Djarts Voice Coaching ~ www.djarts.com.au
© Daniel K. Robinson - 2010
Page1 of2
TheIDOLPhenomenon
By Daniel K. Robinson(2 0 0 8 )
If you’ve been watching Australian IDOL this past season, you’re one of the
dwindling numbers who are still tuning in to what many have described in the
past as a ‘Phenomenon’. IDOL has caught the attention and imagination of TV
viewers and contestants across the globe including Australia with hundreds of
thousands fronting up to audition each year. What is the attraction? The naïve
punter might respond simply, “The singing!” But this is only a small ingredient in
the melting pot of IDOL. If singing were the main attraction, then many of the
contestants would not make it through due to their sub-standard vocals and
many of the ‘unsuccessful’ auditionees who never make it to the final rounds and
onto our televisions would be welcomed with open arms because of their singing
prowess. The fact is that singing rates very low in the overall stakes when it
comes to what the people running IDOL (including SONY BMG) deem important
in the overall delivery of the program. We no longer live in a society dominated
by audio alone. Since the invention of movie theatres and television, our western
existence has become more and more dependent on visual stimuli. Many would
argue that with the arrival of MTV in the 80’s, popular music underwent the
same transformation to the extent where it might be suggested that people no
longer listen to music, they watch it!
The producers of IDOL know this. So when vetting who stays and who go’s the
final ten will generally have very distinct looks. As you reflect back on your IDOL
viewing I’m sure you can allocate the stereotypical ‘Punk Rocker’, ‘Pretty Boy’,
‘Girl Next Door’, & ‘Alternate Dude’ to your observations of contestants. Of
course this is all necessary when engaging a visual audience, but must we
perpetuate the suggestion that those contestants involved are ‘Australia’s best
Singers’? If they are it speaks poorly of Australia’s talent pool.
Each time you vote for your favourite contestant (and I hope you spend your
hard earned dollars on something more worthy) you are paying SONY BMG to do
their market research. You pay them for the privilege of saying, “I would go out
and buy that persons CD.” The record label is taking a double dip into your
pocket with your permission. The only long term winners in all of this are the big
corporates.
As a vocal coach I spend my time building singers, so to watch helplessly as an
amateur singer (and many of the contestants are just that – amateur) is
stripped of their artistic dignity in front of a national audience seems senseless.
Meanwhile we the viewer’s sit in our colosseum lounge chairs raising or lowering
Leave a Comment