Last year was the first time that I'd watched American Idol, and I got into it to the extent that from the time that I discovered how much I was enjoying it (pretty much the start of the top 10, I think) it became pretty much a regular weekly watch for me - the only tv show that I can remember to've ever inspired that kind of commitment from me, at least in my adult life.
And yet, when I saw that it was back this year, I thought about deliberately not watching it this time round - mainly because of a suspicion that the ready gratification that it offers, the individual moments which can literally be spine-tingling, breath-taking (for me there were perhaps ten to a dozen of these over the course of last season), along with the general emphasis on immediate pleasures (ballads, anthems, high notes, crescendos), was likely to be conditioning me to respond to this kind of relatively easy, superficial music at the expense of other, potentially deeper experiences.
Not a music-snob thing on my part, it goes without saying...but art of any kind can ennoble and educate those who engage with it, directly in terms of the depth of our own capacity to experience the art-form itself, and more profoundly (albeit relatedly) in relation to our moral and emotional character - and maybe it cuts both ways, such that if the art we expose ourselves to, the music we listen to, offers the simplest and most straightforward of emotional pay-offs, then through repeated exposure we ourselves lose some deeper sensitivity and capacity to experience. It sounds abstract, but feels real.
Despite those concerns, though, tonight I came in partway through the live performances of the top 10 girls, and I wasn't paying that much attention and then got a phone call mid-show and what I did see wasn't super-exciting anyway and so on - and then there was this girl called MK (Nobilette) singing, second from the end, and all of a sudden something was happening, basically from the first note she sang...she has something. This was a bit wow.
Having now watched/rewatched all of tonight's efforts on youtube, my other favourite performances from tonight are also 'M's - Majesty Rose and Malaya Watson (I'm a bit sceptical about any of these three winning, but for now at least I see that America / the world seems to share my liking of them - as of now, theirs are in fact the top 3 most watched on American Idol's official youtube channel) - and actually most of the others at least have something interesting about them...so what do you know - I guess I'm watching again in 2014.
And yet, when I saw that it was back this year, I thought about deliberately not watching it this time round - mainly because of a suspicion that the ready gratification that it offers, the individual moments which can literally be spine-tingling, breath-taking (for me there were perhaps ten to a dozen of these over the course of last season), along with the general emphasis on immediate pleasures (ballads, anthems, high notes, crescendos), was likely to be conditioning me to respond to this kind of relatively easy, superficial music at the expense of other, potentially deeper experiences.
Not a music-snob thing on my part, it goes without saying...but art of any kind can ennoble and educate those who engage with it, directly in terms of the depth of our own capacity to experience the art-form itself, and more profoundly (albeit relatedly) in relation to our moral and emotional character - and maybe it cuts both ways, such that if the art we expose ourselves to, the music we listen to, offers the simplest and most straightforward of emotional pay-offs, then through repeated exposure we ourselves lose some deeper sensitivity and capacity to experience. It sounds abstract, but feels real.
Despite those concerns, though, tonight I came in partway through the live performances of the top 10 girls, and I wasn't paying that much attention and then got a phone call mid-show and what I did see wasn't super-exciting anyway and so on - and then there was this girl called MK (Nobilette) singing, second from the end, and all of a sudden something was happening, basically from the first note she sang...she has something. This was a bit wow.
Having now watched/rewatched all of tonight's efforts on youtube, my other favourite performances from tonight are also 'M's - Majesty Rose and Malaya Watson (I'm a bit sceptical about any of these three winning, but for now at least I see that America / the world seems to share my liking of them - as of now, theirs are in fact the top 3 most watched on American Idol's official youtube channel) - and actually most of the others at least have something interesting about them...so what do you know - I guess I'm watching again in 2014.
