Why It Just May
Be Good To Be Carrie Underwood
So,
Carrie Underwood is your American Idol- now what?
Now
that the dust has settled, the final Idol hopes (Bo Bice’s) has been dashed and
the final confetti cleared (well, maybe it’s still there…this is Los Angeles
after all), Checotah, Oklahoma’s Underwood now has that thorny question to
wrestle with in the days ahead. She has a winner single- the surprisingly
moving “Inside Your Heaven”- coming out on June 14, and a tour that just went
underway with the other eleven American Idol finalists, but after that, she has
to get moving to get that album in while everyone still knows her name.
In 19
Media’s (the company behind the whole “Idol” series) perfect world, as soon as
the Idol is crowned they would become a massive star, with the resulting fame,
glamour, platinum records and money-grabbing opportunist lawsuits that come
with it, but the truth is that, ever since Burleson, Texas’ Kelly Clarkson
walked away with the first ever American Idol title in 2002 (yeah, it’s only
been three years…feels longer, doesn’t it?), none of the so-bestowed “winners”
of American Idol have ever hit it big on a grand scale- both Ruben Studdard’s
“Soulful” and Fantasia Barrino’s “Free Yourself” have proven to be massive
commercial failures (Studdard’s with good reason…), as well as the releases of
second-place finishers Justin Guarini (a self-titled album that deserved to do
better than it did) and Diana Degarmo (“Blue Skies”), with the only other real
star emerging from the “Idol” fold being North Carolina’s Clay Aiken, the
second-place finisher to Studdard in Season 2 (his “Measure Of A Man” did
better than it should have in my opinion, but at least the guy does have
charm). Thus, while Underwood’s fans are celebrating their hopeful’s victory,
given the previous performances of the other Idol winners it shouldn’t be
surprising if some of them are genuinely worried about commercial success, if
not Fox, 19 Media and Underwood as well.
However,
there are a few reasons why Underwood’s chances are not as slim as her
predecessors were in years past. First of all, there are signs that popular
culture is being over saturated with the party-rap trend that has been going on
since 2003- none of the “bling-bling” rappers (save 50 Cent) that have appeared
in the past few years have really ever become bona fide stars, and the
superstars that were supposed to carry mainstream rap as a whole- Eminem and 50
Cent- both released sub-par efforts over the past year. In fact, mainstream
rap’s fortunes have gotten so bad that the newest “star” they found- Ciara-
needs other artists in her songs to even give them chart-life. Also, artists
like Fat Joe and Ludacris, bona fide stars in hip-hop circles, have failed to
really make much of a dent in the mainstream on a whole, only remaining stars
on the urban circuit. The torch of popular culture that was passed onto rap has
been passed around so much that it may just be itching to leave it entirely.
Secondly,
the superstardom of Avril Lavigne- the only genuinely new superstar in popular
music over the past few years- shows that pop music can still produce artists
that will gain the greater attention of the public as a whole, because- whether
you think it’s real or not- her rambunctious spirit has managed to captivate pop
culture as a whole, and, with the emotion-bearing moments in the more
methodical “Under My Skin”, she’s shown that she does have a bit of depth to
her character and isn’t just some “wild-child act”. Her persona is even
contrasted by that of Clarkson’s- pop music’s only “other” star- who isn’t the
bombastic type that Lavigne is but has enough of an edge that she gets noticed.
Admittedly, Clarkson has been quieter than Lavigne in her success, but their
stardom provides hope that other pop music artists- like Underwood- do have a
chance to become stars on their own accord.
Thirdly,
the Backstreet Boys are coming back, and their clout may just get people
talking about pop music again. It is through their momentum that Underwood has
to take hold, ride it through and create her own success out of it, although I
question the reasoning behind releasing her single the same day that BSB
release their album, but there’s nothing she can do about that right now.
Timing is everything when it comes to success, and she couldn’t have emerged
with a more established act in her coattails than BSB. Of course, if “Never
Gone” flops then we may be back at square one all over again, but for now,
she’s emerging just when pop music as a whole is gaining a little bit more
buzz.
Fourthly,
Underwood has the potential to be a crossover artist in both pop and country,
where her musical leanings lie. Country may have always been its own separate
musical field when it comes to the general music world, but country has its
fair share of stars in the likes of individuals like Toby Keith, Dierks
Bentley, Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, etc., who
(like them or not), and thus, while it may seem like Underwood would be
entering a genre that’s overcrowded with stars, the truth is that country is
always open to new stars and if she can break out in country she’d be able to
use it as a stepping-stone to break out in the pop music world. Furthermore,
Josh Gracin from Season 2 has managed some country success, so it wouldn’t be that
farfetched to expect the same from Underwood.
Of
course, Underwood has to ensure- like the other pop stars before her- that
she’s capable of becoming someone that the masses will care about, because
without that, her career will fade just as quickly as Barrino’s and Studdard’s
did. Her obstacles are the same that’s been plaguing pop music as a whole for
years- besides Lavigne and to a lesser extent, Clarkson, pop music has failed
to produce anyone in the past few years that has captured the imagination of
popular culture as a whole. The reason for this is that pop acts- most of them
singer/songwriters- have become too obsessed lately with attempting to be
“real” that most of them never focused on being something that the greater
masses would “want” to care about. It’s good that they’re attempting to be deep
and show that they’re “people” and not larger-than-life demigods (for the lack
of a better term), but most of them showed themselves as just as one-note as
the “fake” acts they were replacing, with their musings very rarely ever being
distinct, really relatable or at least delivered with the kind of imprint that
would allow someone to say “they’re really different”. Really, there are only
so many same-y love songs you can listen to before you start thinking “do they
ever think of anything else?” Just like the boy bands before them, you wondered
if there were any distinct personalities in there or if they were really just
all in the same.
Now,
this has more to with Underwood than you might think, because American Idol is
the glorification of the act of taking someone who’s “normal” and making them a
“star”, like many of the pop acts that have appeared of late, and, like those
acts, the Idol winners have had problems really showing how “different” they are
than the rest of music world. I mean, Studdard may have shown himself to be
distinct by being a loveable soul man in Season 2, but once he entered the
music world directly, no one really saw him as anything more than another
Babyface knockoff. Barrino was a captivating performer in Season 3, being the
kind of person you remembered even if you didn’t like them, but her post-Idol
offerings haven’t been anything more than Macy Gray-reject records. The trends
point to what really bothers Idol (for anyone who thinks “Idol” winners don’t
work hard like their rock band buddies, all I have to say is that you just
haven’t watched the show), and that is the inability of its winners to prove
that they’re capable of being “different” outside of their Idol contexts. They
don’t necessarily have to turn to flash to sell albums- they can use their
voices (which is what got them to “Idol” in the first place) to present their
personalities in the way they sing their songs, and they can make sure that the
songs they do record do at least “feel” like it’s their own, which is tricky.
Underwood won raves because of her voice and her role as an “innocent farmer
girl looking to make it big”, but it’s important that when she does release a
commercial album that she comes off as “Carrie Underwood” and not some retread
like Barrino and Studdard. She has the potential to either follow her own idol
Martina McBride’s career path and use her voice to captivate people (which is
what she was able to do on “Idol”) or she could become just another innocent
girl from a farm, of which we have too many of those. With the release of BSB’s
“Never Gone”, Clarkson’s continuing superstardom and her leanings towards the
star-studded country, the pieces are there for widespread commercial success.
Now she just has to put them together.
-DG