Friday Blog Question: Americans being Idle

What is it with you people and American Idol? Each year a new crop of hopefuls auditions for this show, a few get on, a bunch get ditched, and one person emerges as the newest semi-talented singer for us all to completely forget in five minutes. (The people competing, of course, have to mostly be people who were rejected last year and just came back again, so the crop has to become less and less talented as the pool of “singers” gets depleted. Unless they’re passing through some membrane from an alterative universe of equally so-so pop stars.) In a culture where literally anyone can become a celebrity, at least for a little while, is there really any such thing as “celebrity” anymore? While I’m at it… How much longer can this cultural train wreck possibly go on? If you watch it, why do you still watch it? If you don’t watch it, what jokes can you come up with for those undersized t-shirts Simon Cowell is always wearing? Why do I know who Ruben Studdard is? How do I wash my brain of that information? All I know is this: David Bowie would not approve of American Idol. And if David Bowie thinks something is not cool, remember - that means it is certainly not cool. Here's what everyone else at OMA thought:

It’s kind of like watching the person in the car next to you pick their nose. It’s absolutely revolting and you’re thoroughly disgusted, but for some strange reason you can’t look away and can’t help sharing every detail of the tale with everyone who will listen. - Vanessa Geary

I’d rather watch Everybody Loves Raymond. Yes, Americal Idol is that bad. I want someone to sing the Smashing Pumpkins’ 1979 while staring exclusively at Simon Cowell’s pert nipples. “Headlights pointed at the dawn…” Maybe then I’d tune in. - Sara Wachter-Boettcher

New Age Celebrity: A person who makes entirely too much money and can’t figure out a better way to spend their time other than making asses of themselves and making themselves feel important. That’s my two cents… - Stephen Anderson

This cultural train wreck will continue on as long as people keep watching – and by the looks of it, it isn’t going anywhere any time soon since viewer numbers are at an all-time high. I admit that I didn’t watch American Idol in its early years but for the past three seasons I have been hooked! It’s big fun and even more fun when you’re part of an office pool to pick the winners and “booted-off” week after week. I think the voting aspect is appealing to people and gets everyone’s attention because these contestants’ fates are in your hands, as the TV viewer. Pretty cool and catchy idea and of course gets people to come back week after week and year after year. It’s also always a good time to make fun of the contestants when you yourself would never set foot on a stage in front of millions to belt out a Mariah song. You become a “judge” week after week and feel good about it. And the best part, it’s just clean fun and doesn’t require much brain power to watch and judge, watch and judge! - Amy Rushia

Ratings for AI are starting to slide a bit, although I don’t know if that’s related to this year’s crop of all good, none great contenders or people just being fed up with TV in general. The show is oddly compelling because of the judges and their peculiarities, combined with the contestants who come up with something genuinely entertaining (David Cook’s Billie Jean cover recently) just frequently enough to keep it interesting. I figure it has 3 more years with increasingly desperate shark jumps. - Jason Baer

It is actually a fascinating exercise in understanding the American psyche. The last few weeks have shown that often it is not the worst performer that gets voted off. If only we could get our hands on the demographics of the peole voting it would make for an interesting marketing case study. Oh and for those of us in the office who don't keep up on sports and enjoy commenting on the disastorous song and fashion selections it is just plain entertaining! David Cook should win. - Michelle Zimmermann

I have watched American Idol since the first season and have enjoyed every minute. For me, it's fun to indulge the part of me that is obsessed with anything pop culture and watch as "nobodies" become "somebodies." I think a lot of people enjoy it because it feeds into a desire a lot of people have - the desire to "be discovered." who wouldn't want to go from working some lame job to working red carpet events? With American Idol you get to root for your favorites and live vicariously through them. And unlike other reality shows, some of these people have really become huge selling pop stars so it actually works. That's why it survives. - Holly Ringerud

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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