MJ, I’m sorry too if I hurt your feelings

I’m fine, thanks. . If the negative chatter was just about me, I’d be less irritated.

I can tell when thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s negative chatter at the other boards. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s when the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“usual suspectsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  come crawling out of the woodwork. Yes, it irks me. Sorry.

Ooh, Can I be Keyser SÃ ¶ze? No, seriously, I was right here the night the “Lurky Loo” comment was posted.

MJ, I’m sorry too if I hurt your feelings, you have a justly famous Blog, and it ‘is’ all about Idol. And I’m not. Nor have I ever fanwanked, etc in your house. I come for the number talk, but it certainly isn’t necessary for me to post to enjoy that.

and often very confounded by the tone of the discussion.

Well, you see, this is NOT a hard-core David Cook fansite. And I don’t understand how anybody could confuse it as such. There are places to cheerlead, fanwank and preach to the choir. My blog isn’t it.

I AM a fan of the show. I rooted for David Cook Season 7. But Season 7 is OVER. I wish David all the luck in the world, but I don’t live or die by his comings and goings. His record sits on my shelf with the rest of my record collection at the moment.

Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s when I become one of MJà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Lurky loosà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦And if thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a pejorative like à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“looky looà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  has always been – doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t bother me any.

I can tell when there’s negative chatter at the other boards. That’s when the “usual suspects” come crawling out of the woodwork. Yes, it irks me. Sorry.

I don’t expect the so-called hard-core fans who aren’t fans of the show to stick around much longer. Why would you? I’m all about Season 8 right now.

But, to each his own.

DCTR is also #6 on Walmart.come for CDs and #11 for digital downloads. So I do believe the AI pimpage and rediscovery, if you will has helped.

Which is kinda the AI brand premise, no?

Agreed on all counts. My point was only that I think it’s completely fair to compare the success of one reality show contestant to another regardless of their genre. I believe it becomes more fair to make genre related comparisons once someone has moved beyond the AI brand to create a brand of their own.

Anyway this discussion is fun, but Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m just excited for DC back in the top 10, hope it sticks!

I think it is always a good thing to stay in the top 10. It keeps your name front and center on the “leader board” so to speak. I believe there are a lot of lazy consumers out there that never look past the best sellers CD rack in Walmart or past the Top 10 list on iTunes. So yes, remaining in the Top 10 (or reentering) is a good thing.

Cook makes it back into the top 10 by selling about 10,500K more albums than the week before. The Idol boost is 56%

That’s assuming sales would’ve stayed flat from the prior week, which is kind of a big assumption, IMO. I didn’t crunch any numbers, but a quick glance at the HDD 50 indicated that the average sales change for the week was definitely negative, so I think the boost is more than 56%. How much more, I have no idea heh. I also think it makes more sense to think in terms of percentage boost rather than units (i.e. 10K additional units sold), because seasonal sales trends are driven by consumer behavior. If consumers in general are not shopping for CDs in January, extra promotion in January should be expected to improve sales relative to January, not November– IMO anyway.

Anyway this discussion is fun, but I’m just excited for DC back in the top 10, hope it sticks!

I any case, holy crap at 30,000 plus! I’m also very interested about the LO single sales this week.

Also, great to see Kelly getting so much love.

The permeability of the AI Bubble. What a wonderfully apt idea, and my apologies, I didn’t scroll back and see who said it.

I’ve stepped inside that bubble, for this season only, and I don’t name myself an American Idol fan, because I never saw the show before, and don’t plan to again.I know I’m not alone, however. What I am is a Hard Core David Cook Fan. Period.
I bought his music the first day it was available, I cannot imagine anyone calling themselves ‘hardcore’ who would wait around to do so. That’s a different paradigm than I’m in.

If it weren’t for boards like this one, he’d be on my Google alerts and I’d follow the ups and downs as closely as I could, but the Permeable AI Bubble that’s here and other places has given me access to much more…for which I am very grateful….and often very confounded by the tone of the discussion. That’s when I become one of MJ’s “Lurky loos”…And if that’s a pejorative like “looky loo” has always been – doesn’t bother me any.

Any time I see concrete facts and numbers posted, and unbiased logic employed in their discussion, you guys have my full attention, it gives me a frame of reference I wouldn’t otherwise have.

For which, many thanks.

Thanks Jolene!

You’re welcome, Judy!
Nice to see that all the Idols got a bump from AI returning. I wonder if Jordin passed Platinum yet… she was close.

As for LO, I consider it a success and I’m happy to see it sell gold. Is it a huge success? In my opinion, no. But that’s OK-the song’s not dead yet and the album has sold very well thus far. Who knows where LO will eventually end up saleswise. I won’t get into the debate about whether it was the right choice for a lead single because it’s water under the bridge at this point and we know a new single is coming fairly soon.

a little souvenier, which lessens the potential buying frenzy when the proper single and album hit the stores

or it could be a reminder during the waiting time every time they hear the artist in their playlist

I love to see past successes of idols on the show.

Me too. I think it’s always a good thing to have previous contestants come back so the audience can see what they’re up to.

And even on the show the competition was fabricated and constructed for good TV drama.

I’ll quibble with this a wee bit. While any excessive competitiveness between the contestants may be fabricated (which I didn’t really see any of anyway), the competition itself is not fabricated. AI is at its core a legitimate competition. A contest for the most votes. And, I don’t believe for a second that each and every one of those contestants isn’t there to win.

Other than the fact that they were both AI contestants who released debut albums within a week of each other, they really donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have too much in common. But again, if people want to compare flawed paradigms, feel free to do so. In RL, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not practical or prudent or material from a business point of view, but hey, this is a friendly discussion and blog.

I propose that from a business point of view the fact that they are both former AI contestants is currently the most important thing about these two people. In the eyes of the public, at this point, that’s who they are. They aren’t “pop-rocker” and “pop-singer guy”. They’re “hey, it’s that guy from the TV show”. That’s the biggest thing they have going for them right now – their recognizability from the biggest TV show on the planet. And, that’s a huge thing.

Once one of these guys sells 3 or 4 million albums and establishes themselves in their genre, then maybe that’s the time to start comparing them to other artists who’ve achieved success through “traditional” methods. Until then, I submit that these guys are “Reality TV Contestants trying to establish music careers” and can reasonably be compared as such.