Wednesday night’s show was a little rough around the edges. They re-introduced the duets and group performances which can go away as far as I’m concerned. It’s a bit awkward to see them sing in groups again in such a cutthroat competition. We saw Burnell and Devin throw Lazaro under the bus as the reason for their terrible Four Tops cover. And even a halfway decent Madonna Like A Prayer cover by Janelle and Kree (Summer) was littered with Nicki comments about how badly Kree outperformed Janelle. They just need to do away with them. It’s a solo competition. This isn’t X-Factor.
Colton the Muskrat performed and it sounded nice, but I can’t take him seriously with the shaved and spiky mullet. How can anyone?
One Republic performed with Katharine McPhee as well. I got a lot of heat for ranking McPhee so highly on my top American Idol contests of all-time list. Some of that heat came from the guy who runs this very website. See if you can find him.
Keith Urban performed and he has that Huey Lewis thing going on. When he speaks, he has a slight accent. But when he sings, I hear no slight accent.
Who were in the bottom three?
The three guys who screwed up the Four Tops – Devin, Burnell, and Lazaro. All the girls made it and all the guys are in the bottom three. That’s some American Idol justice right there (even I’m sure the voting didn’t necessarily play out that way – they just did it for the drama). I now fear for Devin and Burnell’s lives.
Who went home?
It wasn’t Lazaro. Devin Vasquez was the unlucky soul who had to pay the Lazaro tax. He performed a great version of Impossible and for a second, I thought they were going to save them, but they didn’t. I think they’re saving it for when one of the girls is unfairly placed in the bottom three.
Is Lazaro the new Sanjaya?
I think Nicki thinks he’s a newborn baby for some reason. (Thanks to YMCM Baby.)
I had a surreal experience this morning as I struggled to wake up with some strong coffee. I turned on the TV and switched the channel to nuvoTV, a channel devoted to modern Latino entertainment. I’m not Latino, but I’d rather watch re-runs of the old television show, Fame, than any of the morning news shows. This morning, the episode of Fame that aired was a concert they did highlighting the hits of 1983. Songs like “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “Sweet Dreams are Made of This”, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, “Take Me To Heart”, and “Electric Avenue” were performed in rapid succession, giving viewers a look at 1983. It was like the soundtrack of my youth was being badly covered right before my very eyes. Suddenly, I felt horribly old. The throbbing pain in my hip this morning doesn’t help matters.
The camera panned over the audience and I saw lots of adolescents in the crowd with feathered and winged hair. Up on the stage, actor Billy Hufsey wore a white Members Only jacket as he and actress Cynthia Gibb sang “We’ve Got Tonite”, a song originally made famous by Bob Seger in 1978 and turned into a duet by Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton. He was soon joined by the late Gene Anthony Ray and Debbie Allen, who sang a duet of Lionel Richie’s “You Are”, while Carlo Imperato and Valerie Landsburg singing “Never Gonna Let You Go”, by Sergio Mendez. Then there was the show stopper! Irene Cara, who starred in the film version of Fame and was on my favorite children’s show, The Electric Company back in the day, came on stage in a sequined jump suit to sing the theme to Flashdance. It was followed by a totally overwrought cover rendition of “Up Where We Belong” originally sung by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. Of course, Irene Cara sang the last song, the theme song for both the movie and television show, Fame. It was a very glitzy, high speed show. It was very… 1983.
Valerie Landsburg sings “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Love Is A Battlefield”…
I mainly watch old episodes of Fame for fun. When I was young, I paid attention to the storylines and characters. I looked up to them. Thirty years later, I think the show is very cheesy. It’s still entertaining, but in a different way. Now I like to watch it because I enjoy snarking on it. Sometimes the show is so snarkworthy that I post clips on a friend’s Facebook page, knowing that she gets it! Then it occurs to me that in 1983, thirty years ago meant 1953, which back then seemed positively ancient. Even today, it seems like 1983 is not as different as 2013 was. Is that just because I’m so old?
Where did all the years go? It seems like yesterday I was a ten year old kid who loved all the new music on the radio. Nowadays, I find out about new music on the Internet, mostly. Sometimes I hear it on television, too. I also find a lot of good music on YouTube, if you can believe that. In fact, last night I was watching an adorable pet video from YouTube and noticed that I liked the music in the background. Using Shazam, I found out the name of the song and the musicians who performed it, The Ipanemas, a Brazilian band that has been around for over forty years. I downloaded the album.
This inspired me to buy music!
Last night was not the first time I’ve found music in that way, either. A few months ago, I was watching a gymnastics montage someone made and I liked the background music. The video had a link to YouTube, so I downloaded the album. Later, I reviewed it on Epinions.com, realizing that the piece that had led me to download was pretty much the only music on the album that I really liked a lot.
And this inspired me to buy music, too…
It occurs to me that thirty years ago, finding music in this fashion would have been unthinkable. Back then, I found music on the radio and sometimes television. The music I heard was usually popular stuff, which explains why I enjoy so much cheesy music from the past. Today’s young people have a vast array of places to find good music. I can go to any number of sources to find music I like and my choices can be tailored. In 1983, no one was thinking about Internet radio sites like Spotify or Pandora.com.
In a way, I think it’s kind of sad that traditional radio has sort of gone out of style. When I was in college, I was a disc jockey for the campus radio station. It was a lot of fun and a great way to be part of the community. Likewise, when I was growing up, listening to local radio stations was a great way to connect to the local community. I still remember a lot of the disc jockeys I used to listen to back in the day… and I listened not just because of the music, but because I liked the radio personalities, too. Today, I would be hard-pressed to tell you who any of the local disc jockeys are in my community. I don’t listen to the radio anymore, so I’ve lost that connection. In fact, the only time I listen to local radio is when there’s a weather emergency and the power is out.
Maybe I should commit to listening to the radio again. I could take it a step further and pull out some blank cassettes so I can tape the music. On the other hand, even local disc jockeys have kind of gone the way of the dodo bird. Nowadays, everything is syndicated, just like on television. *Sigh*… this makes me wonder how we’ll be finding music in 2043.
Gone are the days of television promoted albums like Freedom Rock…
When I was coming along back in the 70s and 80s, I watched A LOT of TV. And I watched a lot, even though I had a hobby that took a lot of time in the afternoons. I was a veritable television fiend back in my early days and I’m sad to say, nothing’s changed in terms of my television viewing habits. In fact, I even tend to watch a lot of the same shows I watched thirty years ago if I can find them on the boob tube. Case in point, I still watch multiple episodes of The Brady Bunch every afternoon, unless something else, like a particularly compelling episode of Jerry Springer, has otherwise caught my attention.
One thing I have noticed, however, is that the era of compilation albums being promoted on TV is now apparently over. I’m sure that’s because nowadays, a lot of people, myself included, download individual songs instead of purchasing compact discs. In fact, it looks like a lot of people aren’t even bothering to buy music the way they used to. I notice a lot of my Facebook friends listen to Pandora or Spotify or any of the other Internet radio stations that are now available to everyone.
I can’t help it, though. I miss the ads for compilation albums. Fellow Pop Rock Nation writer and Facebook friend George Bounacos sometimes engages me in games of SongPop. He once marveled at my skill at that particular game. I have to admit, a large part of the reason I’m good at SongPop is because besides having very eclectic musical tastes, I learned an awful lot about music trivia by watching ads like the one for Freedom Rock.
Remember this ad? It used to air all the time, with its scrolling snippets of classic songs that were popular before I was born or when I was too young to care.
Freedom Rock was not the only ad that educated me about music. There were so many of them. I remember back in the late 1970s and early 80s, there would be ads for K-Tel records. I have heard that K-Tel compilations were of somewhat dubious quality. I wouldn’t know from personal experience because I never owned one. But I remember the ads…
I don’t remember this specific ad, but I do remember so many like it. Actually, as a fan of 70s music, I’d probably love to own the collection being advertised here. I love me some Starbuck, after all.
Some of the ads were hilarious. For instance, check out this commercial for a music collection directed to those who enjoy R&B and soul music.
I’ve been an adult for well over twenty years and I’ve never known any of my friends to get all dressed up and have a group date at someone else’s apartment where they slow danced to an album they got in the mail. However, I have to admit this commercial kills me, especially when the guy at the end says, “No, my brother! You’ve got to buy your own!” Some friend, huh?
If you preferred more Wonder bread style music, you could purchase Lost In Love.
Looks like the folks in this ad were more interested in sitting on the couch, drinking wine, necking, and listening to some of the love song classics of the late 1980s… Hey, that compilation even had Donny Osmond’s comeback single, “Sacred Emotion”. Haven’t heard that one in a long while. I remember how people made fun of Donny in the late 80s for trying to reclaim his music career. Bear in mind that I was a teenager back then!
For those who loved southern rock, there was Goin’ South. I would have liked this album, too…
I actually own a couple of albums that were once hawked on TV. I purchased a “highlights” version of Easy Rock in Columbia, South Carolina back when I was in graduate school. It’s actually a great CD. I would have liked to have bought the double disc set advertised here…
I used to listen to this all the time while writing and editing public health articles for the bureau of epidemiology where I worked at the time. It was great for concentrating.
I also own Pure Funk, another great TV compilation disc. But besides being a great mix of music, Pure Funk had a hilarious commercial that went with it!
Pure Funk was made by the same folks who brought us all three volumes of Pure Disco… also great fun!
I know these types of ads haven’t gone away completely. I’ve seen the infomercials for the Time-Life Singers and Songwriters collection, for instance.
This particular compilation has been hawked for at least twenty-three years. I remember when I was a freshman in college, someone who lived in my dorm had actually ordered the double disc set that was being sold back then. It must have done well, since they’ve expanded it. I would probably buy this if I weren’t already a compulsive music collection who downloads at the drop of a hat. I don’t know that I want to see a whole infomercial dedicated to it, though.
Freedom Rock is probably among my favorite of all the compilation album ads. Time marches on, though, and with the decline of albums we’ve seen the decline of other associated things. I remember when I bought my first copy of the soundtrack for Purple Rain, it was on vinyl… and I got a free poster with it! LPs also allowed for some impressive artwork. I remember when I first bought Michael Jackson’s Thriller, it had drawings MJ had done in the liner notes. CDs don’t lend themselves as well to that. And digital downloads pretty much eliminate art. Even the downloads I’ve had that came with digital booklets pretty much get ignored. When I was younger and bought a record, I’d listen to the music and pore over the innards… if they came with them.
I know I’m a Luddite. Oh well. George can take comfort in the fact that I don’t listen to newer music as much and don’t get exposed to it as much because the compilation ads have declined. That makes me less of a SongPop contender. And I can take comfort in the fact that Amazon sells a lot of those albums that used to not be available in stores!
Wednesday night’s show was a little rough around the edges. They re-introduced the duets and group performances which can go away as far as I’m concerned. It’s a bit awkward to see them sing in groups again in such a cutthroat competition. We saw Burnell and Devin throw Lazaro under the bus as the reason for their terrible Four Tops cover. And even a halfway decent Madonna Like A Prayer cover by Janelle and Kree (Summer) was littered with Nicki comments about how badly Kree outperformed Janelle. They just need to do away with them. It’s a solo competition. This isn’t X-Factor.