Mass Idolatry

I love it that Alex Ross, probably today's most widely read and respected music critic, has outed himself as an American Idol watcher. During a languid Friday afternoon that slowly turned into an 8 hour long happy evening, I found myself explaining to two disbelieving friends over cocktails why I watch Idol.

As if my love of opera and classical somehow couldn't reconcile with my enthusiasm for Fox's 21st century version of a piano bar. Talent is talent, and if you haven't noticed, there's a lot of great singers who show up on this show every year. This year's model is becoming a showcase for Adam Lambert. In my opinion this guy is the best performer to appear on the show so far, though I didn't see the first few seasons. He has awesome vocal chops and he's already a great performer.

Check him out tonight as he makes everyone else look like also-rans.

Btw, Ross's The Rest is Noise is a terrific book on the history of 20th century music and his website contains an online musical annotation of the entire book where you can hear exactly what he is writing about as you read it. It took him ten years to write and the effort shows on every page. Check that out, too. It's the book on music that is really becoming the must-read for our times.