I was in the car listening to the radio the other day and a Carrie Underwood song came on. I remembered watching her on American Idol, which was the first season I’d ever watched. I didn’t vote or anything, just watched. And what happened that season, was a little nobody farm girl from Oklahoma turned into a music star virtually overnight. She hasn’t really slowed down either. She still tours, sells out venues, has endorsements from make up companies, etc. Wow. All because of a T.V. show.
Yet there are TONS of artists out there that hit the pavement, demo recordings in hand, bright eyed and optimistic, and then eventually giving up and moving on who never make it. Really talented people too.. Now, obviously, not everybody can become a star. There just isn’t enough room. But what makes a Carrie Underwood a star, and somebody else who has spent years learning to sing or play an instrument, just another ‘also ran’ in the music industry?
Because honestly, when I watched Carrie Underwood, I wasn’t terribly impressed. She was good, yes, pretty, yes, took constructive criticism and got better each week, definitely. But just kind of eh…To me, she didn’t seem to be poised to take the music world by storm. Clearly, several awards and millions of dollars later, I was wrong. Fair enough. It happens. When I worked at BMG Records we’d have meetings where people would say, oh these guys will never make it and I thought differently and vice versa. In the end, we probably all were about even in our ‘correct’ predictions. There’s no telling. Some new bands were great, and if we’d had more budget to expose them to people, they could have done really well. Some people sucked and got huge budgets and are still around. Why? Who knows.
Just like in Idol. There are people who have won that we have scarcely heard from again. And then there are the ones who did NOT win, but were so great, we don’t remember who did win that season. Chris Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson being two examples.
But…would these people have made it without a show like Idol? If they’d been out there busking on the streets of Los Angeles would the people who signed them still have plucked them from the masses and said, “You’re the one!”
Who knows. Like a lot of things, luck is involved. There really is no formula. Or if there is, it certainly isn’t a one size fits all. To even make it onto Idol is a pretty slim chance and you have to pass other rounds of judges before you even get to meet the main judges. You could be dismissed just because a judge was having a bad day. And what about all of those people who they DO let in front of the judges just so they’ll have fodder for their comedy segments? How many of those are let in for a laugh, and how many actually talented people are turned away just because well, there are only so many people they can let in. And let’s face it, first and foremost, it’s a T.V. show. They will do what they must to get ratings. The fact that they get some singers who people actually like seems to be almost a bonus, rather than the main focus.
Then of course there is the changing face of music, just like publishing. When do you say, enough is enough and just take it into your own hands? Musicians now seem to be picked now for their instant appeal, and then once they’ve run their course, they’re kicked to the curb. How many bands or artists who are big right now, will be in our regular rotation in say 20 or even 10 years? Do you even take singers who come out of T.V. shows seriously or dismiss them as ‘manufactured’ artists? Where do you go to hear new music? Radio? Internet? Or do you just listen to the stuff you listened to years ago, when music was still good? Because really, every generation says that, don’t they? 
