2.21.11 Adam News & Info

The judges have the contestants' resumes, so Adam wouldn't have had to mention his theatre background for them to see it and perhaps pre-judge.

I always assumed what they meant by theatrical was that Adam sang in a way that most of the guys didn't-- with expression in his face.

Also that he enunciates beautifully when he sings, as theatre performers do.

How all that is a negative is what escapes me.

Yesterday somebody mentioned that if you don't like a subject that you should just start another. I thought that was Tinafea, but she rather wants to do RL stuff instead. What a bummer. :-/

Thanks wal for posting something different. I always wished that we had a chance to see the complete audition as well as Hollywood week for Adam. Even though this video is the best in piecing everything together what is available, it is still clear that multiple major cuts were made.

I also always believed that the theatrical discussion hit him because it was on the judge's "cheat"-sheets, not because of the audition, but I do think that the discussion got stuck in Kara's head and she stuck with that theme throughout Hollywood week, when my impression was that Simon had kind of already moved on from there.

I noticed that Kara who was still very new on idol at the time of these auditions was constantly using Simon as her orientation point and then echoing whatever Simon was saying in her comments or using his words from one audition to the next. It took her a while to get away from that actually.

Simon threw that "theatrical" out initially in response to Randy's current discussion and because it was fed to him and I do think that he has a general perception that Theater/Broadway singers get through auditions because they can sing well, but are often not cut out for a real life career in music post idol and so he hits that topic early on, but I got the sense that with Adam he quite quickly - probably even during the audition - realized that he had more than just the average theater kid in front of him and moved on.

Kara was the one who took way longer, perhaps even til tracks of my tears, to bury that subject that she as the new A-student had learned to watch out for from Simon.

I think that when Adam blew kisses to Paula and did his individualized handshakes with each and every one and treated Simon with a bit of a respectful no BS kind of distance that Simon knew that Adam had more than just theater up his sleeves and was therefore past the subject right then and there.

Just my impression. But Simon did later struggle with the OTT style of Satisfaction and of course RoF, so I bet that while he obviously understands talent when he sees it, he ultimately always struggled with the fact that the soon to be biggest star that would emerge from AI1-Ai9 was somebody whose style was not his cup of tea. And I don't think that FYE or GNT since then have changed that one bit. Just different preferences and yes, gay may be a factor, but I think it would be a bit too cheap to just make it a case of that. We all have preferences and Simon has his too.

We will see what Simon does with X-factor, looks like the new AI is not as dead as some were calling it already, so Simon will need to deliver this fall. After 9 years of being able to critique others, he himself will be under evaluation for his show and I am not one who is betting on his success. We'll see. His style is dated and I am not convinced he can overcome it and bring a new cool factor.

Ai10 may have a chance, they do have a few interesting candidates, if they get the right top 12 together it could be good. But they also have a few that are great singers, but may not be typical pop radio candidates, so the new producers and judges will have to cross that very same bridge the next couple of weeks as well.

Did I ever mention how much I hate that radio pigeon-holes everybody's music tastes in such a lob-sided manner. Anybody here played with Pandora since that social media conference?

I think I know what you mean, Gelly. There's a gritty, growly quality of singing that most rockers have. Even when Adam is singing a gritty rock song like WLL, there is a clarity of tone that is uniquely his. It's what sets him apart, imo, and I guess puts him closer to Mercury's style than Plant's.

That is the same reason that some musicians have said Adam can't really sing "rock" music -- his vocals are too clean. It is not an insult, just a statement of fact.