Friday, May 10, 2013

IDOL SHOCK! Kenny Poo's (gasp) wrong, Angie eliminated


Wow, I sure didn't see that one coming. To be fair to myself, though, who the hell did?

OK, there was one person...congrats to Kenny Poo twitter follower on being the ONLY one I know of who did predict Angie would get the boot (OK, more of a tweet wondering out loud than a true prediction, but being such a generous Poo I'll give it to her).

Anyway, back to me, because isn't the public's reaction to me being wrong what Angie's elimination is really all about? Of course it is.

Look, I could just defensively spew out a bunch of lame excuses and justifications for my erroneous prediction, but the fact is I'm a standup Poo, and as such will admit the cold, hard truth: I, Kenny Poo, of twisted mind and large, middle-aged beer belly, hereby concede that I was absolutely...gulp...WRONG!!

Yes America, last Friday, I went on the record declaring Angela Miller the preordained victor of American Idol's Season 12. I just could not imagine a scenario in which America would vote Hannah Montana meets Snow White off the Island. In fact, I've been actively discussing on twitter and at work who would be Angie's most likely runner-up for weeks now.

So, that begs the question of WTF happened? To answer that, please allow me to place my shiny, tinfoil hat securely on my Poo head and explain my latest, newest conspiracy theory.


OK, so I believe Jimmy Iovine felt from the very beginning that Angie was a pageant bot who wouldn't translate easily into Top 40 radio. She might make a great Miss America, but that doesn't mean she'd sell well in a genre that's not the right fit..

However, what he does see in Angie is a potential superstar in the fast growing Christian Contemporary market, bigger even than Season 11's Colton Dixon, who has charted singles and sold over 110k albums to date. Interscope Records (Jimmy's label) is not the ideal home for a Christian Contemporary artist, even one with potential to cross over to mainstream pop like Angie.

The best fit for Angie is Sparrow Records, the UMG (Interscope's parent company) owned Christian music label which signed Dixon last year. There, Angie would fit in like a glove with her worship-driven, singer/songwriter music, and even add some PG pop songs, as well.

So, the plan was to compliment the hell out of Angie when she performed inspirational songs on the piano, and give her tough criticism about not seeming believable if/when she strayed too far from that path. Much as I loathe any scripted feedback from judges, I do happen to think this was beneficial engineering on the show's part, and only helped Angie in the long run. She needed that direction, as left to her own devices she'd likely have gotten spread out in too many different genres on the show. Idol is a platform where versatility can be both a blessing and a curse. Show none and you bore the audience, show too much and viewers will be confused as to the kind of music you'll make when you leave the show.

Perfect example is my girl Haley Reinhart. Perhaps the most diverse singer in the history of the show, she gave us R&B, country, pop, jazz, rock and blues performances during her run to 3rd place in Season 10. That said, post-Idol there were so many potential paths she could have taken it was hard to know what to expect. While I would have preferred a jazz/blues path for her [AND, YES, I STILL CAMPAIGN FOR IT INCESSANTLY AND WILL NOT STOP UNTIL IT HAPPENS, HALEY POO!!], there are other fans who'd prefer she go pop, rock, R&B or even dance.

Of course, I'm 100% right and they are totally wrong, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, with Angie now gone, Idol will have either an R&B/Soul winner (Candice), or a Country winner (Kree), either of which fit neatly into the Interscope lineup. They may accent with other genres (Candice: jazz, Kree: blues), but we all pretty much know what to expect. That clear "packaging" is something labels love, so if you allow me to use my 20/20 hindsight, I now see how this all went down, and what likely comes next.

At least, that's what I say. What say you?

Kenny Poo out.

3 comments:

  1. Agree with you on Angie, but disagree on Haley. I definately want her to go dance/pop. Her song Hypnotic is my fav!! :>

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    1. NOOO!! Haley is way too talented for dance music. Leave that to the Ke$ha's who can't sing. Why waste that voice on autotune? I agree with Poo, jazz all the way. It's where all that beautiful voice belongs!!

      As far as Angie, I def can see her as a Christian pop artist. I saw she's releasing her oriningal song "You Set Me Free" to iTunes, so no doubt that's the direction she is going.

      ~Tammy (:

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    2. Uggghh...sorry, but just the thought of auto-tuning Haley into a techno queen makes my skin crawl.

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