Bad choice Jordin. "Livin on a Prayer" isn't a song that can be "sung" like she tried to.

But Phil fucking rocked Blaze of Glory.

hahaha BLAKE

fucking YES

Watching Melinda try to sing and act like a rocker is just.....sad.

She did not have a nice day.

My rank for the week:
1) Melinda
2) Phil
3) Blake
4) Lakeesha
5) Chris
6) Jordin

eh melinda was good. blake stole the show tonight though.

My ranking:

Blake, Melinda, Phil, Lakisha, Jordin, Chris.

So I only caught the recap. Was it as bad live as it was in the short 5 seconds I saw for everyone, because they all sounded like ass. Based on the little bit I saw, Chris sounded the best, which sees hard.

No, it was actually quite tolerable tonight.

I thought tonight was great. Melinda proved she is light years ahead of anyone else as a singer. Blake was by far the most entertaining and took the biggest risk but it kicked ass!!

I thought Jordan and Chris were horrible and Phil and Lakisha were great, Lakisha was the biggest surprise for me.

I'd rank them:

Blake
Melinda
LaKisha
Phil
Chris R
Jordin

Jordin was awful. She may be versatile, but she's not Janet Jackson (Black Cat) versatile. Chris R. picked probably the worst song possible, which showcased how thin and lacking in depth his voice is. But Jordin saved him, even though her good week last week should keep her pretty safe. Phil has been solid for 3 weeks in a row. Melinda would have been better had she not already done a Tina Turner-like performance, but this was a hard week for her and she pulled it off. LaKisha made the smartest choice of any of them for her style. Jordin was probably kicking herself halfway through LaKisha's song.

Great week, I hope they do more rock next year.

I'd reverse Jordin and Chris, but besides that I agree...

Thank god we got the "Fun Blake" again and it was awesome... this is the way he wins, not trying to show off his voice...

I'm very intrigued to see what his album would be like... I figure he gets one iether way, and I'm curious how much control they'd give him..

Blake and Melinda showed who should be the final two this week. Phil did a great job as well but he doesn't have enough outstanding past performances to deserve getting that much farther. LaKisha rebounded quite nicely, luckily for her she didn't get a chance to choose another past contestant's song this week.

Jordin picked a bad song for her voice and may have been the worst today, though I would love to say Chris was the worst.

I would say Chris and LaKisha to go based on the last two weeks but who really knows at this point.

I thought Melinda was horrible. She sounded like someone stuck her neck in a clothes wringer and twisted, and during this time she tried to get this song out. Yuck.
Phil sang it well, but once again the song was devoid of the Phil personality. What kind of album would he record? You just can't hear Phil, just a bunch of copycat performances (which are fairly good).
I think that Blake's performance was one of the best of the season. You KNOW what kind of album that Blake would record, and you hear him on everything that he does. Big risk, big reward.
Lakisha was great as well, she didn't try to force one out like Jordin this week, took a less "rocker" song and sang it.
I think the non-rockers should have realized that Bon Jovi is at the pop end of the rock spectrum, and that they could have picked a lot more material that's applicable to their voices and stayed away from the more rocky stuff.

One more thing ... didn't Ryan say that they played 2 songs each last week, and the same for this week? I only heard one.

Okay, so here it goes. After the most overrated week in American Idol history - a week in which Ryan Seacrest and his band of corporate suits preached non-stop about giving up the pretense, I mean, giving back, yet didn't have the chutzpah to tell us beforehand no one would be eliminated - they go ahead and feature the most overrated band in rock history.

A fraud followed by a fraud. Hey, it's all good when you can get the First Lady reading more awkwardly from her cue cards than Hortatio Sanz at an old Saturday Night Live dress rehearsal.

Yeah, I can just hear the Bubble Metal enthusiasts winding up for a rant. Can't I see that Jon Bon Jovi is a true musician? Can't I see that there's real talent behind these over-produced, Kiss-wannabe bubble anthems? Damn it all, an entire generation of sanitized pulsing power music afficianados grew up on this safe schlock. Surely that's better than Veronica kissing a puppy dog named Piz or Lorelai mooning after Luke because he wore the blue hat she gave him in seasons past while she threw away the love beads he pressed upon her after a whimsical moment at some Renaissance Festival long forgotten. Right? Am I right?

But I digress. There was some singing to be heard, and, truth be told, those who can't do, teach, and apparently either Jon Bon Jovi is a fairly good teacher, or these bubblicious power songs are designed to neatly hide amateurism. It wasn't a bad week, after all. Not bad at all. Even if the CW should be renaming their about-to-be-canceled 9:00 p.m. show "Mac and Cheese."

Oh, I'll keep the faith, even if this show seems to be on a lost highway these days. On to the rankings:

1. Melinda Doolittle. Not only can she sing, she can interpret a song as well. I can see why she likes the musicals genre, because she put together a nice acting performance along with her rendition of Have a Nice Day. It kinda makes you think the humility schlump may be a bit of an act. As always, a pro among pronouns. She could be a credible rocker. Score of 97.

2. Blake Lewis. Kudos for throwing in a pig snort and making Bon Jovi sound better for trying. The kid has one small bag of tricks, but he does it very well. If Bon Jovi is the guy who convinced Blake to stay out of his upper register, he did his coaching job very well this week for that reason alone. I'm not sure I liked it, but it was a solid performance and it was nice to see Blake back in the game. I'm also not sure whether this has made me root for his demise. He had better not go into nehru metal jacket again. Score of 87.

3. Phil Stacey. Randy's comparison to Steve Perry was very solid. There was always something a little nerdy about Perry, but Journey had its place among the solid rock acts of the late '70s and early '80s. I get the impression Phil works very hard at this, and when he does, he sometimes pulls together a nice, almost melodic nerd-rock tone. Score of 83.

4. LaKisha Jones. Out of all the singers tonight, I thought she best fit in with the Bubble Metal genre. Her natural inclination is to scream the lyrics a bit, and that fits in nicely with this week's theme, and hard rock in general. The problem is, it just wasn't a great singing performance. It started out very shaky and out of tune, but she ended up selling it well. It wasn't bad, it's authenticity is more an indictment of the musical genre itself. Score of 78.

5. Chris Richardson. Yes, he can sing in tune. But his tone is all wrong for this genre. Simon had it exactly right, the end result of his goatbleating was a performance that's hard to criticize, but excruciating to hear. I have little doubt his performance in tomorrow's double-results show will be his last. Score of 66.

6. Jordin Sparks. This not-so-little little girl has all the poise in the world. I just don't understand why she went for it on this song. She didn't get what the other women were doing at all, and just tried to belt it out more like a punk rock rendition (and if you think I don't like Bubble Metal, wait 'til you hear my thoughts about Punk). It was strained, and she knew it. She was beat this week worse than the Cowboy receivers used to beat her dear ol' Dad. By leaps and bounds her worst performance of the season. Score of 48.

Bottom 3: Chris, LaKisha, Phil.
Who Should Go: Chris and Phil.
Who Will Go: Chris and LaKisha.

Due to the indulgent Idol Gives Up crapfest, Jordin should benefit big-time from the carry-over from her very good performance last week. This might save her. It hurts Blake, who wasn't very good last week. But I think the response tonight will be very enthusiastic for him and it will be enough to save him.

HOW DARE NOBODY IN THIS THREAD LET ME KNOW BON JOVI WAS GUEST ON AMERICAN IDOL THIS WEEK

You hurt me today Jim, tear.

I LOVED Blake's performance tonight. However, I thought Melinda was great and agree with Jim in that I would give her the top score tonight. I thought Jordin had the worst performance of the night by a long shot. In fact, I would rank everyone in the same order that Jim did tonight. Melinda and Blake are the only two I would be shocked to see go.

Apparently you missed my post YESTERDAY MORNING.

I don't watch American Idol so I never really participated in this thread.

:(

Jim, with all due respect, you should stop tinkering with tedious numbers and write articles/books for a living. I would be your groupie. That was fucking brilliant to read.

Well written, but too much negativity. It makes you wonder why the guy even watches the show.

FWIW, I put Blake above Melinda because I "enjoyed" it more.. I realize Melindas was a more technically sound performance... I could easily swap the two and not feel guilty about it though.

I usualy agree with Jim but I couldn't disagree with him more this week. I think his dislike of Bon Jovi seeped into his write up to much.

I actually don't think Jordin's choice of song was bad at all. I think the version of the song she did was terrible. In the little clip with Bon Jovi she sounded good. Bon Jovi has done a couple different accoustic and more soulful versions of Livin on a Prayer. I can't for the life of me figure out why she didn't go that route.

Yeah, that was probably one of the least authentic headbanging moments I've ever seen. Jordin, my dear, you are not allowed to flip the horns ever again.

Yeah, that was probably one of the least authentic headbanging moments I've ever seen. Jordin, my dear, you are not allowed to flip the horns ever again.

I would die to see punk night on AI - and to read Jim's critique afterward. Of course, they'd come up with a neutered list of songs - Should I Stay or Should I Go, Rock the Casbah, anything by Green Day, and leave the goods on the table. Except Blake, who would have to go into hiding after his performance of "A-a-a-a-anarchy-ee in the U-u-u-u-u-u-k-K."

I agree, though, too much negativity from Jim about the music. Not only is Bon Jovi far from the worst/most overrated rock band in history (and I'm not fan of Bon Jovi, or at least I haven't been since I was about 17 years old), but given the slop we've been forced to listen to the past seasons, not just weeks, I'm a bit offended that Jim chose this week of all of them to lay into the coach/artist.

As much as I like Blake as an AI contestant, and even with what I thought was a great version of YGLABN last night, I'm even less interested in hearing an album of this stuff. It sounds neat in small doses and juxtaposed against boring/mediocre performances of crappy songs, but a whole album of it? No thanks. He is the perfect "sound bite" contestant for a show like this, but I can't see an entire album of half-beat box, half-moody crooner. I'm sure it would sell, but I don't see any staying power there at all.

No shit. Not only do I want a refund on all my purchases so far, but I'm done with Solecismic products.

That's a bit harsh, Logan. The football soap kicks much ass.

Not as much as Bon Jovi.

Sorry, didn't notice you are in New Jersey.

QFT

another Jersey guy here

Screw AI, at least Jim threw VMars a little recognition.

Strangely enough, dialidol.com has Jordin safely ahead of everyone based on last night's votes. Huh.

Is Bon Jovi really that popular these days? I kinda lost touch with him/them after high school - I knew he was out there, the band put out a few albums, he did his solo thing, etc., but kinda like Def Leppard, in a way, the band was "there" but not really making much of a splash. At least, that is my perception. They certainly weathered the grunge/anti-hair band backlash of the 90s and have benefited from the 80s resurgence, I guess. Are kids listening to them now? I just don't hear the name much these days, so it would surprise me to find out they still have a strong following.

Jon Bon Jovi's AFL team is on ESPN2 pretty much every fucking week. Screw Bon Jovi.

QFT * 2

They don't make stadiums big enough to prevent sellouts anywhere around the NY/NJ area.

I think it's more from my generation 25-35 that keeps him popular. His early music IMO is timeless, take the fact that Jordan was excited to sing a song that was recorded about 5 years before she was born, I think that is an indicator that they are still popular

It's My Life was a big song in 2000. That album, Crush had a huge tour. They still make an impact. Have a Nice Day in 2005 is a fairly popular as well. They were #2 on Billboard with that one for a while.

I'll draw ire here I'm sure, but as far as Jersey singers go, I think I like more Bon Jovi songs than I do Bruce Springsteen songs.

But then again...I'd probably say the same for Bruce Willis, too. :p

See, I'm surprised to see the ages you cite trending more young than older. I'm 36 and was into Bon Jovi with Runaway and through the New Jersey album. I'd expect someone who was younger than me by more than, say, 4 or 5 years, to have been caught up in the hair band backlash. If I had to guess I'd say 30-40 makes more sense to me.

But then again, I don't really find his music to be timeless, so I'm probably (unintentionally) discounting him because he's been so irrelevant to my musical tastes since high school. I never disliked him at any point, I just stopped listening to that kind of stuff once I got into college, and like most of those bands, they pretty much disappeared for a while when they were out of fashion. Good for them if they've managed to pick up some momentum in the past 5 or so years. I just haven't really seen or heard much about them since the early 90s.

I'm 23 and everyone I know, even if they don't like that style of music, loves Bon Jovi. Maybe it's just because of the area I'm in, but then again, when I would go and hang out with friends at different schools, they were huge there too. Plus his songs are monster hits in the bar, which always helps.

ditto

I plop Springsteen in the same pile with Johnny Cash and Nine Inch Nails. I understand that lots of people like them, but I just don't get it.

That's interesting. I'm sure the NJ connection probably overstates his general popularity, but maybe not by much.

I'm 26 (27 in less than a month) and everyone I know from Jersey loves Bon Jovi... well, let me add, they are either a Bon Jovi fan or Springsteen fan... usually not many that like both.

Springsteen...meh. What a hack.

You're lucky I don't come down to New Jersey and rip them off your computer myself. When you've sung the National Anthem a cappella in front of a packed house in the Meadowlands, then maybe I'll listen to your opinions about wannabe glam-rock princesses like Bon Jovi. Welcome to Canton.