Wednesday, May 16, 2007

You Have a Job? - Americans Prove to the World They are the Dumbest

Okay, I admit it: I watch American Idol. I appreciate good singing. Although they don't always show the best singers at the beginning, they always have the better singers making it to the finals. Last year I picked Paris and Hicks as the finalists right from the beginning. Although Paris showed some personality problems later on and showed that she had some broadening of her talent to do, Hicks proved through that he had the talent and a unique voice and brought the prize home.

I hate what the producer did to Taylor and his voice on his first album. The tone and phrasing on it, for every single song, was just plain wrong. Instead of allowing Taylor to sing the songs as they should be, with the full emotion that Hicks can convey with his voice, the producer, apparently, felt it necessary to prove that he [the producer] knew almost nothing about music except where all the knobs, dials, and slides were located. Of course, that's my beef and not pertinent to why America is the dumbest country on the planet.

This year America proved to the world that, collectively, they couldn't think themselves out a the proverbial wet paper sack.

Melinda Dolittle, the most talented singer American Idol has ever had on its stage was voted out by the same people who actually think Britney Spears has talent. These are the same people that think Rolling Stone magazine and MTV still know music. The same people, in fact, that can't seem to rise to the challenge of voting in political elections. 60 million votes cast is more than in any political election for president that I can think of. I'm not going to delve into the records - I might be wrong.

The whole point of the show is to award the best singer of the competition a singing contract. America hasn't got a single clue what music is let alone be able to judge a singing competition. To oust Dolittle is like saying, "Um...Aretha Franklin wasn't any good either."

Jordin, while good, does still have some vocal stretching to accomplish before she's as good as Melinda. In 2 to 5 years she will likely be where Melinda is now, so let's wait for that to happen before giving her a contract. Blake, while an interesting talent, has a single octave to his range and can't emote to save his life while singing. At best he is a novelty act and is definitely not unique enough to warrant a full contract.

Why am I so adamant about this? It's another notch on the dumb-o-meter for America as a whole. We can't do Math - tick. America's engineers aren't good enough so workers from other countries must be hired - tick. America's collective ignorance of geography leaves much to be desired - tick. Most Americans don't know the difference between Monet and Manet - tick. The books we cleave to most wholeheartedly are formulaic and most wouldn't know how to determine if that was so - tick. Americans don't actually vote in elections because they feel that the vote will not count - tick. Americans that go to college would rather party and get easy grades than actually learn anything - tick. Americans don't really believe anything a politician says, but will believe anything from the party office to which they belong - tick. Americans, as a whole, don't know what a war is - tick. Americans wouldn't know real talent if it walked up to them and hit them, hard, between the eyes because almost none of them have any that they can lay claim to - tick.

It's bad enough that our President is a dumbass, but the voting that occurred on this years' installment of American Idol proves to the world that we are a nation of dumbasses, so it is only fitting that we be led by one.

It is highly unlikely that I will watch any further episodes of American Idol. It makes Americans look too stupid.