Music vs Singing Competitions

It's funny how things can come back up after a long time has passed. I haven't thought about this particular issue in a long time, and largely thought it well past its due date. But in nosing around the interweb, it seems to have made it's way around again. At least in certain circles.

Anyhoo, the original brouhaha all came about - a ways back now - when Sheryl Crow (a singer) made a comment about singing competition shows not being about music. And as you may well imagine, the fur flew all around the internet, with everyone saying (to sum in all up in a much politer way than the internet is known for): she just doesn't get it.

But of course, she did get it. And far better than everyone else at the time. Though, admittedly, she may not have articulated her position particularly well

 I will now supply that missing articulation.

So, almost all singing competition shows are, indeed, not about the music (I would say all singing competition shows are not about music, but I'm sure someone would pull up some obscure foreign show that actually is), and there are a lot of reasons as to why. But seeing as I don't want to type forever, I will mention only the top 5. (And at this time, I will take a  moment to make an extra-special note that none of this relates to the quality of one program or another - it is merely a demonstration of the lack of focus on music that these shows share in common.)

So, without further ado, the top 5 reasons:

1) And the winner is... Rain or shine, come hell or high water, there is always one winner and one winner only. Let's take two arbitrary seasons - call them season A and season B. Season A is a crop of all excellent singers, and the end of the competition will see one of them raised to the winner's circle. Season B has a crop of all middling singers, and the end of the competition will see one of them raised to the winner's circle. Comparing these two seasons, if the winner of season B had competed in season A, he would have come in dead last. And if any of the people in season A had competed in season B, he would easily have swept the competition. But despite this particular imbalance in quality levels from one season to the next, there is one winner from season A and one from season B, no matter what. And what's more, the winner of season A and the winner of season B are set on equal footing, since both of them won the same competition - technically. Musically, this is a poor choice. For the public, this is a poor choice. For the music and for the public interest, it would be best if everyone from season A won the competition, and no one from season B did. But for the sake of entertainment, it is far better if one person wins each season, and only one person. That's entertainment.

2) I can't stop, can't stop to read the music. Singing competition shows have been accused of being karaoke competitions. That's not quite true; they're a bit more than that. However, like karaoke, they don't test if a person can read music. They don't test if a person can write songs. And they don't even test whether a person has a good feel for choosing a new hit song. The shows technically could test whether a person has a good feel for which existing song it would be good for them to sing on camera, but in practice, the contestants can easily get a lot of advice about that. So, the only thing that the singing competitions test is the ability to sing existing songs to canned music.

3) Love me some power ballads. In a singing competition, the contestants are being voted on by the public, and you've got all of three minutes to leave a lasting enough impression on them to get them to vote for you. The public at large are not necessarily well-versed in the technicalities of music, and the audience won't necessarily have a wide experience in music of different genres or eras. Put all that together, and that spells love songs and power ballads. Popular, crowd-pleasing songs that allow you do leave an instant impression. Thus, singing competition shows don't examine the range of expression that a particular person might be able to achieve, nor does it examine their ability to draw out subtler emotions or deeper expressions of unpopular emotions. Singing competitions are all about being endearing and powerful. Crowd-pleasing, in other words.

4) Ready for my close up. Singing competition shows are TV. And they are TV that zooms in close with the camera. That means, the people must be close-up ready. They don't have to be pretty, but they can't be "ugly". The beginning parts of the competition automatically outcast anyone ugly. Sometimes quite rudely so. And then, not only must they not be ugly, they must - absolutely must - be charismatic. It doesn't matter how well a person sings - if they are an inanimate rock during a close-up, or if they give off a dull vibe of some kind, they will leave a bad impression. And since they are being voted upon, leaving a bad impression is as good as asking for a downvote. So, how you look and how charismatic you are before the camera are of highest importance. And then, below that in importance, comes how well you can sing.

5) Band on the stage. Singers often sing with a band. And since a band is made of people, a song can end up being played quite differently from one concert to another. Only natural; people aren't machines. A singer thus may need to adapt through the coarse of a concert to the fluctuations in the music from the other band members. But singing competitions get nowhere close to this aspect of music. Singing competitions are performed with canned instruments that always play their songs in the same way, every time. Thus, singing competitions don't test if the singer has a good feel for music. A person can easily memorize the tempo of a canned song and sing it the same way without ever feeling the music behind it. Take them away from the canning, however, and they immediately lose their rhythm. Which is rote memorization, not the feel of music.

If it was about the music, the competition would be a blind one. No knowledge of the contestants' pasts (that's the #6 reason, by the way), no seeing the contestants, no pre-judging. Just the songs. Plus, extra points if they had to sing unique, untested music.

So, now, put it all together. That's a charismatic individual ready for their close-up who knows how to please the crowd and who is singing to canned recordings of popular songs. Okay, that's not about the music.Ipso facto. Instead, they are about showmanship. Entertainment.

Singing competitions may not prove that someone is ready for a band, as the gifted recording deals for the winner seem to imply, but they do prove that someone is ready for Vegas!

Well, if it weren't for that 1 winner, season A/season B issue. But, it's close enough.