Day1

I was amused last night by the extent to which the American Idol judges conformed to Ben Elton's parody of the show in his novel, Chart Throb. There were disconcertingly regular gushes of "You took ownership of that song" and "you own that music", or something to that effect. The support for "having taken advice on board and grown with it" was also a regular of the script. The judges seemed to have their personae down pretty pat too. And the contestants are introduced in unashamedly stereotyped terms: the mother! the builder! the father! Not very original, but easy to remember. I watched for the first time last night, scoffed away at the predictability of it all, but actually rather enjoyed it! The contestants are all so nice: so fresh-faced, even in a dreadlogged, facially-pierced kind of way. And their voices are all good. This is a celebration of beauty, talent, and is maybe a little self-congratulatory about how we're (Americans, today's youth, whatever ....???) looking good.