Idol Watch: The Pro and the Underpuppy

james. again...i'm ripping off your comments section for shameless self-promotion (my own blog) but... have you read my blog? we are so on the same page. great minds, i guess (your analysis is much better written, of course.) underpuppydog is perfect for kris. and i think kris NEEDED to win american idol. adam didn't. kris needs the guidance, the recording contract, adam doesn't. and the QUEEN song? you nailed it. they were all pushing lambert all along.

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I think you make an astute observation pointing out that the Kris Allen story may have felt more like a story arc to many voters. I think that a lot of the Adam Lambert disadvantage came from people who initially identified with an eyeliner-wearing freaky guy being on there, but who balked when Adam Lambert actually got kudos for doing a good job. So long as you don't object to the linkage action, I wrote a longer piece on this thought on the 18th: Do you hate to see people like you succeed — Why Adam Lambert might not win American Idol

So much truth to your piece, I am one of many Adam's international fan, truthfully most of us found ways to vote for Adam from our countries, I'm still puzzled about the votes!!! I do know everything in USA are normally politically or religiously motivated, shocker!!!The evangelistic/middle America wouldn't have tolerated a gay (???)man to be their American Idol. I read a lot of blogs/articles from USA questioning Adam's sexual orientation, seriously, doesn't merely amazing talent suffice? Adam's international fans are flabbergasted with the result but our unwavering support for him will be no less. I guess 'Change will come' sounded better as a song.

Excellent analysis, James! The one thing I'd add is: we don't know (and never will know) how many actual people chose to vote for Kris versus Adam. Since any one person can potentially vote thousands of times, a highly motivated base for one contestant can overcome even a fairly sizeable advantage in the number of fans for the other.
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That's not meant in any way to diminish what Kris accomplished -- I've made it known I'm a fan of both guys -- it's just I feel everyone should be careful about making any pronouncements of how America voted or deciding what America was or wasn't ready to accept, based solely on who was declared the winner last night. The comment boards I've seen have been about equally divided among people who were passionately pro-Adam, anti-Adam, pro-Kris and anti-Kris.
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Even if you go by raw number of votes, if Dialidol is correct then this was virtually a toss-up, so folks should avoid deciding there was any clear mandate of preference one way or the other.
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The lesson I wish people would take away from this is that two guys ostensibly from opposite ends of the culture spectrum managed to start the competition as roommates, developed what seems to be a genuine friendship and admiration for each other, and ended up in the Top 2. Along the way, you can be certain that each of these guys was supporting and encouraging and advising and learning from the other. It's quite possible one or the other or both wouldn't have made it to the end, had they not had each others' back.
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That to me is a lot more interesting, and infinitely more hopeful story. Too bad the powers that be at AI chose to largely ignore this angle, since they'd already scripted how they wanted the competition to play out.

What's been interesting to me last night and this morning is how many people, in comments on my site and on Twitter and in their own pieces, are vehemently saying that Adam's sexuality could not have been anything more than a minor factor -- or that it was not a factor at all.
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Not James -- James' piece is quite well reasoned, of course. I am coming around to several of his arguments and several of the arguments that various folks have made in comments on my site and elsewhere about why Kris won.
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But there's something about the sexuality issue that is still percorlating for me. As James said last night on Twitter, it's too complex of a topic for that site, and saying this eloquently or clearly still eludes me this morning. But here goes:
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Even if we don't know how much Adam's sexuality played a role in his defeat, isn't it worth asking that question? Isn't it worth wondering about discussing?
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Again, not referring to James here, but the vehemence with which I've been shouted down on this topic kind of surprises me. I think it's worth talking and wondering about. That's all. Again, what surprised me is how quickly people were ready with their "it wasn't THAT" arguments. Well OK then. We don't get to discuss it? Why?

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But it's amazing to me that people on my site are all, "you are attributing his loss to only homophobia" blah blah. When I never used that word, and specifically went out of my way to say that it may have been one of many factors. Sheesh.
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Anyway, my two cents -- it was one of many factors. We'll never know how much of a factor. But yeah, I think it was *A* factor.
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Meant to say, "Isn't it worth wondering about or discussing?"
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I've been a very casual Idol fan this season, following Danny Gokey as the local boy. I don't know if I've seen 10 songs sung in the top 12. Regarding Adam's sexuality, I have two points: 1)I'm definitely just one guy, but I hadn't put a thought towards his sexuality until it was brought up somewhere (probably here, since I read Tuned In way too much); 2)I don't doubt that there were some who would have preferred Adam but voted for Kris because of homophobia or some bias against glitter, but I'm confident that there were also some who would have preferred Kris but voted for Adam to support the (potentially) gay guy or whatever. Did Adam's 'style' win more votes than it lost? Probably not, but it's a detail that we should keep in mind.

I think it would be fascinating for Fox to commission Nate Silver to do a demographic breakdown of the voting for Idol. But given the only piece of data we have is "more votes were cast for Kris than Adam," there's no way of knowing whether Idol voters were scared by Adam's sexuality or simply scarred from his caterwauling and screeching. (As I remember saying while cringing during his semi-final performance, just because you can hit those high notes, doesn't mean that you need to IN EVERY SONG.) Adam is the far more gifted performer, with a better voice and lots of stage presence. But Kris had a consistent artistic vision, as unambitious as it was, he took every song he was given and turned it into mellow acoustic rock that would fit in well between Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz. Adam has the range to be all over the map, musically. Safe and bland over interesting and either epic success or epic fail. There are too many variables at work and not enough data to discern why America voted for Kris over Adam. Which is a shame, because that data could be very interesting. Was it a red state/blue state divide? Tweens over their parents? People who watch TV live over DVR viewers? CSI viewers over Party Down viewers?
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I suspected that the reverse outcome would be best for each finalist's career. Kris could record the album of mellow acoustic jams that he's going to record no matter what, while Adam would be saddled with the "Idol Winner" material, which would force him to be more restrained than the material or ear-melting delivery he might choose on his own.

Maybe I'm in the minority of readers of Tuned In, but I just liked Kris more. (that whole in your gut idea.) There were some Adam performances that I just couldn't stand. While I thought Adam was more technically proficient during the finale, Kris deserved to win. He was more likeable, he fit a niche. Also, I got the sense that the younger portion of American Idol - those people who failed Archuleta last season - really liked Kris.

I think we should look at and discuss Adam's sexuality. Face it, people--the contestants' personalities and lifestyles take a big part in how many votes they get. This has been a popularity contest of sorts for years, and I think that it is unfair for people NOW to be saying, "Curse you for voting based on gender confusion!"
Adam was (in my opinion) the better singer. Kris was the better artist. Adam sang for himself, Kris sang for the people. Adam had one defined style of music, Kris tried it all. Kris was overall the more likable, more identifiable contestant. Adam's style was too narrow, and he hit too many of those crazy high notes. He didn't mix it up enough after Top 4, and people got tired of how everyone was labeling him as the winner.
I love them both--cute wittle Kris and Elvis Jr.

Great column, James. I will keep following you. Your analysis is spot on.

Last nite I twittered: 'Joan over Annie, Shawn over Giles, Kris over Adam - We're on Underdog Road! #americanidol Congrats Kris!
about 13 hours ago from web'. My RT. See me @ milleniumkri on Twitter. We are on the same wavelength. You write so well.

Yep, it is very, very complicated. But I keep going back to what people were talking about last night on twitter -- cultural worldviews, camp, and how that relates to sexuality.
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In the end, Idol comes down to what people are comfortable with. They were more comfortable, for a variety of reasons, with Kris. They were less comfortable, for a variety of reasons, with Adam.
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I think one of those reasons people were less comfortable with Adam is because he's a swaggering, flamboyant, theatrical man who wears makeup. I will leave it to James to parse how that relates to culture, American tolerance, homosexuality, and the world that we live in. Because every time I try to explain myself, I end up feeling like I didn't quite express what I'm wrestling with accurately.
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Dave I think said it best: There was a "bias against glitter." And all the cultural baggage that the word "glitter" brings along with it (aside from that movie, that is).
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Again, what was interesting to me was how quickly a lot of people wanted to cut off that discussion, you know, "Move along, move along, nothing to see here, America is a paradise of tolerance, move along."
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Er, hang on a minute, let's talk about it! Or not. Because in actual fact, I'm just generally so mentally exhausted by Idol that I'm on a Twitter fast today. I just can't think/talk/write about it any more.
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Except here, clearly!

A simple question really..
Whose CD would you buy?

Think Taylor Hicks, great guy, would not buy his music.

Adam will do great in a "made for him" Vegas show.

Er, sorry for the emoticon. I just randomly typed a : and a ) without thinking, and I didn't know it would appear as Mr Glowy Yellow Smiley.
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I will stop talking and leaving smiley faces now.

I am a youth group leader at an Evangelical Christian Church...and I really thought both men were fantastic and talented. I am not comfortable with anyone..hetero or homosexual being overtly sexual as a form of entertainment. Except for his mike stand stuff on his rock performance I thought Adam kept it all above board. Persoanlly Adam would be a fantastic live performer and Kris would be my ipod choice. If Adam chooses to go over the top for shock value over talent as many in the industry do then he alienates certain people who otherwise would love to hear him sing.

I haven't seen an independent confirmation of the number yet, but it's being posted around the interwebs that AT&T says there were 38 million votes AmIdol out of Arkansas this week. If true, that constitutes about 40% of the total votes, which of course is way more than enough to skew the results in Kris' favor.
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As I've said, speaking as someone who lives in the state who helped Ruben, Taylor and (almost) Bo Bice win AI, you can't underestimate the power of a highly motivated populace of a state who desperately yearn for someone/something to be proud of. The winner of AI is not necessarily America's choice, but that of the population most likely to spend hours dialing a phone.
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About the sexuality issue .... I don't think anyone can deny there were some votes against Adam simply because of questions about whether he's gay ... or whether he's a Christian, even .... despite Kris specifically saying he didn't want people voting their religion. But by and large, the anti-Adam comments I've consistently seen have been based on dislike of his perceived 'screeching'.
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As James has said, even if the decision last night could be reviewed independently of Kris' amazing support from his home state, I don't think you'd have a good enough baseline to determine for sure if there was a pervasive vote against Adam exclusively based on his sexuality, independent of his performance style.
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If you could get two persons to the AI finale with essentially the same musical presentation, good looks, connection with the audience, from the same home state, etc etc, and have the only difference being that one was thought to be gay and the other wasn't .... then, you might could whittle the victory down to a matter of (dis)comfort at that level. But the contest is designed so you will almost always have a ton of other variables in your final two that makes apples to oranges comparisons like this impossible.

Imagine the judges' favorite scenario in which Danny Gokey and Adam Lambert had gotten to the finale. If it was truly about Adam's sexuality that put America over the edge and made them decide to vote for Kris, then we can hypothesize that in a Lambert-Gokey finale, Gokey would have emerged the victor. I'm of the opinion that had that finale happened, Gokey would have been demolished by Adam, hands down, no questions asked. People would rather go the controversial route and say that Adam lost because of the spite votes since it's the easy way out.
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But the fact of the matter is, Kris was the only other contestant apart from Adam who knew exactly what he wanted to do with his music and who was consistently churning out hit after hit. While Lambert certainly appeared to take bigger risks than Allen, Allen took risks as well with his arrangements of classic songs like "Ain't No Sunshine" and "She Works Hard for the Money" - except the difference was that Allen's risks paid off more to viewers than Lambert's.
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Lambert's disadvantage was that he peaked early in the competition. Early on he was already considered to be finale-material, and his highest point was "Mad World", somewhere in the middle of the show. After "Mad World", Lambert hit a plateau and did not recover until Rock Week, when he sang "A Whole Lotta Love", which to many diehard Lambert fans was a home run, but for the casual AI viewer, they probably didn't think Rock Week was much of a challenge to Adam anyway. Allen, on the other hand, despite being consistently put down by the judges despite delivering solid performances, kept getting better and better. The words people like to use when talking about Allen is that he "grows on you", and that is exactly why he won. If you weren't a Kris Allen fan when he sang "Ain't No Sunshine", you were the next week when he sang "Falling Slowly". If the Glen Hansard-Marketa Irglova song didn't hook you in, you were most likely tuning in when Allen put forth his best performance of the season, with a stripped down version of Kanye West's "Heartless". Whatever performance it was, Allen converted more votes over his way as someone got voted off, while Lambert maintained the base he had gathered around him since top 36 or maybe top 13.

Ultimately it came down to whose votes were being translated over, and Allen got most of the Danny Gokey votes and Matt Giraud votes, while Allison fans mostly gravitated to Adam Lambert, some even continuing to split votes between Adam and Kris. The ultimate deciding factor, in my opinion, was the finale, where it pretty much warped into The Adam Lambert show. People got complacent after Simon pretty much crowned Adam the American Idol the night before the results show, while giving Kris what sounded like an apology for writing him off from the competition early on, the same apology Simon gave to David Cook last season.
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Watching last night's show, I could have sworn I saw hints that Adam was going to win. From the symbolic use of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" in Lambert's Idol Journey video package to the explosive KISS performance with the matching Edward Scissorhands outfit. I had already prepared myself for the Adam Lambert win. Nowhere did I see a Kris Allen victory coming around the corner. And I voted for Allen. Multiple times! I just didn't believe that Allen could overcome what seemed like the Adam Lambert tidal wave. But I guess Adam's fans let him down. They either purposefully didn't want him to win (which clearly doesn't seem to be the case, if you've been reading stuff online) to preserve his "edginess" and to try to give him a bit of creative freedom that second placers supposedly have over winners, or they were super hyped up by the feedback Adam got during finale night that they didn't vote as hard for their pick.
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It must now be bittersweet to Allen, because even though he won the title fair and square, he now has to endure the backlash from Adam fans who believe Adam was "robbed" of his rightful title as American Idol. I think Allen deserved to win, and so did Lambert, but it's sad that the backlash only comes exclusively from the Lambert camp, despite their contestant's classy attitude about coming in second.

One other thing about the sexuality issue ... I don't think you can sufficiently parse the voting results (again, if you could exclude the home state avalanche), without considering that some amount of the vote against Adam's perceived gayness would've been offset by people voting for Adam specifically because he might be gay.
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You can't make any assumption that gay people will vote as a united bloc, because we (myself being one) are a rather fractious and on occasion bitingly self-critical crowd. I've seen plenty of gay guys carping about Adam's screeching and theatricality too. But there are a significant number of gay folk who would've been just as proud as the Arkansans to claim "their" guy won last night.

Oh for heaven's sake don't be so gullible. AT&T didn't release any "statistics" of who called where -- Just because you read it on the internet blog doesn't make it true.
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They BOTH won. What they won was not the American Idol "winner's slot" but an OPPORTUNITY to be seen and heard by millions. Both will have record deals, both get equal time on the tour, and both will make what they can out of their careers. Adam won. Kris won.
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Yeah, I can see how some Adam fans are upset about their blow to their OWN ego as they lost some bragging rights. But really, I could care less about those bruised ego, I care about Kris and Adam. THEY both won.
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Yeah it's unfortunate that Adam's fans keep calling him a loser. (which you may not think you are, but you are). No, he didn't win the title (a fleeting honor at best) But what he DID win was media attention for his talent, a showcase for his artistry, an opportunity to bring his style to a wide audience, a national concert tour, a record contract, Oh, and his fan's hearts too.
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So really, the whinning needs to stop. Adam doesn't need the title, I'm still a fan without it.

my cousin's husband, one of the straightest, most blue collar guys i know, from milwaukee (therefore SHOULD have been for danny gokey) confessed early in the season to having a huge "MAN CRUSH" on adam lambert.

that put away the gay thing for me.

and i think livebyonefive is right: i am ONE of those gays carping about adam's screeching. it had nothing to do with his being gay.

more thoughts (plus snark & carping) on the entire season right here

The question is how many people who would otherwise have voted for Adam voted against him because of it.

Well, I think another question is, how many people who wouldn't have voted for anyone at all called in to vote against someone perceived to be gay after being told to do so by hatemongers? Like Ted Haggard who tweeted that he was going to call in to vote for Kris and then watch the show on DVR.

Rarely does a talent show inspire such compelling dialogue, if any dialogue at all. Having only sporadically tuned in to past seasons, I am glad that I watched this one as closely as I have.
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Whether or not Adam's loss can be attributed to a general feeling of homophobia among the American people, I think a bit of personal information might have actually done Adam some good. To me, the monolithic powerhouse known as Adam Lambert was the iPhone of the Idol universe: shiny, flawless, and new. Unfortunately, he also appeared to be highly manufactured - and as Dave pointed out, Adam's "style" might have been a large part of his appeal.
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Adam shows signs of having mastered the business of being a recording artist. He exudes confidence, excites his audience, and most importantly, takes direction. It's as if Lambert wisely listens to the judges' feedback while his peers simply ignore it, like when Simon Fuller recommends that Kris Allen "shouldn't have brought out the wife" so early in the competition. It appears that from then on Adam resolved to base his personal vignettes on his ambition and accomplishments, rather than his private life. This may have been the decision that alienated Lambert from a fan base that grew attached to more heartwarming and inspiring characters like Danny Gokey and Scott MacIntyre. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that if anything can be said about the American people, it's that they doesn't want factory settings; they want personalization, and it might have been to Adam's advantage to admit that he may like other men - or that he may like anybody but himself, for that matter (and I do not mean that maliciously).
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James, you mention that "Idol practically did all it could to make [Adam] War Admiral to Kris' Seabiscuit." Did anyone else feel that this was unfair to the other competitors...and quite obtrusive on Idol's part? As starr suggested, "from the symbolic use of Coldplay's 'Viva La Vida' in Lambert's Idol Journey video package to the explosive KISS performance" (of We Are the Champions, mind you) the show's producers practically rolled out the red carpet for Adam's sweeping win. To manipulate the contest so heavily in someone's favor jeopardizes the magic of the show and probably lead to Tuesday night's ratings, which were a series low. The American public, homophobic or not, cares most about having their individual voices heard and not having a voice imposed upon them. I'm not saying that we've all been brainwashed to believe that Lambert is the Messiah, I'm saying that when you keep shoving something down someone's throat, even if it's red velvet cake, they're bound to throw it up.
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By now you can probably assume that I am pretty satisfied with the results of this season's contest. A humble, unassuming kid from Arkansas with nothing but a guitar and his chops busts through all the smoke and mirrors and into America's heart. And isn't that what this contest is all about, anyway?
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Oh, and shout-out to James on the Sontag reference!