Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Beavers On Idol
Simon Says 'Clay... biggest-selling Idol artist ever': the Devil Gets Frostbite
by James Shepherd (2005/02/01)
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It has been reported that Simon Cowell said the following: "Clay Aiken has been and probably will be the biggest-selling Idol artist ever - and he didn't fit the mould. He just so happened to be what the public wanted."
For many Clay Aiken fans, this was the moment that "Hell froze over," and thus, the Devil getting frostbite must have been an event in Hell worth noting. Perhaps Mr. Cowell is not aware of the fact that quite a few Clay Aiken fans do not like Simon very much. They sometimes affectionately call him "Slimon," call him a bully and an idiot, and even refuse to watch American Idol any more because they can not stand the sight of him or want to listen to his voice.
Such animosity towards Simon Cowell by Aiken fans is understandable since Mr. Cowell turned against Clay during the AI2 competition with his patented insults and barbs, and even Clay's losing the competition is sometimes assigned to Cowell's manipulation. Ironically, very few Claymates are sad that Clay lost the title since he has been able to break from the 19 Management much earlier than if he had won. Also, his losing did not impair his pop star success, and Clay has become the "biggest-selling Idol artist," and although not necessarily "ever," but most certainly of the American Idol winners and contestants, Clay's sales are well in the lead in the US.
However, preceding Cowell's somewhat extraordinary comment about Clay Aiken above, he also said the following: "The public doesn't always want perfection. There's something else - it's the Barry Manilow syndrome, the Clay Aiken syndrome."
Mr. Cowell is assigning a syndrome to Clay Aiken and putting him in the company of Barry Manilow. It also seems that Simon believes these syndromes to be something less than perfect. Why are these two, Manilow and Aiken imperfect? Is it because the public likes these "syndromes?" Are we viewing the Simon Cowell syndrome, believing that the public is "the great unwashed?"
For years now, people like Simon Cowell, the captains of the music industry, have been giving the public those pop "stars" that they view as worthy of consumption - The Spice Girls, Britney Spears and the Simpson sisters: Jessica and Ashlee. All of them having pretty faces, ok voices, and singing mediocre songs; and these captains are still sending us these so-called pop stars. But when the public is given an opportunity to choose their own through such vehicles as the Idol programs, the public chooses the imperfect?
Apparently, having fantastic singing voices, as opposed to just ok ones, and singing great songs as opposed to mediocre ones, is less than perfection. Maybe if Manilow and Aiken were "prettier," this would bring them closer to perfection? What absolute rot this is, Simon Cowell!
Then we have it reported that Cowell said the following recently: "I would have been wrong, because the competition has turned him [i.e., Clay Aiken] into a star... I don't want 24 people who all look like what our perception of pop stars is. It should be the American musical dream, this show, where someone who wouldn't have been given a chance, like Clay, gets to do well."
This echoes Cowell's sentiment in his book, I Don't Mean to Be Rude But... wherein he said that Clay Aiken was the best thing to have ever happened to American Idol in the sense that someone like Clay who would have never made it in the music industry through the normal channels, got his chance and succeeded. In actual fact, Simon was quite kind to Clay in his book. Simon was very pleased to also find out that with the success that Clay had experienced, Clay still remained the same person that he had known during the AI2 competition. Apparently, Simon has seen success go to the heads of way too many recording artists.
About the only negative thing that Simon Cowell said about Clay in his book was that Clay was extraordinarily ambitious, and to an extent of which most of his fans were not aware. Maybe Simon is right about Clay here, but without strong ambition, it is difficult to succeed in any worthwhile endeavour, and without a doubt, Clay has definitely succeeded as a star. Even Simon has recently said as much, and much to the chagrin of a hot climate-loving Devil. If the Devil should be given his do, then perhaps Simon should be too, and besides, they are just so damned similar.
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