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TV Music: Country fried stakes |
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Written by Casey Laughman, asap
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Wednesday, 11 April 2007 |
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It’s easy to imagine the conversation happening something like this:
TV PRODUCER No. 1: “Hey, the kids seem to like this ’American Idol’ thing. Can’t we ape that somehow?”
TV PRODUCER No. 2: “Hmmm...country music seems to be popular, too. What about an all-country version of ’American Idol?”’
No. 1: “Genius!”
Well, maybe it didn’t go exactly like that. But probably close enough, because “Nashville Star” came into existence in 2003, a year after “American Idol,” with a very simple goal: create country music stars. Get a bunch of folks who want to be singers (country only, please), slap them on a stage, have them judged by a panel, have fans vote and wait for magic.
Sound familiar? It should. It’s a proven formula with only one small glitch: “American Idol” wasn’t about to get out of the way, even for a show dedicated to only one genre.
Not only has “Nashville Star” not come anywhere close to American Idol’s ridiculous popularity — this season’s “Nashville Star” finale drew about three million viewers, while last year’s “American Idol” finale drew about 36 million — “American Idol” has started churning out country singers whose sales are beyond anything “Nashville Star” winners can dream about.
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PLAYING TO THE BASE
“(’American Idol’) is truly a phenomenon and it’s making stars out of people,” said Jim Foglesong, an adjunct professor at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. “They have created a fan base, they sell records. They establish a base where if you make decent records, you ought to sell in big numbers.”
Consider: the first winner of ’Nashville Star,’ Buddy Jewell, had a gold album and two No. 3 singles. First-season finalist Miranda Lambert’s first album, “Kerosene,” has gone platinum. The problem is that Lambert has outsold every other finalist so far — combined.
Now think about this: Carrie Underwood, who won ’American Idol’ in 2005 and became the first winner who could really be classified as a country singer, has sold more than 5 million copies of her first album in the United States alone. Oh, she’s also won female vocalist of the year at this year’s Academy of Country Music awards, one American Music Award, five Billboard Music Awards and two Grammys.
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THE ACCIDENTAL COUNTRY FAN
Underwood’s popularity was given a boost by being exposed to fans that may not have regularly listened to country, said Ken Tucker, Billboard Radio’s country correspondent.
“If she had just come up through the country ranks, she may have eventually have gotten the attention of those people,” Tucker said. “But certainly starting out on the show, building that fan base, and eventually winning it gave her a leg up. That exposed her to people that she might not have normally been initially exposed to if she had come up through the country ranks.”
Even leaving aside Underwood, who has an extraordinary amount of talent, ’American Idol’ contestants Josh Gracin and Kellie Pickler have also found success on the country charts. Gracin and Pickler’s first albums each went gold and Pickler was nominated for top new female vocalist of the year at the ACM awards, as well as for breakthrough video of the year at next Monday’s Country Music Television Awards.
So, in other words, ’American Idol’ has produced more gold and platinum country albums than a show dedicated to nothing but country music.
Meanwhile, anybody heard from Buddy Jewell lately? How about fellow ’Nashville Star’ winners Brad Cotter, Erika Jo or Chris Young? This year’s winner, Angela Hacker, was seen by some three million people on the finale, but has far less name recognition than Sanjaya of “American Idol,” who is best known for a hairstyle that looks like the offspring of a pushbroom and an electric eel.
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THE UNDERWOOD EFFECT
According to Tucker, while “American Idol” has had a definite impact, the fan base of country is diverse enough that someone can have more of a pop sound and still be successful.
“Anytime that someone either crosses over or gets broader exposure like they do with ’American Idol,’ there’s always the opportunity for new fans to be drawn into country. There’s always going to be fans that like more traditional country than pop country or (adult contemporary) country,” and vice versa, Tucker said. “Even if ’American Idol’ didn’t exist, there’s always going to be people who prefer a Shania Twain to a Merle Haggard.”
But while Underwood has enough talent that she probably would have become a country star if her first exposure had been singing for drinks at a bar in Nashville, the “American Idol” effect certainly didn’t hurt.
“She’s got that almost indescribable element there that relates to people,” Foglesong said. “Lots of times you get people with the great voices and the great looks, but that one little element is missing. It doesn’t get people excited to run over to their computers and download it or go to the store and buy it.”
Foglesong has spent more than half a century in the business, with much of that time as a record executive, where he worked with stars ranging from Garth Brooks to George Strait to Tanya Tucker, so he knows a thing or two about stars.
“When you’re at a record company, it’s just amazing, it’s very, very tough to break records,” Foglesong said. “But when you’ve got the right song and the right artist, it’s amazing how easy it is.”
And it’s even easier when the singer’s already got 30 million fans.
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asap contributor Casey Laughman fits in the target audience of “Nashville Star.” But he’s watched “American Idol” more. | Only registered users can write comments.
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