I don’t watch Australian Idol, because I hate the over-ornamented vocal style that is the current vogue. However, I’m well aware that a lot of people really enjoy watching the performances, and that a lot of kids dream about winning the competition.
So this week’s speculation that Assemblies of God churches are using bloc voting to push contestants who belong to their congregations to the top of the viewer favourites polls intrigues me. The Daily Telegraph journoblogger Garth Montgomery lays out the story in detail, including clips from the Today Tonight “expose”, and asks whether the various reality TV shows (which have nearly all had their problems with accusations of vote stacking) should have more transparent voting practices?
Obviously, vote stacking would be much more difficulting if the voting technology limited the number of votes that can come from a single phone number, but this would also cut into one of the ways in which the shows generate revenue, so that’s most unlikely to occur.
What some commentors over at Garth’s Monty blog have noted is that there are two immediate questions of fairness that such vote-stacking allegations raise:
- How does this make other contestants who don’t belong to large social organisations feel, when they’re taking part in a show which is allegedly all about talent?
- How would a contestant who does win through vote stacking feel later on when it doesn’t translate into recording sales and genuine broader community popularity? Mightn’t they actually feel cheated that they didn’t win on their own merits and have disrupted their life for several years based on what proves to be not enough talent? Mightn’t it be kinder not to build up false hopes of a true professional career?
To those two questions I would add: if the public perception becomes that one has to belong to AOG or another similiar group to win, won’t it ultimately turn the audience away and ruin opportunities in general for talented kids?
Disclosure: Garth Montgomery is my neighbour and I’m scared of his dog.
Hubby and I were discussing this very issue a few days ago, before this all blew up. As far as he could see, if you have access to a large voting block of course you are going to use it. He reckoned the smart kids would join say Hillsong about 12 months out before making their run at Idol and then coasting on the votes of the congregation. Of course that depends on the people of the congregation caring, and watching Idol. His evil plan continued right up until the Opera House, at which point you get everyone to stop voting, come second and assure your career. I like to be a little naive about these things and think that talent will out in some form anyway.
I think this is where the rub lies: the distinction between ‘talent’ and ‘popularity’. I’m sure that the show implies that talent has some sort of direct relationship to popularity, but it quite obviously doesn’t. Anyone could point to insanely talented musicians that simply aren’t as popular than infinitely less talented, but more commercially successful brethren.
To my mind, Idol (along with damn near every other reality tv show) is about popularity first and foremost, in a number of ways: the ranking system is based on popular vote, the show itself aims at high ratings, etc.
I’m not saying that there is some sort of essential division between popularity and talent, but the two simply aren’t easily weighted, and in the format it’s in, popularity rules the day.
So I really don’t have a problem with ‘vote-stacking’ at all. The popularity of Idol winners is stupidly voguish. Anyone who wins the competition will have their 15 minutes of fame, but that’s pretty much where it ends (by coming through the ranks this way, they’ve also eliminated any chances of being respected by ‘actual’ musicians). Genuinely talented musicians need to do the hard graft instead of pinning their hopes on a glorified shopping mall talent-show.
It’s called ‘noodling’.
The lass who won a few years back was supported by the Bendigo voting bloc – so if the kids don’t fancy getting religion they could nag their parents to shift to a medium-sized regional centre.
I agree with Jobby about what Australian Idol is but I disagree that it’s a format which is divorced from considerations of talent. It’s all about the popularity and barracking, and this isn’t a reflection on the abilities of the kids, it’s just a fact about what pop music is. The good ones have a talent for achieving popularity. I don’t think pop music has ever had much connection to ‘genuine talent’.
Pop music just is a form where skill and/or expressiveness are not specially necessary for doing good work – examples abound but it defeats the point to name them since that involves pointing out the lack of musicianship or soul or whatever. In pop those things are nice but definitely not necessary.
And as you say Mindy, there’s doubtless no shortage of contenders for the congregation’s attention within the Hillsong org anyway.
I’m more saddened by the gender imbalance among the remaining finalists. It’s sort of inevitable given the teenage heartthrob factor, but it’s a bit sad just the same.
I don’t like the way vocal ornamentation substitutes for genuine emotion or technique either. I bet it will sound really funny in twenty years, with today’s contestants covering the faces when those tapes are played back to them. Assessment of talent is pretty nebulous in that situation.
Plus, the voting is rigged. In the dancing show Kate Ceberano got a whole lot of Scientologists to vote for her.
For all these reasons, I don’t watch the show. It doesn’t matter to me whether this talentless minger or that one wins the dough, or that a TV production company pours so much into it, or that either of these things warrant much concern.
If enough people don’t watch the show it will disappear. It will probably be replaced by another piece of junk, but you get that.
How is that ‘rigged’ voting, Andrew E?
Make the finalists sing “Sympathy for the Devil”. That will sort them out.
I had no idea so many of them were in the finals this year. Why do so many get in the finals anyway? Why not just rename it Christian Idol and be done with it. (heh – “ye shall have no other gods before me” will need to repackaged a bit – but the mega penties are good at reworking things).
i say better the AOG stack idol than federal parliament (or has that already been accomplished?)
you see none of this would happen if bernard king was still around – in which case it would be “pot of gold” that would be an international franchising sensation and idol would be relegated to its true position somewhere on some obscure channel on cable
oh yea – and i reckon ray burghess and flashez
sorry that has no relevance to anything – i was just hoping to generate a horrid acid flashback for ya!
Silky,
Aren’t Iron Maiden in town (with Motorhead no less)? Get ‘em to cover SIX, six six -The number of the beast…
Really, doesn’t this degrade the Hillnong religious crackpots much more than the contestants? If that is possible.
“Disclosure: Garth Montgomery is my neighbour and I’m scared of his dog.”
That cracked me up totally, so I can’t take this seriously, sorry tigtog. Just got my brand new CD/DVD of the Traveling Wilburys, croaky old dudes making real down and dirty music….
Mindy wrote:
Hmm. A little sex scandal just before the opera house would guarantee (a) no hillsong support and (b) just enough credibility to launch actual singing career.
Does it matter if the Hillsong dingbats want to waste their hard earned on making phone calls to a program that’s obviously much less about talent and much more about money? Let ‘em go broke on multi hundred dollar phone bills I say. At least that money doesn’t end up tithed to the corrupt mongrels who run the church.
Which brings me to an even more cunning plan, but L. Ron Hubbard got there first.
It’s a pop competition, so what else but popularity would you expect to determine the outcome?
Sure, as Laura says, popularity rides on talent to an extent, but it will always be of the lowest common denominator kind. The format of the show is to blame here too, in not allowing performers to be themselves (while constantly telling them to do so). They’re expected to be brilliant at everything, which is frankly insane. How far would Bowie or Dylan or Cocker, J (either of them) or even Madonna, Cyndi or Dusty get in this comp? Well, maybe Dusty would do okay.
There’s also the very important point that many of these contestants become “talented” (whatever that means) through their experience with Hillsong and AOG. That’s what they do every week – they sing in front of huge crowds, practice during the week…
It’s a bit chicken and egg, I think.
Grace, you too would be petrified of the hardest chihuahua on the planet. D would monster Fluffy (below) in a nanosecond.
Stop it tigtog (falls off chair)
I wonder if the MSM hasn’t gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick on this one: I’m no fan of the AoG mob, but I don’t think there’s a problem with them encouraging voting for members of their communities.
I think there would be a real problem if they were to encourage vote stacking using church resources – a call centre or redialler paid organised by the church, for example., but I don’t think that allegation has been made.
And I also think there’d be a problem if the church were to then use those successful contestants in its own recruitment advertising: “See, we’re the kind of place where you find the kind of wholesome talent that you love…” when you’ve arranged to stack the vote in the first place.
And I also think it’s a little disturbing that the AoG churches have gone to so much trouble to deny their involvement in encouraging church members to vote for other church members – any organisation that has a trend towards secrecy and public bullshitting about what they’ve done is disturbing, in my view.
But I think it’s Channel 10 that has the problem. I reckon that the phone-money plays an important part in the revenue stream for the show, and if people get to thinking that there’s no point ringing in, because a big group already has it stitched up, that revenue will start to dry up sharpish, I’d think.
If I were the cynical type, I might be tempted to think that it was in 7’s commercial interest to be running stories on vote rigging in competitors shows on that basis…
Iron Maiden aren’t here until February next year (tickets went on sale last week – sold out in a matter of minutes … but I did manage to get choice front of stage tickets to one of the second shows that was announced 3 hours after the first shows went on sale). Motorhead are playing a separate Australian tour at the moment.
What he said (although by god it sounds snarky). The Spice Girls and Justin Timberlake would do infinitely better at an Idol competition than any musician who’s had a lasting career over the past few decades. Tom Waits would probably crash out before the group stage.
Church music is an incredibly important foundation for many musicians in the US (not just singers). Apart from being about the only regular, steady gig that young musicians can get, it necessarily involves a decent audience, a good deal of improvisation, and a need to cater almost every aspect of the music to the target audience. The amount of notable band leaders who’ve come through Church bands is pretty stunning.
I don’t know how much of this translates to an Australian setting, I’ve only played with one ‘churchie’ myself, and he had formal training anyway.
Believe it or not, I used to play in a Christian rock group when I was younger. (The band leader knew I was not a Christian, but we enjoyed each others’ company anyway.) We used to hang out in a Uniting Church hall, and there were lots of young Christian girls who were kind of our groupies. (We weren’t very good as a band. I used to play a crappy flute, but the lead guitarist, who was only 14, was astonishingly good. His hero was Eric Clapton) I remember one afternoon we were playing records at a party in the back hall of the church, and the girls requested Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. I was amazed that six of them lined up and, holding up pretend mics, proceeded to karaoke the song, not once but twice. When they demanded to have it played a third time, one of the youth organizers had to step in to stop me playing it again. This was in the late 70s, after John had released Imagine. John was right when he said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, and to these girls, John’s music was more important than Jesus.
I think there’s a lesson there that Hillsong has grasped, and that is, ply the youthful masses with secular music, and then pop the Jesus message in at the end and – boom – you’ve got them. (Thanks to the movie Saved for this little insight.) In the case of Australian Idol, the Hillsongers hope that by getting a Christian up as the winner, they can convert the TV-watching youth to Jesus – or something. I’ll bet there is a similar conspiracy going on with American Idol. It would definitely be part of the Christian Right’s push to make America a “Christian nation”.
I have another comical memory regarding John Lennon’s music. I was also at a Green’s conference at a lecture theatre at Sydney University. Bob Brown was in attendance. So too was Eva Cox. The conference seemed to be dominated by Greenpeace and feminists. The conference had an anthem, and everyone joyfully sang John’s Imagine, except that the lines “a brotherhood of man” was changed to “a brotherhood and sisterhood of man,” but even that was problematic. The song sounded terrible when it was botched by these changes, but even so, they all endorsed John’s atheist sentiments.
My nieces love it, but it’s a stinky pile. They’re only watching for the hot jesus boy. Now why can’t Oz Idol be more like Dutch Idol?
I like Silkworm’s suggestion, but I’d prefer them to sing Peaches’ “Fuck the Pain Away”.
But what’s in it for the church? Unless the ultimate winner is going to do an Aaron Baddeley and make a victory speech beginning “I first want to dedicate this win to my lord and saviour Jesus Christ”. That might put a bit of a dampener on the evening. I mean I’m sure Marcia would tell them “Well done honey you keep being true to yourself” but the three blokes on the judging panel might be a bit lost for words. Not to mention the hosts.
Was the “rock” episode shit or what?
…and these churches, do they let anyone sing? (ahmm just asking for a friend)
OMG!! CraigMc. That link. I was waiting for Christopher Guest to appear.
“I’m sure Marcia would tell them “Well done honey you keep being true to yourselfâ€?
or, she will just say:
“honey, you just keep the faith” the way she did the other night. (WTF?)
What is she on anyway? And can I please have some? I’d love to be able to say these lines with a straight face on national TV:
“I really dug it, honey”
“honey, you my heart honey” (What?)
“girlfriend, cause you are all dat. do you feel it in here honey?
“cause that all that matters girlfriend”
great link Craig. There are tears running down my nose.
For those of us who have worked tirelessly to forge a living from music, Idol is an abomination.
Damn straight.
Which brings me to:
- What’s the difference between a musician and a pizza?
- A pizza can feed a family of four.
Or even:
- What’s the difference between a musician and government bond?
- One matures and earns money.
Do you reckon dancers feel the same way about ‘So You Think You Can Dance’?
I just love that show.
Oh, those poor Dutch kids. Looking at another clip of the same thing those kids were ones that didn’t make it through the audition, so they would have already been abused by the Dicko-type judge as being delusional no-talents, yet they still agreed to do this football thing. Looks like someone else decided it would be fun to get them together as a freak show.
Oh no!! not so you think you can dance!!
The pommy judge really angers me for some reason.
Oh come on,
Nigel is great. He makes Dicko look, well …
And you’ve gotta admit, in creating and promoting the show, they’ve done a lot for the public visibility of dance.
The musical term for it is “melisma” and it’s a scourge of our time.
However, I am glued to Oidol whenever I can make time for it as it’s a cornucopia of crass. I’m happy to report that the melisma seems to be on the way out.
You say this as if it’s a good thing.
“The musical term for it is “melismaâ€? and it’s a scourge of our time.”
Melisma badly done is the scourge of our time. Melisma as done by, say, Sam Cooke, is pure bliss. Oh, and congruent with Jobby’s observation, Sam Cooke like lots of soul artists got his start in a Christian group (the Soul Stirrers)
And we hatesssss it with the burning fury of a thoussssand sssunsssss, yesssss we doesssss.
“Melisma badly done is the scourge of our time.”
At heart, it is the fault of a poorly-conceived musical education. Over-reliance on melisma is the musical equivalent of a good performance of Polonius: you do it to cover up the fact that you have no real idea what the ferck you’re talking about.
“Oh, those poor Dutch kids.”
Right now I’m not at a high-speed connection and so I can’t check out the link, but I’d bet dollars to donuts the comedy derives from that old stand-by, continental Euro-kids having no effing idea how to sing in an Anglo-Afro-American R & B idiom. (But of course I could be wrong about this.)
But why should they? Anglophone musical culture has very distinct historical differences from Continental development (the Celtic and African influences are a start, but really only a start). Ask some Dutch kids to sing Bach’s “Cantata 78″ and I bet they’d beat the pants off the kids in my parish choir. There’s no particular reason everyone in the world should be able to sing “Voodoo Chile” or even “Blue Bayou” properly; I certainly can’t do Canto-pop any justice.
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled performance of “Diamonds Are Forever” as sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
When Tim Brunero, the union guy, was on Big Brother I was vastly amused when a whole bunch of 50+, terribly earnest members of the intellectual active left suddenly started circulating emails telling us how to “vote for Tim”.
jpz, it’s not a failure of multiculturalism so much as utter tone-deafness.
melisma
noun
noise emitted by a car alarm
ORIGIN: Bodyguard, 1993 Whitney Houston
Oh yes, Bodyguard by Whitney Houston, that certainly was an important vector of that dreaded disease.
Another Anthony, Melisma is like a cooking ingredient which needs to be brought out very occasionally for wow factor, only by a very highly trained operator, and if used constantly is just a turnoff. Like, I don’t know, Fugu fish.