Watching last night's "American Idol," my wife and I found ourselves rooting for different contestants. She favored the southern rock stylings of Bo Bice. I preferred the mainstream country singing of Carrie Underwood. Evidently, America agreed with me.
But the live audience at the Kodak Theater quite obviously agreed with my wife. Bo--who is an excellent showman--clearly had the hearts of the people in the theater. Applause for him was louder and more sustained than it was for Carrie, even after Carrie won!
My wife wondered whether this wasn't a perfect illustration of the blue-state/red-state divide in America. After all, the audience was packed with Los Angelenos and media types, who are disproportionately blue-state voters. Country music is, however, a largely red-state phenomenon.
Now, perhaps I'm reading too much into American Idol, which is, after all, the cultural equivalent of cotton candy: sugary and insubstantial. Still, I thought the difference between the audience's choice of Bo and America's choice of Carrie was noteworthy.
Or am I reading way too much into this?
Article comments
1 - Natalie Davis
I don't think you are reading this incorrectly at all. Everything is political.
It's funny, though: Bo is from Alabama, a red state. And he's a born-again Christian.
Still, I do believe that is how the split largely fell. And it pleased me to no end to see Bo get the bigger applause.
2 - Eric Olsen
interesting points and there has to be some truth, but I think it also shows how unmonolithic the whole red/blue dichotomy is. It is a lot more revealing to look at counties rather than states, I think
3 - Natalie Davis
Indeed. I know lots of decent blue people living hellish lives in predominantly red areas. I would have to assume that the converse is also true.
4 - jarboy
also interesting is that your wife favored the hot guy and you favored the hot babe. or maybe predictable?
5 - George P. Wood
Natalie: I think Bo has great crossover appeal. For my money, his best songs were "Money" and "Vehicle," which are R&B classics, if I'm not mistaken. I think the variety captures a lot of the blue-staters. By contrast, Carrie is a country girl. Red state. Period. (Bo is by far a better performer, given his age and experience with a band. But Carrie has a better voice.) So, assuming the results weren't rigged, red-state America (currently in ascendancy) got their girl.
Eric: Check out Morris P. Fiorina's "Culture War: The Myth of a Polarized America." (0321317734) Fiorina suggests that the populace is not divided, but the elites are, and that elites drive the impression of the blue-state/red-state divide. Given my experience on BlogCritics.org, I tend to agree with that. We opinionated types are a fractious lot.
Jarboy: When I made the exact same observation to my wife, I got hit. So be careful!
6 - jarboy
she hit me too
7 - Natalie Davis
Mr. Wood: I must disagree with several things.
Your contention about Carrie having the better voice is debatable. I heard a voice teacher from the prestigious Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore assess both singers, and while he noted deficiencies in both, he found Bo to be the better singer.
"Vehicle" is a rock song.
And lots of blue staters love country music too. I am one of them.
BTW, Mr. Wood, in AI's plan to present Carrie as sweet and innocent and inexperienced, the show neglected to mention that she has band experience too. (She even has opened for Diamond Rio, among others.) Less than Bo, of course; she is eight years younger. Which is a bad sign considering how atrocious her stage presence is: Perhaps her lack of personality is permanent. Perhaps her problem can't be fixed. But I digress.
In any event, Mr. Wood, if the contest was not predetermined, stolen, or something else, the red staters got their girl. If.
8 - Eric Olsen
I agree with Fiorina that the divide is overstated and certainly oversimplified, although this is a country with a VERY wide range of opinion and values
9 - George P. Wood
Ms. Davis: Thanks for the response! I'd disagree with the voice teacher, but I'd be foolish to do so, so I'll just say that I prefer Carrie's voice over Bo's, but ever so slightly. Who sings "Vehicle"? And I didn't know the background info on Carrie. You are a wealth of information!
10 - Eric Olsen
Vehicle was the by the Ides of March, a horn-rock band like Blood Sweat and Tears or Chicago
11 - Natalie Davis
By the by, Ides of March was so impressed with Bo that it wants to perform with him. Badlands (Bo did the UK outfit's "In a Dream" a cappella last week) gave the singer very high praise even before he wowed the world with the band's song. And I have heard that the guys from Lynyrd Skynyrd were just knocked out by him too.
Wealth of information? A bankrupt one, perhaps. My mother says I am an endless font of data about which no one cares. But thank you for the kind words, sir, though I do not deserve them.
12 - 99
HEY HEY HEY CARRIE UNDERWOOD WON YEAH I AM SO HAPPY
13 - George P. Wood
Ms. Davis: I agree with your mother. And you deserve the words.
14 - Natalie Davis
Friendly warning: It isn't wise to compliment a person accustomed to cruelty. I am not used to it.
15 - George P. Wood
Ms. Davis: I'll try not to keep that in mind.
16 - Natalie Davis
Thanks, Mr. Wood. I am all cried out now.
17 - eloise
George, I agree wholeheartedly with the observation of your wife and yourself. Bo has actually grown on me over the season, but I do believe that the in-house audience did NOT reflect the viewing audience. In fact, I think that the reason that they did not announce "how close" it was statistically is because it was not that close. I think that Carrie picked up most of Vonzell's votes and the margin was more significant than Idol would like to admit publicly. The omission seemed blatent to me. Clive Davis would have come out looking like a fool for predicting Bo would win and then having America prove him wrong. Clive Davis may be powerful, but I think he has lost touch with the industry. He told Clay Aiken that his lyrics were "to clean" to sell records and Aiken wound up going triple platinum. There was an enormous fan base for that "family-friendly" type of music. I think that Carrie will find herself annointed by Nashville for drawing even more attention to country music than it has already been getting. If Clive hasn't noticed, country music has slowly evolved into a very strong genre with an incredibly large fan base. Will Bo make it in the "rock industry"? I honestly don't know. I personally loved seeing him perform "Sweet Home Alabama" in the finale. He seems to have a fairly substantial "cult-like" following and could wind up having the same success as Clay Aiken has had despite coming in second. Only time will tell. The upside for Bo is that he gets to drive around in that sweet, red, Ford Mustang and Clive Davis will personally help him produce his first record(and put an enormous amount of backing into getting great radio play to redeem himself from having made such a bold prediction on live TV). The downside is that the RED car will be easy for his fans to pick out and also that Idol will have to beef up their security for the summer tour. In the meantime, I will reserve further predictions until his first real CD comes out and listen to my old Blood, Sweat and Tears CD for now.
18 - L.A.W.
I think you're reading waaaay too much into this. The audience was full of screaming teenage girls, who care nothing about red state/blue state politics. I was born and raised in LA, and we love our rockers. There's nothing "country" about LA, and even the few repubs I know, don't listen to country. It's not political, just a regional musical preference. That's the bottom line.
19 - George P. Wood
L.A.W.: You may be right.
20 - George P. Wood
Eloise: Does AI usually announce the vote ratio?
21 - eloise
In the season with Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken they definitely did!! I can't remember if they did last year...as it was not as highly contested a show. Everyone knew that Fantasia was going to win. In the first season everyone knew that Kelly Clarkson was going to win. This has been the first season since the Studdard v. Aiken finale that people really didn't know who was going to win. That is why they would have/should have announced the vote ratio if it had been really close. It would have given Bo more credibility if they were able to say that the voting was very close. That is why I think that most of Vonzell's votes went to Carrie and that Bo's ratio did not warrent public humiliation of Clive Davis (and Bo for that matter).
22 - Voracious Reader
Lol. Your review was great as were the preceding, entertaining comments.