The American Idol Winners

[Guest tiarnantman]

I was going to start a thread on Carrie Underwood, but I decided to create one on the Idol winners in general. We're in the midst of Idol 7, and I thought this'd be sort of relevant.

Basically, who do reckon's the best winner of the lot? Kelly Clarkson'll probably run away with the votes, but I still thought this'd be interesting. Personally, I'd go for Carrie. I'm no big country fan, but she's awesome. 'Jesus Take the Wheel' has some of the best lyrics in mainstream music, and her other songs, like 'Before He Cheats' and 'Don't Forget to Remember Me', were all great in their own way.

Edited March 13, 2008 by tiarnantman

[ROC]

Out of the six, Kelly's the only one who's currently made great pop to such a degree that no one bought her last record.

[The Mask of Norro]

Underwood's the one that'll wind up, in the long run, more than likely outselling the rest, including Clarkson. Clarkson's had her time but it seems to be slipping away from her at the moment, Ruben never really stood a chance post-Idol, I rarely heard much from Fantasia after (was she the one that wound up on Broadway in the end?), Hicks is pretty good but he's in a genre that really doesn't get a lot of press these days and I highly doubt he'll get real huge, and Sparks is still building her name up, but I don't see her getting huge to be honest.

Then you have the people who didn't win but still wound up incredibly, or at least impressively successful like Aiken and Daughtry. I think Daughtry's came at the perfect time for them to succeed and, so far, they really have. Aiken was huge for the longest time and now he's doing some broadway and whatnot... he's spreading himself out, which is good, because he won't always have his voice to fall back on to be honest.

But yeah, Underwood's probably going to wind up the most successful. You also take into consideration just how alarmingly large the country music industry still is, and how successful it's big names wind up becoming, and you figure that she's a quickly rising star in there so she's going to wind up getting more and more sales, more and more marketing boosts, and more and more popular because of all of it. Barring her changing her style and causing some massive shift of a fanbase/genre of her music, I don't see her fizzling out for quite some time.

[alldaws1]

Kelly Clarkson. Because I like some of her songs and I've never heard of the others. Well, except for Carrie Underwood, but I've only heard of her 'cause Tony Romo did her >_>

Edited March 14, 2008 by alldawson

[GhostMachine]

Is Taylor Hicks singing for food on a corner somewhere yet?

He's the one Idol winner that still confuses me, as he's a mediocre singer and only had that silly dancing thing going for him.

[Captain Eo]

Personally I think Blake Lewis would have hit it off bigger if he was around back when it was still cool to own CDs.

[Gabriel]

I stopped watching Idol after the second season. I caught a few shows here or there because other people were watching it... but it just annoys me. The singers with any sort of personality or marketability that isn't to whatever gumdrop audience the show is looking for, tend to be eliminated early on, which makes me lose interest fast.

I hate the formulaic nature of who they're looking for to win the thing. I'd like to see them take a chance sometime and give it to someone who is out of the realm of normality and could sell records to an audience that American Idol seems to not know the existance of.

That said, Kim Caldwell sticks out as someone I would have liked to see more from.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Kelly Clarkson, with Underwood right up there. The others do nothing at all for me.

[JStarr]

That said, Kim Caldwell sticks out as someone I would have liked to see more from.

Seeing more from in the Penthouse Pet sense of the word, maybe. Never thought she was worth a shit as a singer, but damn, she is rather attractive.

As for the winners, Kelly's still my favorite expressly BECAUSE no one bought her last album. Anyone who'll stand there and stare down Clive Davis is okay in my book.

And Norro, maybe I missed something, but when was Clay Aiken "huge?" One kinda-hit and then...what?

[Gabriel]

Well, he still gets made fun of a lot... so he's technically more well known than the other winners in pop culture.

[DMN in the House]

Kelly Clarkson and Ruben Studdard are the only ones I ever liked. Kelly Clarkson was better, but Ruben's first album was alright.

On the whole, though, I find the show incredibly inane. I hate reality TV like that shit.

[Draevyn]

Kelly Clarkson, for this list. I always thought Jessica Sierra should have gotten further in the year she was on there, but ah well.

[Blue Rosler]

I remember fapping with LL over George Huff and how he kept bouncing!

[TMJ]

I saw Kelly Clarkson live the other night and she is amazing. Incredible voice, some wonderful songs, great stage presence and stupidly cute. I can't not vote for her.