The Voice vs. American Idol & Shakira Lip Syncs Empire?

So I FINALLY saw my first episodes of The Voice this week. I caught up on Monday's 12 performances on Tuesday via Comcast OnDemand (I definitely will DVR next time because OnDemand makes you watch alllll the commercials ugh) and then I watched Tuesday's Live show as it happened. After just those two episodes I'm starting to get a better idea of why The Voice pales in comparison to the early years of American Idol. Unfortunately, I can't compare it to Idols current shows because some of what made Idol so popular is now gone. In fact it now appears that The Voice is winning the TV ratings battle each week despite having some weaker elements - American Idol was viewed by 8+ million people and The Voice viewed by 11+ million people this past week.

Okay now on with the show comparison:

Hosts - Carson Daly is a good enough host for the Voice but lets face it, he's no Ryan Seacrest. Ryan has two things that Carson lacks, a unique sounding voice (how ironic) and a much stronger TV personality. He is just much more interesting to watch and listen to. The banter between Ryan and the Idol judges was almost always fun and helped make us tune in week after week.

Judges - Musically speaking Shakira, Usher, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine have it all over many of the Idol judges of the past. But folks this is a live TV show where these judges are mostly talking and not singing. On their worst TV day, Idol judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson were infinitely more interesting to watch then the current crop of judges on the Voice. Its not that they "look" better, but they are much more interesting TV personalities (and yep this is a TV show :)). Part of the reason we watch these shows at all is the judges - you watch to see and hear what they will do and say next.

Theme Music - No comparison - Idol's instrumental theme music was always energizing even after many seasons - I listen to the The Voice for two episodes and their "This is the Voice" theme music is just bland bland bland - I can't believe they haven't come up with something better - there's just no excuse for a musical show to have a theme like that.

Contestants - This is where The Voice generally comes out on top - with just a few exceptions. I am finding the Voice contestants having better voice and performance chops at this stage in the show than the Idol contestants I used to watch (haven't seen Idol for a few years). I'll detail some more of this in a future blog but there were several standout Voices including Tess Boyer, Audra McLaughlin and Josh Kaufman

Shakira Lipsyncs through Empire

Yes the word on the street is Shakira lip synced through her performance of "Empire" this week on the show. I'm here to tell you that yep it's absolutely true - I told my wife as we watched the show - "she's not even singing and this is a singing competition where she's supposed to be "coaching" the contestants" - what the heck is that all about!! Sure the performance was visually stunning with the fire on the stage, her outfit and well Shakira herself of course. But if you can't pull it off singing it live on a singing show then "just don't do it". The only caveat here is maybe The Voice and Shakira did this on purpose just to get the people talking more about the Voice on social media (this would not surprise me at all). Check it out here for yourself and see what you think - Mayyyybe she's singing the first couple lines live but after that no wayyyy!

Phillip Phillips catching on with "Raging Fire"

Since we're talking about fire and music, American Idol 2012 winner Phillip Phillips is catching on at radio again with his new song "Raging Fire". When I first heard the song I didn't really think much of it. It definitely pales in comparison to "Home" (Top 10 on the Billboard chart and 4 million sold) and "Gone Gone Gone" (Top 25 Billboard and 1 million sold). But something about "Raging Fire" makes it start to stick in your head and I think it's the "come out come out come out" part that started playing in my head when I started waking up each morning. This still won't propel "Raging Fire" to "Home" or "Gone" heights but it will ensure that Phillip Phillips, with perhaps his "worst" single, is still miles above the success rate of any winning contestant on The Voice so far. See my previous blog post below for more on this "Will the VOICE find its VOICE with its Season 6 Winner?"

That's all for today kiddies - Have a gggreat weekend and I'll be back shortly with another post on new music and musical happenings in the world.

Peace, Love & Laughter

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Will the VOICE find its VOICE with its Season 6 Winner?

I have to confess, I have never watched an episode of The Voice which is now in its 6th season after debuting in the spring of 2011. I'm sure there have been numerous great singers performing on the show, most more talented then yours truly. I also must confess that I haven't watched American Idol for the last few seasons either. We all enjoyed Simon Cowells below the belt (but funny as all) comments to the contestants and the bickering between Paula Abdul and Simon. But what really peaked my interest was that Winners for the first several American Idol seasons would start releasing top quality songs on their recordings. Not songs that would be often hard pressed to be released as B-sides on a single back in the day (anybody remember B-sides?). In my opinion, the primary reason the Idol winners (and often 1st, 2nd and 3rd runner up contestants) were successful with radio and record sales was the quality of the songs.

It has been said by many, that "it all starts with a song" and they aren't kidding. If you don't have a great song you're not going to make a star out of anyone. Too many times songs are selected for these artists because of "who wrote the song", "who controls the song", translation: "who stands to gain money IF the song is a hit". Well I'm here to tell you that if you release a crappy song it isn't going to be a hit and there isn't going to be much money to be had :)

If I could give one piece of advice (as if they are listening) to the producers of future Idol and Voice winners it would be simply be: Find the absolute best songs you can that fits your artist and go with that song regardless of who wrote the song or who owns the publishing. Heck take an old song and re-work and have the artist make it their own - its no secret that some of the best songs ever written were not written recently. OR maybe the next time Adam Levine and his Maroon 5 band mates come up with another song like "Pay Phone", "Love Somebody" or "Daylight" he'll decide to let the Voice Winner take this song to the bank AND finally answer the question: "Will The Voice ever produce a star"?

Inside TV has some insightful information on this same topic here: The Voice vs. American Idol

In this article, Forbes magazine tells us last year the top earning American idol winners and Alumni - I think its possible to say that each of these 12 folks on the list have earned more than all of The Voice winners combined: Top 12 American Idol alumni earnings from 2013

Here's the gal that started it all winning "American Idol" season 1 - Kelly Clarkson singing "A Moment Like This" - the first of many great song released by Kelly since her 2002 debut:

Okay that's my soapbox for now - the reason for today's rant is that I realized I couldn't find a new song that I really liked enough to write about. Recently I've written about "Human", "Say Something", "Story of My Life", "Pompeii", "Happy" and "All of Me" - and each of these songs are STILL on the charts because they are THAT good. I'm sure there is something new out there I will really love but I just haven't heard it yet. Stay tuned I'll be looking and listening :) You can always tell me your favorite new song by voting on our "Love Song" poll at Vote for Favorite Love Song or post on our Facebook page at LoveSongs.com on Facebook

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

DON'T START the CHRISTMAS MUSIC

Yes I know all of us in the Northeast US got a winter snowstorm BEFORE Halloween but that's no excuse to start playing the Christmas Music early. Used to be our local station B101 in Philadelphia would start playing it right after Halloween but I guess enough people finally complained that they stopped. Now they are running a poll on their website www.B101Radio.com where we get to tell them when we think Christmas music should start on the radio. My vote goes for no earlier than Thanksgiving...that way I can actually enjoy the holiday music DURING the season and not be totally sick of it two weeks before Christmas.

And now I see Justin Beiber already has a holiday song "Mistletoe" on the Top 40 Billboard chart and its only the beginning of November. Just goes to show you that some radio stations are already playing holiday music and that's scarier than a snowstorm before Halloween :)

X Factor renewed for 2nd Season in 2012

It was just announced today that X Factor was renewed for a second season to begin airing in the fall of 2012 (see full article here X Factor 2nd season. I have to say I was a big fan of watching Simon Cowell for much of his run on American Idol Run but I have yet to turn on X Factor for a single episode (and there have been 10). I'm not sure why I've lost interest but I'm curious to know if you guys have been watching the X Factor. Post some comments here and I'll review/publish as they come in (have to keep out the spammers :)).

Thanks all and have a great nite!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Tuesdays Featured Song - "Smile" by Uncle Kracker

Not as popular (or as egotistical) as his Top 5 hit "Follow Me", Uncle Kracker's newest hit "Smile" has a catchy bouncy hook with an upbeat message that feels so much better than "follow me cause I so goood la la la" ha ha :). Seriously I think "Smile" is the better song but unfortunately for Kracker his popularity had already started to wane (that old 15 minutes of fame thing) so this song didn't have as much of a chance. Uncle K also hit the Top 10 chart a few years back with a cover of Dobie Grays 1973 hit "Drift Away" with Gray singing again on the song bridge...it was nice to hear that song come back it was a good one. "Smile" did manage to hit 43 on the Billboard chart and if you want to hear a song that didn't get its due check it out here:

"Smile" by Uncle Kracker (YouTube)

Simon and Ellen together on IDOL - Tonight!

The long awaited pairing of Simon and Ellen DeGenerous on Idol will happen tonight as Hollywood round begins. Okay okay so it probably happened a few months ago but we're just getting to see it now. I'm looking forward to hearing the comments that come between them and how this years batch of performers holds up under the real pressure. If they thought auditioning was the hard part boy were they wrong :) When your in direct competition with other singers in the same room, on the same stage (and yes its a stage now) and with songs you haven't prepared forever its gonna be a lot harder. The audition round in the beginning is always amusing but when we hit the Hollywood round I think thats when the real fun starts.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday - we're due for another round of snow in the Northeast sheeeeesh its getting a little crazy up here :) Will be back tomorrow with another song, a LoveSongs.com newsletter and more!

~Vincent