On American Idol and Validation...

We were couch-side for every episode this season and I had my favorite picked from the beginning… Finally a singer I could relate to and one who makes the kind of music I like…and who has an interesting character to go along with it.

He’s certainly the whole package but not the one AI pushes every season and not the one record producers force feed us these days. I’d internalized my lack of congruence with pop music… thought I was square ‘cause I didn’t go ape doo over the wailing divas or the hip-hopsters. Every time I hear Mariah or Whitney or Celine… I want to kick a dog. And, I like dogs. Same goes for those insipid “boy” voices.

I’m old school. I like singer/songwriters who put pen to paper, fingers to strings, and sing about what they know… who maybe, you know, play an instrument or two and whose voices soothe me. I love AI but it really ought to be called American Karaoke…Everytime one of the judges tells a singer they sounded like karaoke, I think…duh, this is karaoke. It’s the biggest karaoke competition in the world. Worse, it seems to have a most limited song-book.

Yet, in spite of AI’s limited vision (don’t even get me started about the age restrictions); we Americans elected a mature, dorky, Southern white-boy who is about as far from the pop-skanks as one could get. I love the message this sends to record producers and music moguls. Guess what? We’re sick of the junk you’ve been throwing at us for years… sick of the Brittany’s and Timberlakes… sick of the “runs” that give us the runs.

I hope Taylor’s success signals a return to real music and real musicians…not prepackaged Johnny Bravo’s. I also hope Taylor gets to write his music…share some of himself rather than performing somebody else’s idea of “what America wants to hear.” His prepackaged single, “Do I Make You Proud,” is OK; largely ‘cause he has the talent to infuse something personal into it but I’d much rather hear the song he’d write about it all.

Personally, I feel validated. To all you jerks who made me feel ridiculous for liking my old-school music…to all you record people who think only bubblegum youngsters sell records…and to all you radio stations who play absolute crap… Two words: Taylor Hicks. America voted. Please pay attention.