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A star in the making?
07/07/2003 12:20 - (SA)
Jon Savage
Cape Town - Correct me if I'm wrong but the show is still of the technical standard that I mentioned in my last article, it's kind of falling into a bit of rut.
Not that anyone's to blame except for Gareth Cliff obviously, but I just think that it's the kind of bureaucratic "process" part of the show. It's what we need to get through to get to the exciting bit.
I'm still pretty impressed with the presenters, and Gareth Cliff is still definitely the Tom Green of the show (extremely irritating) but I think I'm kind of thinking to myself "get on with it"!
Another thing which is good, is that they are really choosing the most entertaining people for the show, so it's a really good laugh, but maybe not enough of the talent.
When they show who got through to the next round at the end of the show, you have to ask yourself, "who are those people?"
Idols is a funny animal. I've heard loads of interviews with celebrity pop stars like George Michael and Eminem bitching about how it's bad for the pop business.
How, musicians have been working their behinds off for years and years and finally write the super pop song of their entire careers only to be knocked off the top spots by whoever wins these pop idol-type competitions.
Basically it's a sure winner: it doesn't matter how good or bad the winner is, how good or bad the song that they finally sing is, the public have kind of hand-crafted their own idol and at least two of their follow-up singles are going to debut at number one on the charts.
So you can see, it's not fair if you're in the biz and trying to get to number one legitimately.
I agree with that to some extent. It's all true but hey, its all to do with entertainment. If you are the average Joe Shmo, who listens to Britney Spears, you probably don't give a damn about the politics.
On the same hand, South Africa is the exception to the rule. Yes, we have a few good bands getting on to the top 40 here and there, but we do NOT have a real celebrity idol with possible export potential.
I want people to be excited about an artist in this country, to really, really get behind them! To push them overseas and have them make it there too.
In the 70's, South Africa had a band called Rabbitt (with the now extremely world famous Trevor Rabin from Yes) and what was great about this band is that girls used to scream when they came on the stage.
They were a band of pretty boys - essentially a "boy band" - rocking venues in style. They were really stars! Girls wanted them and guys wanted to be them.
That's what we need again in South Africa. And hopefully that's what Idols will produce successfully this year that just didn't quite work last year.
Any thoughts?
Jon Savage is the co-owner of Kryptonite Productions. To find out more visit KryptoSite.
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