American Idol is an American singing competition series created by Simon Fuller and produced by 19 Entertainment, and is distributed by FremantleMedia North America. It began airing on Fox on June 11, 2002, as an addition to the Idols format based on the British series Pop Idol and has since become one of the most successful shows in the history of American television. For an unprecedented eight consecutive years, from the 2003–04 television season through the 2010–11 season, either its performance or result show had been ranked number one in U.S. television ratings. (More from Wikipedia)
If I had to succinctly characterize the current musical period – having just watched the first hour of the 2013 Billboard Music Awards – I would use the phrase “overdoing it”. American Idol and the other television singing contests encourage contestants to go all out in their performances, and that attitude has suffused much of today’s music. On at least one occasion, I have heard one of the renowned producers who craft many of today’s hit songs (I forget who exactly) piece one together in a few minutes on National Public Radio during an interview, so studio wizardry has also become available to just about anyone – and it is all too tempting to take that too far. Refreshingly, Hollis Brown holds back in this regard; as Steve Leggett of Allmusic puts it in their rave review of their album Ride on the Train: “[The album has] a sharp, taut sound that only includes what is necessary to put the song over. . . . This is a band with a bright future.”
(May 2013)
The saga of the Supremes formed much of the story line for the hit musical Dreamgirls. The musical opened on Broadway in 1981 and won 6 Tony Awards. Twenty-five years later, in 2006, Dreamgirls was made into a popular film starring Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, and (fresh from finishing as a finalist on American Idol) Jennifer Hudson. At $80 million, Dreamgirls is the most expensive film ever to feature an all–African-American starring cast.
(April 2015/1)
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Somewhat ironically, a song that was co-written by Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider called “Time for Miracles” was included in the soundtrack for the 2009 disaster film 2012, as sung by American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert. Lambert also included this song on his album For Your Entertainment (2009).
(April 2015/2)
