Singing in committee
Some things just don’t fit. Decisions made by committee. Ballroom dancing in a trio. American Idol in a group. Tonight, like each preceding year, showed just how painful trying to fit individual (large) egos into a happy, harmonious amalgam can be for all involved.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am a veteran of musical groupings. Concert bands, choirs, you name it I’ve done it. In the right context, a gestalt situation emerges. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A chord is best handled by group behaviour (I speak as a tuba player). But at heart I am a solo, and I depend on myself above all else.
And American Idol is about the individual. Only one will remain standing, several months from now. No blending of voices, no depending on your neighbour for pitch. One is not the loneliest number, despite any songs to the contrary. Trying to pretend that a group of egotistical musicians will choose to sing together for the greater goal is wrong.
Happily, by next week we’ll have eliminated the underdogs, all 150 plus of them, and twenty-four will prepare their best, singular efforts. Tonight, we watched some wonderful talent crash and burn, just to satisfy the warped needs of primetime television.
In the news, the DSM is in revision. I don’t have a copy of the book that describes true insanity, but it might be an interesting thing to keep around in the usual reading places. You know, the bedroom, the bathroom, under the best chair in the TV room. Think of the fun you can have, deciding what label to apply to the crazy neighbour. If I write and ask for an evaluation copy, do you think they’ll consider my request as crazy enough to consider?
