American Idol’s Uncomfortable Bedfellow

There are three finalists remaining on Fox’s American Idol, and tonight one more goes home. I don’t know David Cook, David Archuleta or Syesha Mercado from Adam, and I have no opinion about which contestant should or will win because my interest in this year’s competition began and ended with Kristy Lee Cook, the Oregon beauty queen who played the part of this season’s aspiring country star. Cook’s tenure interested me not only because I am a country fan but because I am comfortable in predicting that, for all their talent and popularity, none of the remaining finalists will achieve anywhere near Cook’s commercial success. The fact is that AI is, and to a certain extent always was, dependent on the country genre to maintain it’s popularity and relevance, and the people over at AI don’t like it one bit.

Despite massive (though declining) ratings, the show that markets itself as the proverbial finger on the pulse of America’s collective pop-R&B Top 40 conscious has produced only one legitimate star in that genre. Aside from Kelly Clarkson and fledgling rocker Daughtry, AI has been unable to exert anything beyond a transient influence on mainstream music despite seven years of ruling the network television airwaves. The executives that expected to produce a Kelly Clarkson every season have thus far produced a Kelly Clarkson, a Carrie Underwood and a bevy of B-list country stars. In the face of declining ratings and “American Idols” that can barely finish the American Idols Live! tour before having to beg for a spot on Dancing With the Stars, AI has reluctantly adopted the Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler model, and contestants better be ready to play the part.

The judges were quick to pin the country tail on Cook, as they do for every beautiful female who lives outside of what can properly be called a metropolitan area and can be photographed on horseback. By the end of her audition, Simon Cowell was already saying that “I like the country tone to your voice” and Randy Jackson asked rhetorically, “You obviously love country music, right?” despite the fact that there was anything particularly country about Cook’s paint by the numbers audition performance of “Amazing Grace.”

The surprise for AI was that Cook actually does love country music, and this became apparent when Cook offended every sensibility that American Idol has with a fiddle-laden, steel-guitar-heavy, country shuffle version of “Eight Days a Week.” The judges were almost speechless. Randy, who at least came within an arm’s length of country music by producing Travis Tritt’s recent album, chuckled uncomfortably before admitting that “I actually liked the idea and arrangement of the song,” but Paula Abdul stammered that “you can’t take what we say, like, go for the country thing, too much to heart…. I didn’t get it,” while Simon seemed outraged: “It was horrendous, actually, you sounded like Dolly Parton on helium…. It was a very brave and probably foolish thing to do because that song just doesn’t work in that style, it was like being at some sort of ghastly country fair or something, you know, a couple of banjo players and you…. There’s one thing having a country style, but to change that song like that, it’s just wrong.”

You know that the judges are reaching when Paula, in typically vacuous fashion, second guesses the judges’ own advice while Simon acts offended that the music of a band that’s been covered by everyone in everyway imaginable is set to the tune of a fiddle. Cook is not nearly the talent of the superstar Underwood, but she’s also not nearly as bad as many judges’ critiques would have you believe. The greatest — and perhaps only — problem with Cook’s performance of “Eight Days a Week”, and her run on the show, is that she seems to confuse twang with poor pitch. But by the standards of American Idol, Cook is almost as good as Kellie Pickler and significantly better than Bucky Covington.

The problem wasn’t Cook’s performance, it was that American Idol doesn’t like country music and resents having to steer all its successful alumni in that direction. Josh Gracin, the first Idol contender to succeed in country music, barely touched the genre in season two, performing only “Ain’t Goin’ Down ‘Til the Sun Comes Up” and “Amazed.” Gracin’s limited success prompted Cowell to remark that he was surprised that the show hadn’t produced a country star, and that same year Carrie Underwood, with the full implied support of show executives, publicly expressed admiration for pop-favorites Rascal Flatts and Broadway-voiced Martina McBride, safe choices given the judges’ aversion to the genre that nonetheless made her the most country Idol to date.

Time has shown that Underwood is a legitimate country artist, but she was demure about that heritage during the show’s run, and her “breakout” performance was not a honky tonk standard but a power ballad by the eighties rock group Heart. Pickler, with her syrupy North Carolina accent, was perhaps the show’s first true “country girl,” and possessed the courage to cover Reba McEntire (Simon: “I hated the song personally, but I thought your performance was very good), Sara Evans, and even Patsy Cline (albeit in Big Band style). Still, by finding an excuse to perform a country song on Lennon & McCartney week, Cook became the first Idol contestant to truly wear country music on her sleeve. That this is a recipe for success has doubtless caused some hand-wringing among Idol management.

I expect that Cook will soon be signed to a major label deal, and AI will happily invite her back to perform on a future show. She’ll have a longer, more productive career and perhaps even greater initial success than the Idol winner. Idol will continue to encourage its artists to embrace the one genre that is providing the show with commercial rewards, but don’t expect them to enjoy it.