Quote:
Originally Posted by Vince
IHaving to tackle songs and styles from a completely different era is difficult enough when you have a template to do it (tribute style); to have to take someone else's music and make it your own and/or contemporize it is another step entirely. These are also kids who are largely new to the music scene (although everyone's touting this group as experienced because of past record deals and such, their performances to date have shown anything but experience).
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I agree, and you know why I think this is? It's that most of these people are singers, not musicians. This is why I enjoyed Rock Star so much...most of those singers, while not great, were actively involved in arranging the songs they performed. Here, most of these contestants haven't done anything but sing songs they like, or sing songs they don't know at someone else's direction. Carly may have "experience," but her first attempt at an album in 2001 was so bad, they scrapped it and brought in 2 guys from The New Radicals to write another set of songs for her. The point is, she probably has barely more "experience" with arranging songs than Alaina Whitaker.
Jason Castro stood out not just because he performed with an instrument, but because it was clear that he had a vision for what his song choice should sound like
for him, and not what his family/friends or Ricky Minor thought was best for him. Ricky Minor and whatever other vocal/song coaches they have for this show are probably more responsible for the crappy performances we see than the contestants are. And it's because only a few of these people know enough to be able to take control of their performance, instead of just doing what someone else suggests. That's why Brent or Bert or whatever his name was from last year stood out, because he knew what he wanted to do with the songs he chose, and he went entirely outside the box to do it. As a result, the fans responded. Daughtry was the same way, except he was smart to pick songs that had already been covered by rock groups and just copied their arrangements.
As much as I hate that Josiah kid's style, maybe he would have been good for this show, because he appears to have the talent/ability to arrange stuff. It's just that in his case, everything he'd arrange would sound like Snow Patrol. But you can bet he'd be telling Ricky Minor what he wants, not just sitting there being told what would be best for him.