evaluation done the right way, we can reduce our suckiness and create something beautiful. Remember, nothing is perfect, but with a little help, you can come a long, long, really long way.

In future posts you will be able to explore each area further, and we’ll finally get down to work. I’m sure we can learn a lot from each other, and if you think you want to join me, be sure to subscribe!

Post from: The Good Musician