What’s Wrong With American Idol? (and The Voice)

hey everybody I'm Rick Beato I'm Mike Palmisano from guitar gate I'm Brad Shaw so today's topic is going to be problem with American Idol okay so American Idol has been around since the early 2000s I don't know what we're on season what 26 hours forty high I can't keep track so I have a personal story about a really close friend of mine that was on American Idol in 2008 his name's Michael John's he was from Australia but he actually lived here in Atlanta his his real name was Mike Lee Michael Lee and he passed away in 2014 from a blood clot in his ankle when he was 35 and he finished in the he was a runner-up but finished eighth or something like that that year in 2008 the year that the David Cook won and it was a real big shocker the that that he was voted out then because to me he was the best singer by far on there I thought David Cook was a great singer but Mike was not only a superb singer but he was an incredibly good writer and I happen to have done a record with him back in 2001 it's one of the first major label records I did and I co-wrote most of the songs with him and I remember I talked to him during the entire making of that season American Idol he would call me all the time and asked me what kinds of songs he would do of course you'd never listen to me but one of the one of the things worth was that there were a lot of restrictions on the songs that they do is a lot of artists at the time wouldn't allow their songs to be used there was a there's a real stigma and in the early part of American Idol that the famous artist didn't want the certain artists would never let their their songs be played on there which is kind of strange because it's kind of like the kind of like the YouTube kind of like the use and he was trying to get songs cleared and then he would get pushback from people like Simon where Simon thought that he should be an R&B singer I mean I guess I can say this I mean this is things that might told me and he he thought that he should have been an R&B singer and might want to be a rock singer and Simon was probably right actually in retrospect on it you know dissing but what happened with rock had Mike done that well we don't know what would have happened but I think that that Mike not listening to Simon was one of the reasons that he got booted off the show because I don't think that this stuff is real it's my own personal opinion but I think that they there's a lot of this things in these shows the voice is the same thing I think a lot of it's manufactured I could be totally wrong but that's just the feeling that I get this is not any way to you know put down any of the contestants that have ever been on these shows because you can't argue with the fact that there are and have been some incredibly talented vocalists that have gained recognition and notoriety from some some singers that I love like like Carrie Underwood and yeah and and Kelly Clarkson I think is an amazingly great right this is this is in no way a dig on any of the contestants or anything like that this is I think more a commentary on the overall issue that we see with shows like this and from my perspective as someone who kind of grew up and came into music while these shows were popular in the early to mid 2000s and even through today what I see is a generation of people who are my age and a little older and younger that have you know there were not musicians that are just casual music consumers that see American Idol and the voice and America's Got Talent as the pinnacle of musical and artistic success and I've seen this personally a lot with a really good friend of mine who I've played with for years and you know you read what the comments of a lot of his social media posts for years where he'll it'll be a video of him singing or performing something in most of the responses or something along the lines of oh my god you should go on The Voice oh you should go on America's Got Talent it's not a commentary on his songwriting it's not a commentary on his artistry or his ability to express himself it is oh you are good therefore you should go and do this and to pick up on the the reality TV aspect of it most there's very little reality in reality television I mean I think we did it seen it now long enough to know that it's mostly produced and it's mostly engineered and while I think obviously the performances are real the vocalists are real beyond that there's a lot of manufactured drama there's a lot of manufactured storytelling because I think the biggest problem with these shows is they're not actually about finding America or or anywhere in the world's next great vocalist they're actually about ratings and selling ad space and I think that they they also make a point to not just have the best of the best on there you got to have great and you have to have not-so-great to to keep people watching and people doing it and so you can it's very clear that you know for whatever long that show is on that they have to dedicate say one third of it for people to say oh no that person is no good you know that person shouldn't be doing it there's no shot that person should do it and I just think that that is I don't know low of them but at the same time I will say that there's some really strong people on there like I up in Baltimore and around town we had a friend of ours called Adam Wakefield and he finished runner-up on The Voice a few years ago I don't know but we all knew for a long time that this dude was fantastic and something great what happened and then when he finally got on the voice everybody was so excited because finally every but he was seeing what we had seen and heard for so long and so on that side I'm like yeah you know maybe this maybe people wouldn't know who he is if it wasn't for these shows I just don't I just don't always like how like the story some of these stories are like that's not the real story you know and it's like these people it's like you didn't pick this person because you thought they were gonna win right like this is this is TV but I think there's a the the recognition side of it is like a double-edged sword because yes being on something like the voice or American Idol well is a good way to get quick instant recognition until the next season comes around right right and then it's just they start over well I mean we did cast a case in point name mean five winners of American Idol for example Carrie Underwood Kelly Clarkson Kelly Clarkson Ruben Studdard did he win or was he a runner-up I think he won yeah how many can you guys know without googling it you know and again that is not a commentary on on these artists talent or ability but to pick up on that like another problem that I have is I feel like it's teaching a generation of people that if you aren't as strong a vocalist as what is being portrayed on these shows that your art and your voice and your talent is not worthy yeah Bob Dylan would never that's that's the perfect design it would have never made it within a million miles of the voice does that mean Bob Dylan wasn't worthy as or isn't worthy as well I can name 10 singers Tom Petty yeah bill young you know people that don't have that our character sizes are all of that that are some of my favorite singers Getty Lee what do you have one on the boys you know it Perry Farrell would yeah I mean we can think of I mean how many how many people can you feel they getting Eddie Lee when I had Charlie and bass with his feet Maynard from tool he would had trouble you know Chris Cornell though could the voice absolutely right yeah some Aretha Franklin would have mopped the floor with maybe maybe no she would have but but maybe they would add some drama thing where she is that reject it didn't win exactly even and that brings in the whole reality TV aspect of there's just teams of producers working behind the scenes of these shows just engineering drama and trying to get a storyline going it's not just about somebody's talent they have to have some kind of story that goes along with it because again these shows are not just singing competitions they are trying to drive ratings and trying to drive very content yes but one thing I also will say though is you'll see a lot of these artists show dramatic improvement over the course of was it ten weeks or 12 weeks however long the season is I've known more than one person that have been on American Idol probably three or four people on American Idol that have told me that they would have really bad headphone mixes IR in-ear mixes on particular performances that would radically affect their pitch that they'd have a really bad performance like a backing track half step loss what would I be whatever it might be and and now I don't know if that's true or not right that could obviously be human error obviously people that are are good to increase the drama having a bad performance right just think some of that is staged likely you know I think to an extent it has to be men but the ballet I know from from person alive again have more than one friend have been on one or more of these shows I don't want to go into too much detail and I've heard similar stories yeah and and you know the ones that I know that you know don't have bad performances so they don't say how to do outta tune they just go to they don't sing out of tune right there are some of the best musicians I know of and I've heard of now I will say to kind of flip this over and play devil's advocate because I think we can just drone on about how bad these shows are I think there are some good things that American Idol has done I think one thing is keeping news and musicianship and musical performance relevant yes popular culture sure and as much as it has maybe discouraged some people from pursuing their voice or their artistry I think it also has inspired a lot of people to want to be vocalists mostly or musicians or singer songwriters and I think that is a positive side okay and and another thing about it is the competitive aspect of it to me is actually important I'm not one of these people that everybody wins a medal I've just you know you you are judged in life based on your competency in things and and I think people that you know can perform it's just like a it's like a sport you know only as much as I don't like the New England Patriots I can't yeah I gotta say it Tom Brady's is amazing I mean what do you have to say yeah he's the best well there's no truth to that it's just like you know if you're if you go to the music score conservatory something like that there's something there's something to be said for being in the pressure cooker and being in the fire and being around people that you see that are great and you want to get better and you want yeah yeah gonna get better yeah you have to be able to perform under pressure that's a really really important thing and absolutely and that's a that I mean the kind of pressure that that these kids you know most time their kids are under is incredible I mean it really is cement its strength we don't see more train wrecks like in these big environments like these live shows no and that's what that's a testament to some some of the incredibly great singers truly amazing and also shout out to all of the live musicians that are playing and that is one thing I do like about their ways but specifically you know you've got some heavy hitting la sesión cats that are oh you need yeah they're playing that so there's racks down live which is fantastic you wish they would highlight them more and actually show weights not do they ever show no no if they do you kind of see a quick shot yeah they're they're like in a dark corner and you can see some dude reading but they're in that stuff yeah it's amazing it's amazing or you'll see a shot of then like rehearsing with the vocalist or some right right I think these shows you know I'm not advocating that we completely do away I don't think any of us are saying we should completely do away with American Idol I'm saying there's just some things that I think are overhyped overdramatized and they focus a little bit on on too much of the wrong thing I think if they did a better job of focusing on the musicianship and the artistry and the time and the effort that these people have put into honing in their talent and their craft right and not just always the sob story right and sometimes you know a lot of sometimes these people do have pretty and yes yes absolutely yeah I think it's kind of a disservice to call it a sob story but like that they are cut they've come from troubled backgrounds and difficult pasts and overcome those things and so I think you're right everyone loves an underdog story every everyone loves a sort of triumph I just think that the producers know that everyone loves those stories and so again from the stories I've heard of people that have actually been on those shows there's a really big effort behind the scenes to engineer and to perfect your story where it's like okay maybe there's one little kernel of what they're talking about it's true but they've taken this and blown it up into this overdramatized overhyped thing to where it's now not there nobody's these people are not voting on your abilities as a singer they're voting on your story yeah and what they've been told about who you are as a person and that just really rubs me the wrong way okay so the question is why have there not been more famous singers out of these that you know we've named a few of the ones I mean legitimately Carrie Underwood is the biggest singer that's ever come with with yeah with Kelly Clarkson with Kelly Clarkson being those are the two did all the other winners get a similar record deal as it is - and that's another thing that I've heard again I don't have specific experience with this but I've heard that the contracts oh the contracts are ridiculous you have to sign what kind of ridiculous what do we think well they take 50% of everything they are in I think for 3 years something like that yeah it's and again I think part of the ways that I'm not positive of that but I think that's what was he lawyers that knows stuff firing the comments anybody is if anybody has been an American Idol they when I add to this they're like I said this is we don't know this for a fact but this is what I've heard and I you know Kelly Clarkson for example I don't know if you guys remember she had this big to do with with Clive Davis he was unhappy with one of her records I think it was her third record that she wanted to be involved in the songwriting but I I'm what I imagine happened because she had to take on a management company so so the the company 19 I guess they they have a pretty onerous contract that you have to sign you get on there and they're you know in their defense okay we're gonna put you in front of 35 million people a week yeah so you're gonna sign this contract that for three years we get fifty percent of everything you make and in exchange you know and they willingly behind these things for a platform okay then there's nothing wrong with that but Kelly Clarkson would come out and then she I imagine got a manager and any manager of a big artist gets 20 percent so if you take 50 percent of your earnings then you have a manage that takes 20 percent yeah if you're not cutting in on the songwriting which is where you make all the money what are you making your money on only Tori yeah yeah and then you gotta and these things have very high production costs so the touring doesn't pay that much at the time especially with a new artist at that so she wanted to write songs this is what I'm thinking I don't know this for a fact but I'm sure she wanted to have songs that were singles that she wrote because she was going to actually make some money make some money that had to have imagined that though this is just speculation but yeah I mean I just think that and and that whole thing got aired out in the media there with her and Clive Davis that was that's how we know about I mean they talk you know he was unhappy with the song she came with and and he you know I don't I don't remember all the details with it but yeah pretty ugly I think it's just it's promoting a distorted view of actual musicianship an actual artistry again from people who are just normal everyday you know they they're they like music they have their bands but they're not musicians they're probably not subscribers to any of our channels or anything like that to them that is all they see as musical success and it's all they're being told that musical success is or successful career stems from and so I just think it's really distorting the cultural view of musicality I have a question what is the best to you guys the best format for choosing which which show has the best format for actually deciding and who should be part of the the voice the voice definitely because why well the one thing about the voice is that they can't see the people singing it first you know so it's so it's purely audio you know it's in what does it sound like the other thing that I in particular liked about the voice is that when they get to a certain round the other judges can steal the people back you know so it's not so it's not a one-and-done you know you might have you might have bombed one or something like that you get another choice and you get the opportunity to work with someone completely and entirely different but yeah the backing band all the voices just the voice has the better band for sure there's a great band yeah yeah yeah but again getting back to this whole sort of reality TV thing we don't remember any of or many of the the winners or runners-up of these shows but who do we all know the most about it's the judges on these shows yeah that's just another big part of what these shows are kind of designed to do is promote Simon Cowell his career for Blake Shelton but ever but how many of these artists are doing the due diligence on their part when they have all this attention and they have their moment together that's it but I don't think that they you know an American Idol the artists are sequestered there you know they can't it's not like they can go out and put out record while they're on the show they have all these rules that they're that they're bound by when they when they sign their contract and I think a lot of them just don't have the experience right that right you know and frankly people that I know that had experience that were on the shows that were bad decision makers anyways it always made really dumb business I know right well look this is this actually kind of comes back to this video I just did about the about the computers and and music and and really what I should have said it was it was the producers of the of the records that were making decisions yeah about using for example this beat detective and fixing everything the artist could sign the A&R guys for the most part forced them to pick between a couple producers usually with the A&R guy having a particular person in mind that there's a and there's a lot of glad-handing that used to go on when there used to be big budgets back to you even ten years ago five years ago even where they'll they would hire the same people over and over and there'd be an assembly line and a lot of times these producers would be they would track the drums do pre-production track the drums and then it would go into assembly line and these guys unbeknownst to the bands would be working on other projects and they would have multiple projects going on at different studios and and the bands didn't know this and they would be thrown into a thing like okay today's gonna be guitars guitar left and one guy is planning its are parts and then it goes into some room where there's some dude or woman that's that is using a you know sitting there lining up everything on the grid and that's just and the bands really didn't know it in their defense they had no idea and they were gonna complain about it anyways they were they were happy to have the record device yeah it's it's sad it's kind of its same thing with American Idol that they don't they're not prepared for this kind of success and you know although although it is surprising to me that more people haven't become famous well from that and it may be because of this and I think too especially with the younger contestants you know people that are in their late teens through the early 20s this is just my opinion I could be totally wrong but from what I see I think you're doing those people a pretty big disservice by plucking them up in their most formative years as a vocalist or an artist and putting them on the international stage and telling someone at 18 years old congratulations you've made it as if they've peaked in their development as an artist and they've they've made it as as far as they can I just think there's so many people out there so many artists and singer songwriters and people that I love that are just finding success in their late 20s to early to mid 30s you know there's so many people that I could name off that had they been picked up at 18 19 years old I wouldn't have made it past the judges on American Idol but now are incredible because they've had 15 years to become seasoned and play gigs and tour and make records and screw up and fail and learn and hone in their craft and get better I think it kind of is doing a disservice to some people whether they realize it or not they probably don't but yeah yeah I I I feel that that the I just think that the that the kids are not prepared I agree with that that they're not prepared to be thrown into this and it's it's a lot to ask of a young person to I mean the enormous pressure to be on one of these shows that is you know for that time period these people are on top of the world yeah and many of them will never ever not many of them almost nearly all of them we'll never have an experience like that again yeah and I'd be curious to see how many people if we went back to the beginning of of these shows how many people are still even in music right yeah wonder how many of them actually look back and have a positive outlook on it I mean I think I think it's probably mostly positive I would think you know I think the people they I mean not just the exposure but I just I think if you have the certain mindset going into it this is a learning experience you know not that this is the end-all of what I can achieve in music but if you look at it to say man I got a shot to really accelerate not just my career but how I am as a musician you know and really you know get that boost and if you look at it that way and you know it's gonna be over and you know what's gonna end you know I think the ones that really you know have that mindset and view it that way get tremendous benefit my friend Michael Johns who's no longer with us he what he got in on American Idol I think it was the last year what was the age range at the time 29 was that it or 28 I think so I think he did it when he was 28 and he had already gone through a major label record deal although I don't think that they talked about that in the show I think that was that was the record that we did never got released that was one of the things and and one of the stipulations were they you couldn't have been signed before really yeah and I think that they don't call amateur I think that they made an exception because his because because he didn't release because it was not released yeah and to him at the time I think he thought felt that this was his only chance to do this and you know he had he lived for another I don't know seven years or so after that and it was really a freak accident he died he had a blood clot in his ankle that he got from playing tennis and he went to the hospital and and he went back home after and he says like was killing him and and he they found him the next day was going on it's crazy man just it was uh he was the just incredibly great guy great really really dear friend of mine that I worked on a lot of music with I produced another band of his before he got his deal and then we wrote a lot of songs together we were really good friends and that was crushing absolutely crushing but he there was a community of people from that year that toured around and he was able to go out and make a good living after that because he had been on American Idol now would that have carried over to today probably not you know depending on what would have had they do like a one-year tour I got show for the finalists yeah and he said that was really fun that they had a great time doing that yeah I just can't I can't imagine that you wouldn't come out on the other side just immeasurably better as a musician and more confident cuz you've just been literally just put through the fire I think that would depend on the person I think it would completely depend on the person in their experience level and what they were expecting out of the show Jose if you were expecting to go in there and this was your shot and you've made it and you can get famous and that's you're getting famous and then you didn't make it past you know whatever the third round I don't know that that person would come out extremely benefiting from a situation like that but it's like you said if you go into a eyes wide open you're like yep which i think is a maturity thing right if you know what to expect like okay you know this could be really good or this could be you know just a couple weeks and then I'm back home doing what I'm doing then I think that puts you in a much better position after the fact but yeah man I just think I don't know what this is doing for the future the future of singers I think that the main benefit of this is that there are millions of people watching music and watching live music yeah that's that's inlay by musicians an incredibly positive thing not only the people on stage but the people in the in the pit orchestra that you never see right so yeah shout out to the real heroes totally true not that I didn't enjoy people like Simon and and his his demeanor I you know without someone like that I think that the shows don't work either actually heard Simon's pretty nice guy yeah I heard actually that my friend Mike don't use an incredibly great guy yeah I don't mean to hurt your I heard that you're really good guys yeah sorry about that well that's all for now subscribe to Michael's channel guitar gay on YouTube he's in town visiting and we hung out a kit con dad great together had a great time rat subscribe to his channel you all know him he's he's an old time around here thank you so much for watching subscribe here to buy

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 282,362

Rating: 4.8965735 out of 5

Keywords: Rick Beato, Everything Music, Rick, Beato, american idol, ryan seacrest, katy perry, got talent, the voice, lionel richie, luke bryan, simon cowell, american idol 2019, The Voice, Adam Levine, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, Howie Mandel, Mel B, american idol successful singers, american idol successful losers, the voice 2019, the voice thomas rhett, america's got talent champions, america's got talent 2019, american idol auditions

Id: 9BqIO8vO_MM

Length: 29min 53sec (1793 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2019