Do you get the feeling that American Idol’s Disco Night is some kind of sick joke perpetrated by the American Idol producers? Last night’s show was far better than it could have been (mostly because there wasn’t much “disco” involved), but still – out of all the possible theme weeks out there, how has Disco become a yearly staple on American Idol? Aren’t young people the target demographic? Classic rock, 80’s music, country music – these genres have endured. Disco, more or less, has passed us by, and no one is shedding a tear over it. It’s possible that Disco Night is where the truly original artists on Idol will emerge, the singers who can turn any type of song and mold it to their own abilities. As an exercise, I can maybe understand the mindset behind disco night. But, let’s not forget – American Idol is a TV show that’s supposed to be, more than anything else, entertaining. There are dozens of more crowd-pleasing themes available than disco.
Then again, I was actually quite pleased with last night’s show. There were only two performances I didn’t particularly care for, one that was just OK and four that I legitimately enjoyed. For a night poised for disaster, those aren’t bad numbers. Maybe part of my pleasure had to do with the hour’s lack of filler and concentrated focus on the performances and the judges’ critiques. I guarantee that no one missed the pre-performance video packages that were excised last night. This late in the season, we know who these contestants are – another video isn’t going to enlighten us.
When thinking about tonight’s upcoming double elimination, one has to wonder what exactly the voters are voting on. Is it last night’s show, or is it the entire season of work these Idols have put in? My inclination is that, at this point, unless someone gives an incredibly great or epically bad performance, voters are going to base their decisions on the whole body of work. For instance, do you really think Anoop Desai’s vote total is going to fluctuate much from last week? You have his base of fans that will likely remain unchanged. His performance definitely wasn’t good enough to bring in a significant number of new voters (unless there are more wispy facial hair fetishists than I realized) and it wasn’t bad enough to turn away his usual supporters.
Maybe this is over-thinking the whole thing. The vote totals often make no sense (check out Dial Idol right now – let’s all hope that it’s way off). In a just world, Lil Rounds would be gone tonight. After that, I’d be OK with either Matt Giraud, Danny Gokey or Anoop Desai going home.
Whether or not America ends up agreeing with me or not, I think it’s become pretty clear that Adam Lambert, Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta are the three best contestants remaining on American Idol. Matt could have been in that group, but his song choices have often been piss poor. Even when Matt’s been OK, you get the feeling that, given better decisions, he could have been consistently great. Nevertheless, if Allison or Kris are somehow eliminated on tonight’s show, then we know the Judges’ Save was wasted. If Adam Lambert hadn’t been a part of the competition, we’d all be going crazy over these two. Kris Allen’s ability to arrange songs has proven incredible, and last night was his crowning achievement.
I have one wish – Danny Gokey eliminated tonight. Is that so much to ask?
Read More:
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American Idol 8: Disco Week Theme Predictions
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-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
