Today Idol headlines after the jump ¦
Anchor’s away, but Capt. Sig’s ship has come in
NBC News anchor Brian Williams canceled his scheduled trip to Seattle due to rain and snow, but that didn’t stop two members of Sanjaya’s fan club from flying in ‘ from Pennsylvania and Hawaii ‘ to see their “Idol” perform in “Black Nativity” at Intiman Theatre last weekend. Sanjaya and fellow “American Idol” contestants Leah LaBelle and Karma Johnson each sang a solo in the 10th anniversary of the holiday production. The trio signed autographs and posed for photos with everyone who waited after the show, including the Super Fans, who are probably still stuck here in a soggy hotel room near the airport. …
LI’s Sean Gould bids ‘Hello’ to Blake Lewis
LI guitarist bids Hello to Lewis
The new album from “American Idol” runner-up Blake Lewis may be a bit uneven, but one surefire hit is “Here’s My Hello, ” a slice of Maroon 5-ish pop that was engineered by Sean Gould, better known as the guitarist from Seaford-based Bandcamp.
Gould, who has been working with the production team of Sam Hollander and Dave Katz at Fresh Kills studio on several projects, including Metro Station and We the Kings, also lends his guitarwork to the track. The song helps bulk up Lewis’ “Audio Day Dream” debut, which has a solid shot at debuting in the Top 5 next week and beating out the debut of this season’s “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks…….
New Recordings
Pop
With the debut of its most recent winner, Jordin Sparks, barely scraping the Top 10, American Idol quickly sends in the runner-up – beat-boxer Blake Lewis – to see how much bounce to the ounce he’ll muster. The second string (heck, even the third string) has been good for Idoldom. (See Chris Daughtry, Clay Aiken and Jennifer Hudson for reference.) But this time, the pickin’s aren’t so lush. Despite the presence of rapper Lupe Fiasco on the bippity-bobbity “Know My Name, ” a startling dedication to jittery ’80s pop, and a formidable hair-don’t, Lewis has made a mess that’s screwier than his thrift-shop wardrobe. Things like the skipping “Break Anotha” and “What’cha Got 2 Lose?” are electro-fried muddles of punk-funk-ska-dancehall-rock.
Lewis’ slight but solid vocals can’t always carry the weight of the melodic banality put forth on songs like “Surrender” by Ryan Tedder, the songwriter from OneRepublic. But the halting “Gots to Get Her” has just enough eau de “Puttin’ on the Ritz” to make it zesty. On this song, at least, Lewis’s warbling trills are cute indeed.
A likable ‘Idol’
Jordin Sparks’ debut CD has pop appeal but won’t satisfy all of her fans
Few albums arrive with lower expectations than an “American Idol’s” first release. Given the lackluster season and dismally amateurish summer tour that led to the most recent winner, 17-year-old Jordin Sparks, one could reasonably expect yet another stinker from the Fox/19 cheese factory.
Surprise. Aside from the cliched dream-comes-true pap every Top 2 finalist has to sing on the season finale, “Jordin Sparks” is one of the least crummy “Idol” CDs.
Producers wisely allow “Idol’s” youngest winner to sing age-appropriate pop/R&B music and largely keep intact her positive, amenable personality that helped her trump beat-boxing phony Blake Lewis on the show. This will keep Sparks”tween fans — and their moms — happy. Every girl who ever felt like a wallflower at the junior prom will relate to, and celebrate, the uplift behind the inspirational “God Loves Ugly.”…………..
American Idol Finalist Phil Stacey Recording Debut CD
American Idol season six finalist Phil Stacey is currently recording music for his debut album. Phil Stacey is working with producer Wayne Kirkpatrick (Little Big Town)…….
So That Why They Drink Coke on TV
…. I, for one, always assume when I see a brand in a television show or a movie that someone paid to have it there. And if product placement allows me to see fewer commercials, isnt that a fair trade-off? One program on CW this year, called …CW Now, runs its full 26 minutes without commercials. The show is about hot products and lifestyle news, so it is easy for the program to interweave ad messages.
But that an exception. Nearly all programs rife with product placement still blast us with commercials.
Even so, television executives are not eager to address Mr. Martin concerns. After all, some advertisers think the value of product integration is the ability to sneak up on viewers. They want viewers to think that the lead characters of …Gilmore Girls really liked eating Pop-Tarts for breakfast and that the women in …Desperate Housewives really do think Nissans are cool.
Some of the proposed solutions to the problem sound more annoying than the product placements themselves. For example, every time Paula Abdul takes a sip from a giant red cup splashed with the Coca-Cola logo on …American Idol, a disclaimer box could be superimposed over the cup. When young guys flirt with beautiful babes on …The Game Killers on MTV, a banner on the bottom of the screen could say, …This program was co-created by Unilever Axe deodorant. ….
