CASA - The Contemporary A Capella Society

I am so with you. I thought it was really, really sad that everyone was saying (and not being tactful about it either), "We were making fun of you until you opened your mouth". Wow, how shitty. And then she sang, and her voice is somewhat nice, apparently unexpected (because we believe that only 24 year old, camera-ready pretty people can sing??). So, mired in their severely lowered expectations, her voice was a revelation. A sensation is born. But we don't serve her or ourselves but making her a (soon to be forgotten) momentary star. Just like you said.

And I'd like to point out that having heard Ruthie Henshall or Patti Lupone in this role, Susan didn't stir up any new or remarkable ground. In many respects, the actual performance was quite flat. It's a shame what they're perpetuating in her ego now.

Very refreshing take... spoken like a true artist.

 Agreed, Kai. In doing a little research online, I found it quite informative that Paul Potts won the whole competition last year... but he only sang Nessun Dorma. Over and over again. Obviously a very carefully chosen strategic move by the producers, who would have let him out of his cage to sing something else if they thought he could.

I'll bet the situation is the same here: rather than letting the world see that the emperor has no clothes, they'll leave her in the same suit...

 I agree completely with you Deke, both concerning Susan and the general population.

Susan just didn't impress me.  When I told my mom (who sent me the link) that I wasn't particularly amazed at the performance and that her vibrato sounded a bit forced, she got upset with me!  Applauding audiences are very convincing, apparently.  The song lends itself to be moving, but I've seen it done many times before, and better.

Likewise, I wish there were more singing in the general public.  It should be more appealing to people.  You have no idea how many people say they "don't sing" because they "can't" and actually have great voices!  Why does that happen??  We need some sort of genius scheme to tap this undiscovered talent...

...I think you meant "salivating."  But I'm in complete agreement with your main point; this show raises the expectations of the poor contestants in the early weeks only to shoot them down.

The 7-minute YouTube clip is a masterfully crafted piece of editing, and I am convinced that Simon knew she had a good voice before this performance took place.  I'm willing to guess the other two hadn't, in order to make their reactions more genuine for the camera.

I still enjoyed the clip, and Simon & Company is going to rake it in, which is of course the whole point of the program.

3a. Everybody judges, everybody asssumes. Thus when we look at the world, we already have a set expectation of certain things. You do it, I do it, almost everybody does it. Its a little like tennis, why is it that sometimes when we see the ball bounce, then in an instant review (lets like during a challenge) it turns out the the ball ended up not where we saw it? It's because in that instant, we are translating and calculating where we expect the ball to end up.

so I may get a -5 for having expectations of a person, but so does every body else in life. This ties in to 3b. Yes the media hardwires this into us, media tells us who should be attractive and who shouldn't. Thus we end up with a set of "good looking" people; All our main stream singers that we enjoy listening to all tend to be well kept (well groomed). This is why I guess we have that correlation. (Paul Potts really isn't that bad looking, which is why I didn't feel as emotionally attached as susan's. Its not just about appearance and their voice, its also about emotional appeal to the audience, stage presence, ect)

So then we end up at 3c. So we're not going to remember. Nobody remembers anything. If I stopped comming to casa.org, your name would just be another name that existed in my history. Same goes with a bunch of famous artists with maybe one hit wonders. so what if they they only cross our minds once? I don't feel like we should be taking negative qualities out of things, rather look at what good they do. I felt susan's clip was pretty moving. For her to gain confidence, knowing that others may judge her by her looks, and still go out there and sing, its tougher than many people think; maybe not for you, but there are hundreds of people who won't go out there to sing because they're too scared of what people think of them. Sometimes a clip like that can push people and give them some motivation to try and sing with the mindset, "if she can do it, so can I".

As much as I appreciate you bringing new light, and showing all the negative aspects of it, I feel like there are some positive aspects to the clip too. Ultimately, I too would love for singing to be universal and think everybody should be doing it if they want to.

Sometimes, I don't even watch the initial rounds of things like american idol, and i wait for like the top 8.

<3Kaje

PS. I tried just listening to her clip without the video, just listening, and yeah shes not amazing amazing, but then again, when you're doing a show, its not just about how well you sing, it's also stage performance, setting up expectations for the audience based on visual looks and stage presence. You should know, when you perform, I'm sure you'd dress appropriately. Just as for a job interview, one would dress up properly; because companys should get -5 points for forgetting that how one dresses does not directly correlate with the abilities one can do.

I feel like even though this spectacle is already fading from the publics eye (or at least the public I associate myself with) I'm happy I got your opinion before I forgot the incident completely, because I couldn't agree with you more. Any complaint which I might have had you've pretty much hit, and it looks like most everyone else here agrees with you. But at the end of the day, even if it was clearly a setup, it's doing it's job - driving the ratings, right? ;) I'm glad there are people like you though Deke, spreading music and love throughout the world in an accessible way to all :)

I apologize if you find my many recent comments annoying, but your writing is so perfect, very well thought out and well stated, I feel compelled to keep reading your different entries.

Anyways, I didn't even watch the clip, it's just playing in a different window repeatedly while I read and typed this out, and I can only say I agree with you so much, it's not even funny. At first, I thought you might have been a little harsh, but as I think about it, shows like American Idol and BGT/AGT are what made me stop watching television, or even listening the radio. The scripted moments, the "telling me what I want to see/who I want to see/what I want to hear" things just, excuse my language, piss me off to no extent. And as you described what you thought of the singing, I couldn't help but find myself nodding in agreement...ditto again for this one.

I was wowed by that Mr. Deke. I had no idea, not watching much tv anymore, that they had even done such a show. It was great to see some girls from my hometown, BYU Noteworthy, representing with everyone else, the music. I hope this show picks up again, I will most definitely tune in.