When I heard P2 speak tonight it was like listening to a Bon Temps character. So cool! Any TB fan out there had the same impression? :D

Archie’s album came out one week before DC’s. Its just that his single was released in August that gave the impression he had a much different album drop time period. The Idol winner was usually slotted for the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving week. Archie went one week earlier, Adam one week later. Crystal dropped in December and the prior thought was that missing out on Black Friday sales wasn’t a good strategy but she did well catching on to the pre Christmas shopping wave. Obviously last year Scotty and Lauren’s album drops were moved up to October and I think it wasn’t a bad idea to get them out to market as soon as possible. If anything I hope Phillip and Jessica don’t have back to back album releases, I think it serves each of them best to have their own space and time for promo and focus.

I agree with the statement that Idol’s time has passed and its not going to change. Phillip’s success thus far is good for him. I hope Home continues to grow and do well so he can have the best shot at a successful album launch. I don’t think his success helps reverse the stigma and the problems Idol has but the positive attention and media softens it a little for now, or at least takes the focus off of some of the hysteria points the media likes to beat into the ground. Phillip is a nice story for the franchise and they are going to run with it. I like him so I’m glad he is doing well and hope it continues.

I realize it’s controversial because many here want to think Idol is still relevant, but I believe it lost its iconic status after season 7. It all went downhill after that, more slowly at first, then exponentially. David Cook was the last icon of Idol’s glory days IMO. 

Maybe, but I think Season 8 was seen as iconic, because it really broke through to the mainstream press, even more so than other seasons.

But even if you believe Idol is still relevant, then the franchise is fine because post Idol P2 has been quite successful so far where it counts. The Anti-Idol stigma isn’t about singing well or not. It’s about being totally irrelevant in today’s music scene. And today’s music seems to think P2′s Home is relevant. So if anything, P2 could help the franchise regain some “cred” if that were possible.

If we are talking sales, I think it’s still relevant, or about as relevant as ever was.  I think the patterns we are seeing with even Scotty and Phillip are the norm for Idols, selling well after Idol, having a platinum single and/ or album the year after Idol, and then we’ll see afterwards.   It is more the exception that someone has really broken through as a major star. Though all the winners and runners up are still in the music business to varying degrees, other than the few that really broke through, I don’t think Scotty or Phillip are any less relevent than they were.

 ”Home is a great song, with a great production, but it wouldn’t sound as
good sang by someone else. It was made for P2′s voice. I think he wanted
one of his own songs to be his coronation song, that’s probably why he
was initially disappointed. Of course, it was naive of him to think
they’d have the time to get one of his songs ready for the finale. He
must have realized that by now lol.”

I’m sure that’s true. But, boy, since they’ve been featuring songwriter-types-as-winners so much now, and since even the non-songwriting Idols are now seeking co-writes on their albums (as are lots of other people) — plus aiming as professionals to sing songs in contemporary styles rather than the oldies-but-goodies they mostly get to sing on the show — I think it’s high time they retooled a bit to get a singer-written or singer-has-a-cowrite for everybody.

That would be a fun and appropriate update, and it would ensure that everybody would have a first single that expressed them in some way. Phillip and Skylar could have (mostly) written their own, and each of the other  high finishers could have been working on a song in the singer-contributes-the-key-lyrical-phrase-while-pros-do-a-lot-of-it with the singer dictating the style in which the song would be written — and it would be the style that they envision singing in after the show. Then they could showcase those songs in the last few episodes somehow. And everybody would have a song that really showed off “who they are as an artist” for the ending of the show …. and nobody would have to say the stuff that Phillipp and Jessica said about their final songs.

The logistics of that might be a little tough to work out, but they have millions of dollars. They could use some to work through this as a new format, and it could be a fun shot in the arm for the show, seems to me. Plus, potentially it could more reliably produce suitable singles for after the show.

ITA with you it would be best to have those contestants who are songwriters  write their own coronation song, but I can’t even imagine how difficult the logistics would be. It wouldn’t be possible to do it for many of them, and by the time they have a pretty good idea who the top 2 or top 3 will be, it’s probably too late. But maybe they can and will do it next season.

I think having the finalists write or cowrite their own song is a wonderful idea, in fact, I’ve been thinking that for awhile.  In addition to giving them their own single that reflected them,  it would also set the show apart from the others that are on now.

On the Rockstar series (Rockstar INXS and Rockstar Supernova) the top 4  or 5 wrote a song, and I think they could use cowriters if they wanted.  The resulting songs really set apart the ones that eventually became winners.  

It is definitely going to go gold, possibly as early as this coming week, but more likely the week after

The super sky high expectations are part of the “Idol problem”. Going 2x platinum is reserved for top 10 CHR smashes. Yeah that would be great but I’d define a hit and a success way before that. Truth is zero mainstream Idols (not named Kelly) have charted on CHR much less had a gold single in *years*, debut or not. That would be a win and an accomplishment any way you slice it. We’ll see how far the song can go, I’m still cautiously optimistic but so far so good. 

No Idolody yet, Phillip hasn’t been to New York. I hope he can do the interview when the Idol tour rolls though town but thats not until the end of tour so we’ll see. Slezak never met up with Casey James so it is possible things just won’t work out.