Jacob Lusk: The One To Beat On 'American Idol'

As someone who gave up on 'American Idol' a few seasons ago, I had little faith in this season as a whole.  I must say though, I am impressed.  I have become an avid viewer for the first time since, perhaps, season two.  Not only has the switcharoo at the judges panel been a refreshing change, but I can actually count 5 or 6 singers out of the top 10 that have a legitimate chance of walking away with the whole thing.  And, believe it or not, if those 5 or 6 singers released a CD today, I would go out and buy it.

That being said, tonight, in my humble opinion, I saw the best 'Idol' performance by far of the season, and possibly the most memorable since Adam Lambert's Season 8 performance of 'Mad World'.  This week was "Motown Week", and Jacob Lusk sang Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's 'You're All I Need To Get By'.  I must admit, when the season started, I didn't like Jacob that much.  I think it's because he didn't show his full potential until "Hollywood Week".  He was really holding himself back.

When Lusk comes out of his shell, watch out.  He's like a freight train with a microphone.  Nothing can stop this man.  He has a glorious voice....yes, I said glorious, and he isn't afraid to release it.  He reminds me of a young Luther Vandross, but not as reserved.  His voice has much more power behind it, with more vibrato.  And Jacob isn't afraid to be a diva.  Just look at how he gets into this song.  He's one part Luther, one part Diana Ross, and one part all Jacob Lusk.  I love this guy.  Just watch:



Whether he ends up being an "American Idol" or not, he has a long and successful music career ahead of him.  How could he not?  I think we're finally seeing the end of this program as a "karaoke contest", and having it come back to it's roots as a talent competition, like it was intended to be.  The first season had Kelly Clarkson, who ended up being a mildly successful artist outside of the show.  Then year after year they churned out crap after crap, to the point where 'Idol' stopped giving the winner of the season an original song to sing.  Last year's winner recorded a cover of a U2 song as their single.  I'm not kidding.

Maybe this year we're seeing 'Idol's Renaissance period.

Adam Lambert - It Gets Better

Homosexuality, Double Standards, And The Media

So far, I've kept my mouth shut about this whole Adam Lambert "controversy", but, as days go by, it seems as if more and more assholery takes place at the networks. The practice of double standards has gotten to the point, especially with ABC, that it boggles my mind.

Case in point: Wednesday night, on Barbara Walter's 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009, she interviewed Lambert regarding his now notorious AMA performance. Again, ABC refused to air footage of the simulated oral sex or the male on male kissing. No surprise there. What I did find surprising, however, was no more than 15 minutes earlier, during an interview with Lady Gaga, the network aired a segment of one of her music videos showing her kissing another female. So if same sex kissing is so offensive to ABC, why would they show Gaga doing it, and not Lambert. ABC claims that the reason why they did not show Lambert's kiss was in the interest of time and that "It was an editorial decision to show very little from the performance and focus on the fresh, new interview with Adam Lambert." That's strange. Didn't he get the interview because of the kiss? They also said the reason they showed the Gaga kiss was to show examples of things that have upset her father to provide "context" for the interview.

In 2004, on live television, Pink performed 'God is a DJ' on the Billboard Awards. Take a look. Pay close attention at around the 30 second mark and at 1:35:



Let's see:

She flipped off the camera. Check. Pushed a guy's face into her crotch. Check. Banned from the network? No. Public Outcry? No. How come? Was it because she's female? Or because her partner wasn't? Or maybe both? To me, there wasn't any difference in what she did to what Adam Lambert did. I still wouldn't want my kid to watch that on television. And, as an adult, I don't have an issue with either of them.

Now personally, I would have banned Pink from television for her lack of talent, but that's just me. Point is, we see this all the time with female singers, with straight singers, with "Bi or pseudo lesbian" behavior from singers. Madonna and Britney tongue kissed on live TV back in 2003, and although it made a lot of press, neither of them were banned from an entire network or had their performance blurred to "protect" to virginal eyes of America.

What are we so afraid of? As a country, do we truly believe that if we show this gay kid kissing another guy on TV that he's going to convert millions of our youth to the dark side? Really? As if lesbianism or bisexuality is just a fad, but once you've been intimate with another penis, you'll never go back? Is this truly what America is so terrified of? Did you or your parents have an Elton John, Queen, or David Bowie record in your house growing up? Did you turn out OK? It's like saying that you'll grow up to be an axe murderer if you watch Friday the 13th. Really?

The rest of the world is laughing at us right now. The British have had nudity and full on cursing on public television for years now and their intelligence levels are far higher than those in the U.S. and their crime rates are much lower. There is no correlation between sex and violence on TV and sex and violence in the real world. There is however, a direct correlation between fear of sex and violence and acting out in those areas. Our taboos are our downfalls. We always want what we can't have, or can't see in this case.

Adam Lambert's New Album

I'm not a fan of American Idol. It seems to be more of a popularity contest than it is a talent competition. Half the times I have seen it, I look at the screen and try to figure out in my head how America has picked the season winner. Case in point: Ruben Studdard, that one guy that looks like he's 50...I can't even remember his name now...Taylor something....., and the guy that won this last season. Again, I have no idea what his name is. Maybe it's because they're on season 9 or 10 of a show that wore out it's novelty at season 3. Or maybe it's because the wrong guy won. Last season, I saw a total of ten to fifteen minutes of Idol, but I could have told you that the most talented person there was Adam Lambert. He also had the best chance of coming out of that show and having a multi-platinum, lifelong career.

That brings me to the story I read on Yahoo News last night. His label released the image of his album cover for his debut album yesterday. To be honest, at first I thought it was a joke.



Unfortunately for Adam, it's not. This is easily the worst album cover I have ever seen. It is so over the top, it doesn't even look professional. It looks like a fan made picture that should be in a locker...circa 1981. The only thing that is missing is Ziggy Stardust riding on a Pegasus in the background. I have heard so many good things about this album....unfortunately, I will not be buying it. Consider that an ITunes download for me, thanks. In fact, I don't even know any gay men that are that comfortable with their sexuality to be willing to go into a Walmart and pick this one up. Something tells me this one will be huge on the digital market.

I understand the need to express yourself and be an individual and be comfortable with your sexuality. I'm cool with that. But you also have to understand marketing. Just because you're cool with that, doesn't necessarily mean John Doe in Birmingham, Alabama, is going to feel comfortable walking into a Best Buy and picking up a copy, no matter how much he may like your music. I guess all I can say is, thank god for the internet. LOL