American Idol, and no, I'm not referring to actual idol worship

but rather the show. Just something that's been on my mind lately that I thought I would post on here.

A month or so ago, when "suspected" gay man Adam Lambert sang "Mad World," I was hugely impressed. (I call him "suspected" because he has never in fact come out of the closet publicly, but then again hardly needs to if your "gaydar" is in working order. Anyway...) I downloaded the song of iTunes (the first time I've ever done that with an American Idol tune). I think it's a fantastic performance, and I really enjoyed some of his other stuff, especially a Jeff Buckley-inspired cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire."

But as the finale grew closer, I began to prefer Kris Allen. I realized that he had a cooler vibe, was more musical and less theatrical, and while his voice couldn't do all the amazing tricks that Adam Lambert's voice could, I preferred it because it was more soulful. I drew the analogy between Celine Dion and Stevie Nicks: Celine might be able to do a million more technical tricks with her voice, but I'd rather listen to Stevie sing "Gold Dust Woman" or "Rhiannon." I mean, I've also always liked The Smiths, and Morrissey has a vocal range of about five notes. Kris is a great singer, so is Adam, but I liked Kris better for the whole experience.

So then this is what starts to show up in media coverage: "Adam will win unless homophobia kicks in." "Conservative voters will vote for Kris, because he's safe." "If Adam wins, it's a triumph for gay people." "If Adam loses, it shows how hopelessly bigoted our country is."

Notice that it's no longer a singing contest. It's a referendum on gayness.

Then, Kris Allen won, and the story became about conspiracies and about rigged voting, etc. How winning is a curse. And of course, it just confirmed what a hateful nation we are, how deeply homophobic, yada yada yada.

It all reminded me a bit of the election last year, where a vote for McCain was a vote for racism or something. You couldn't actually prefer his policies to Obama's. You must have been voting out of some well of hatred for blacks.

So, anyway, I downloaded Kris Allen's cover of "Heartless" today, which is pretty damned good. Awesome, really. I think I'll put it on a mixed CD with Adam Lambert's "Mad World."

But don't blame me, I didn't vote. That's for tweenage girls.

to admit it but I do watch American Idol I would watch it with my one daughter. I've like Kris from day one and he was the one I wanted to win. I just preferred not only his singing but his humility to Adam's. Adam was too over the top for me and what bothered me about his Mad World song wasn't it wasn't really original. Gary Jules did it and it was used in the soundtrack for Donnie Darko. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4

Honestly Joe, I've been waiting for the "gay bomb" to drop. That the reason he didn't win was because he was gay and I was so hoping it wouldn't come into to play. If that were the case, he wouldn't have made it as far as he did.

but I'm terribly surprised. Identity politics makes it much easier to deal with losing, I suppose: it's not my sining, it's that I'm gay! Because there are hardly ANY openly gay people in entertainment

It's some of his fans in the media who are using it as the basis for soapbox hectoring.

His sexual preference is just not that interesting to me. As a vocalist myself, I am in utter awe of his voice. I REALLY liked the Mad World thing, and the Ring of Fire was cool, too. I do prefer Stevie to Celine, but Kris sounds so much like so many people who are already making music today. I think if he's really smart, he'll make a country CD.

He says he wants to make a record in the Lady Gaga/Madonna vein.

I did love the way he just confused Randy Travis. I agree, he's got an amazing voice. It was a great final two, and I loved Allison too.

I find it hard to picture an Adam Lambert CD. I know a lot of people involved in theatre, and they tend to be very good at being other people, but not so great at having clear identities of their own. Huge, wide paintbrush stroke there, of course.

He seemed a bit hair-metallic to me at times, too. I'm just not totally sure there's a market for that these days. Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson and the like sell trillions of records, so I see where Kris could fit in.

Not for Adam. If Adam made a country album, I'd have to hunt him down and whack him upside the head! Point well taken on Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews. I could definitely see that for Kris.

Lady Gaga - she just finally waltzed into my personal universe when I saw her on American Idol. I REALLY like her! I don't really like my girls listening to her, but she's cool! I also think Amy Winehouse is a total trainwreck, but I really like her music.

Adam will make the kind of CD that I"ll have to listen to 4 or 5 times before I "get" it, but then I'll play it all the time.

The biggest disappointment for me American Idol-wise was David Cook. He had one catchy tune on this debut (Light On) but the rest of CD is kinda so-so. Unfortunate, because I think he's very talented. I really liked the song he did on the AI finale.

I identify with what you're saying about the Celine vs Stevie difference. However, I actually enjoyed Cristy McVie's lead vocal songs the most of all with Fleetwood Mac

I watch Idol occasionally and feel that many of the contestants have less singing talent than a half dozen or so "high school" contemporaries of mine that sang in High School Chorus/Musicals. Alot of it has to do with "looks" and the most obvious examples of all are the Country & Western singers who can carry a tune and not much else. Don't get me wrong, there are some very talented C&W stars.

Patsy Cline, Leanne Rimes and Linda Ronstadt for sure IMO.

Joe, are you a fan of the "Office". Gaydar is from one of my favorite episodes, "Gay witch hunt".

I see most of us can distinguish between an appreciation for vocalist but still liking the way somebody sings. I always thought that about Neil Young.

Maybe it is just getting old but, I have a hard time keeping bands after the mid-90's straight. My son will ask me, when a song is on the radio, "Dad, do you know who this is?" I'll respond, "Maroon 182, or Five for the foo fighters." He considers the Goo Goo Dolls to be older music.

Women singers I like, Allison Krause, Linda Ranstadt, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Rait, Norah Jones.

That was great.

Cradle and I knew a guy in grad school who would try to distance himself a bit from the students (which you do when you're young enough not to have natural distance) by purposely messing up the names of music groups and artists. He always referred to Eminem as Reeses Pieces.