Last night I was watching American Idol and I got so excited by the
final performance of the evening, a song done by this kid who sometimes looks a little goth and/or what is being called emo, I think (Adam Lambert). Anyway all of the other contestants predictably choose total CRUD and he miraculously chooses Tears for Fears "Mad World" and I'm thinking, "Holy shit; this guy's the real deal. Someone has finally chosen something worthy, something indicative of artistry, context and talent." They had to select a song from the year of their birth. I was so excited. And naive. Still.
Here is part of my (very necessary) cultural debriefing yahoo chat with Cinderelli (a.k.a Sarah my niece in Toronto):
in the years of that stupid show NO ONE has ever picked an excellent
song that was NOT already a commercial hit...someone sang a Tears for
Fears song last night and it really was awesome. They all choose such
effing crap. And this was inspirational.
merrianne(1:16 PM): Really was. I couldn't believe it. I was waiting
for some shitty bon jovi or effing dreck from cold play or other junk
and was so surprised. Well, it wouldn't have been cold play, but some
80s version of anthem rock that is just nauseating.
Sarah(1:16 PM): sorry on the phone...
merrianne(1:17 PM): That's okay. I'm kind of on a rant about Idol and
terrible 80s music...when IN FACT there was a lot of great 80s music.
merrianne(1:18 PM): I always thought that maybe there was some
licensing thing that prevented the contestants from actually choosing
the good stuff. Wrong oh wrong.
Sarah(1:18 PM): They are too young.
merrianne(1:18 PM): Tru dat.
Sarah(1:18 PM): They were born in the 8os if not 90s.
merrianne(1:19 PM): BUT if you were really into music and wanted to
be a singer wouldn't it be your hobby to know a lot about it?
merrianne(1:19 PM): Especially if you were chosen to be on a huge TV
show and know that you're gonna have to choose songs. Why choose all
the shit?
She responds with this by facebook:
"The reason that kid knows the song is because it was re-done
recently... like a year or two ago... and it was in a commercial that
got alot of play for a video game."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
I was devastated and wanted to twitter it, but I blogged it here instead. I wanted to be wrong and maybe not so old and I didn't want the video game featured in the youtube video to get free advertising, but I guess it did anyway last night. Media mayhem indeed.
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the newer version of the song was also featured in Donnie Darko. an excellent film... so at least he's got good taste in movies.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I object to is the use of that song in such a violent video game AND that current exposure of that song comes from the advertisement for that game. Weird too, to have my very authentic and nostalgic response to an awesome track be reduced to the disdain for commercialism 20 odd years later. Naive, I suppose.
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