When I heard Clay Aiken say that Rihanna would have trouble competing on American Idol because of pitch problems I was like really and you are…. Clay Aiken second place winner. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a Clay hater but to me I don’t really see what the big hoopla is over this dude. Yet I know that we all sit at home and wonder how and why certain people have made it to superstar status, because I know I sound just like Alicia Keyes and with a little luck I could be the next big thing. Realistically, concrete talent is not always a factor, for instance let’s take Flava Flav, people kinda like him, why? I don’t know. Now on the other hand former American Idol judge Simon Cowell told Jennifer Hudson that she would never make it as a singer! If culpable talent isn’t enough just what is the so called X Factor?
Just for fun let’s play “How did you blow up” simply match the names on the right to scenarios on the left. Keep in mind there maybe more than one answer for each.
| Right place, right time | JLo |
| Family name | Gucci Mane |
| Plain dumb luck | Waka Flocka Flame |
| Being a copy cat | Lady Gaga |
| No one eles is doing that | LaToya Jackson |
| Money | T-Pain |
| You are cute | Vanilla Ice |
| Sleeping your way to the top | Milli Vanilli |
| Knowing the right person | Nicki Minaj |
On a more serious note a lot of today’s so called superstars are manufactured, their looks are put together by top notch stylists and the music producers can easily correct any vocal imperfections. I saw a movie calledSimone starring Al Pacino; he portrayed a movie director that was so fed up with actors that he used a computer generated actress to carry out his directions to perfection. That might be happening in music now.
Record executives are so grossly driven by numbers that they lose sight of art. Talents like Kelly Price, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Raheem Devaughn, Ledisi, Lyfe, Lalah Hathaway, Dwele, and Goepele have proven that their skills are sustainable and regularly pack the house in live concerts but yet the record companies are not spending the dollars for mainstream marketing.
All this leads me to ask if Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan could have made it on American Idol, three not so handsome white guys with guitars and one who sings a little pitchy.
By virtue of my last name being Sweet, I could never be a hater just stating my opinion a little fact laced with a little fiction.