At long last, the day is upon us!!! Ellen begins on American Idol tonight! 
Of course, we all miss Paula, and we will all miss the constant and, at times, awkward interactions between her and Simon, but I do believe that it was time for a change. Paula, while popular and fun, did not offer any insight to the contestants, and was never more than a playful side-kick for the much more serious judges Randy, Simon, and as of last season, Kara. With that said, I do credit her with making the show successful, as I believe that it would have had a harder time without her. We love you Paula! No doubt!
Moving onto a bigger, brighter, and much more serious Idol, we have Ellen. Of course, you may ask: “What kind of insight can Ellen offer? How can you claim that the show will be more serious when Ellen is a comedienne? Ellen does not have any music background, so what will she be able to tell the contestants?” To the person that may ask these questions, I say to you that your questions are valid, I share them, and here are my hopes for those questions:
What kind of insight can Ellen offer?
Well… I think that she can offer a lot! Let’s look at the judges:
- Randy is a music producer, writer, and bass player, and he sufficiently represents the industry.
- Kara is a singer/songwriter with a great deal of experience and represents music/talent.
- Simon… I am not sure what Simon does, honestly, but his opinions are important, if at times rude, and he is usually “spot-on” in his criticism. The truth hurts, but he does it with charm and poise.
Now let’s look at Ellen. Ellen is the embodiment of current. She is in, she gets the public, she knows how to connect with the viewer, and more than anything, she represents US! No, I do not mean the gay community… I mean the consumer. She represents what America will like and what America will buy. That is very powerful insight, in my opinion, and something that I think the show has been lacking. It is easy to say you sing well or you sing poorly… it is not as easy, I think, to hear something and say, “That will sell!” Of course, I am not advocating that we lose sight of talent for the sake of money, but let’s be real for a moment… whether you agree that it is right or wrong, the market, for now, is about what will sell first, with talent trailing behind. (I for one would like talent to be more important, but that is not what is happening.)
How can you claim that the show will be more serious when Ellen is a comedienne?
Because Simon is mean. Okay… what was Paula’s job on the show? Make people laugh after Simon burns them. Well, maybe that was not her ‘job’ on paper, but that is what she did… Time and time again. Their little fights and her comments and mannerisms (clapping above her head) were necessary to release the tension. I don’t know about the contestant, but I always felt nervous when Simon was mean, and I can only imagine that the contestant felt a million times worse. This was the good thing with Paula.
The only problem was that people perceived her as ditsy and unimportant. When she spouted off nonsense, we just said, “Oh Paula…” and moved on. Sometimes, she really offered great insight and advice, only to be ignored as a result of perception. This was unfortunate, and I believe this partly led to her departure.
But more serious with Ellen, you say? Yes. I say! Ellen is more than capable of breaking the tension, and she is coming into this show not from the B-list, where Paula lived prior to Idol, but from the A-List. She is well-known, current, intelligent, and respected. Will she be a comic? Yes… but people will ACTUALLY hear what she has to say… and this is a GREAT thing, in my opinion.
Ellen does not have any music background, so what will she be able to tell the contestants?
As I mentioned in the first question’s answer, I believe that she will be able to offer some of what you or I may think or say to the contestant, and as we have seen so many times, the contestant will be able to hear from the consumer if their art will sell, or if they have work to do. Very talented people, I believe, have not done well because they were allowed to succeed at Idol without the public’s opinion only to release their art and fail because it was not in the form the public would adopt. This is a terrible disservice to very talented people.
So there you have it… This is what I think. I, for one, think she has great potential, but only time will tell if Ellen will be the great success on Idol she deserves to be.
-=brett=-
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Ellen on Idol :: Great Potential!!
Posted by bretthperkins on February 9, 2010
At long last, the day is upon us!!! Ellen begins on American Idol tonight!
Of course, we all miss Paula, and we will all miss the constant and, at times, awkward interactions between her and Simon, but I do believe that it was time for a change. Paula, while popular and fun, did not offer any insight to the contestants, and was never more than a playful side-kick for the much more serious judges Randy, Simon, and as of last season, Kara. With that said, I do credit her with making the show successful, as I believe that it would have had a harder time without her. We love you Paula! No doubt!
Moving onto a bigger, brighter, and much more serious Idol, we have Ellen. Of course, you may ask: “What kind of insight can Ellen offer? How can you claim that the show will be more serious when Ellen is a comedienne? Ellen does not have any music background, so what will she be able to tell the contestants?” To the person that may ask these questions, I say to you that your questions are valid, I share them, and here are my hopes for those questions:
What kind of insight can Ellen offer?
Well… I think that she can offer a lot! Let’s look at the judges:
Now let’s look at Ellen. Ellen is the embodiment of current. She is in, she gets the public, she knows how to connect with the viewer, and more than anything, she represents US! No, I do not mean the gay community… I mean the consumer. She represents what America will like and what America will buy. That is very powerful insight, in my opinion, and something that I think the show has been lacking. It is easy to say you sing well or you sing poorly… it is not as easy, I think, to hear something and say, “That will sell!” Of course, I am not advocating that we lose sight of talent for the sake of money, but let’s be real for a moment… whether you agree that it is right or wrong, the market, for now, is about what will sell first, with talent trailing behind. (I for one would like talent to be more important, but that is not what is happening.)
How can you claim that the show will be more serious when Ellen is a comedienne?
Because Simon is mean. Okay… what was Paula’s job on the show? Make people laugh after Simon burns them. Well, maybe that was not her ‘job’ on paper, but that is what she did… Time and time again. Their little fights and her comments and mannerisms (clapping above her head) were necessary to release the tension. I don’t know about the contestant, but I always felt nervous when Simon was mean, and I can only imagine that the contestant felt a million times worse. This was the good thing with Paula.
The only problem was that people perceived her as ditsy and unimportant. When she spouted off nonsense, we just said, “Oh Paula…” and moved on. Sometimes, she really offered great insight and advice, only to be ignored as a result of perception. This was unfortunate, and I believe this partly led to her departure.
But more serious with Ellen, you say? Yes. I say! Ellen is more than capable of breaking the tension, and she is coming into this show not from the B-list, where Paula lived prior to Idol, but from the A-List. She is well-known, current, intelligent, and respected. Will she be a comic? Yes… but people will ACTUALLY hear what she has to say… and this is a GREAT thing, in my opinion.
Ellen does not have any music background, so what will she be able to tell the contestants?
As I mentioned in the first question’s answer, I believe that she will be able to offer some of what you or I may think or say to the contestant, and as we have seen so many times, the contestant will be able to hear from the consumer if their art will sell, or if they have work to do. Very talented people, I believe, have not done well because they were allowed to succeed at Idol without the public’s opinion only to release their art and fail because it was not in the form the public would adopt. This is a terrible disservice to very talented people.
So there you have it… This is what I think. I, for one, think she has great potential, but only time will tell if Ellen will be the great success on Idol she deserves to be.
-=brett=-
Like this:
This entry was posted on February 9, 2010 at 11:45 am and is filed under Commentary, Thought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.