todd55devoe's blog: "american idol"

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm a little surprised that Blake didn't win.

He's got a more mainstream contemporary pop sound than Jordin, which is not to say he's a better singer, just that mainstream young pop has been a winner since the music business discovered in the 1950s that teenagers were an even better music-buying audience than adults, at whom popular music had been aimed since minstrels roamed the streets of old Europe with lutes and drummers spoke to each other on the African veldt.

But in the 1950s, when record players suddenly became cheap personal accessories instead of expensive pieces of furniture that families displayed in the living room, the music biz underwent this sea change where young folks started driving the bus.

This wasn't all good or all bad, but it was different. Songs followed the market, of course, and soon the popular songs of the day were Chuck Berry singing "Sweet little 16 / she's got the grownup blues / tight dresses and lipstick / she's sportin' high-heel shoes" instead of Bing Crosby singing "And now the purple dust of twilight time / steals across the meadows of my heart." Love 'em both. They're just aimed at different demos, as we say in the stacks-o-wax biz.

Anyhow, all these mutterings about history aside, teenagers still drive the bus today, even if they listen on iPods instead of record players. What exactly IS a record player, Grandpa?

The point with tonight's "Idol" is that the kind of pop soul that Jordin will probably end up recording has less of an audience, numerically, than the kind of catchy rhythmic pop they'll probably steer Blake into.

He's also got a look and style that teenage girls adore. Not only is he kinda cute, he's non-threatening. You know that when he takes off his shirt, he won't have a "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo under it. He'd probably open the door for you. He'd probably listen when you had something to say. Gals like that in a fella, and it has the bonus advantage of making him less threatening to guys. If your girlfriend were talking to Blake and she came back and said "he's just a friend," you'd probably believe her. If he looked like Johnny Depp, maybe not so much.

As for why he didn't win, well, there is the mundane fact he isn't as good as Jordin. He doesn't sing as well and despite Simon's praise of his personality, he didn't have as much of that, either. Not his fault. That's just how the cards fell. But it wasn't just the fact his voice wasn't quite as good; it was the fact that when he was singing, you could never shake the sense ys the sense he was still the kid with the hairbrush in front of the mirror. Very good by hairbrush standards, but still, a guy doing what he saw someone else do. In contrast, Jordin grabbed every song and made you think it was hers. Even when she didn't do it especially well, it was her song.

Just TRY to take this one away from me, sucka.

Like Laila Ali over on "Dancing With the Stars," Jordin was an imposing woman. If she walked into a room, you'd know it. I'm guessing the "Idol" judges knew it, too, and maybe the voters figured it out.

If "Idol" is looking to incubate stars, which has obviously been part of the game plan all along, Jordin is as good a bet as they've had this year. She may require a little more marketing help than Blake would have, but she also may have a bigger upside.

All that said, I'm still a little surprised that once Blake had knocked off two of the three women who sing better than he does -- LaKisha and Melinda -- he couldn't get past the last one.