‘American Idol’: Behind the curtain

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Note: This post is appearing here because ‘American Idol’ Show Tracker Richard Rushfield is in Park City, Utah, covering the Sundance Film Festival. He’ll return next week. In the interim, Mr. Rushfield has asked me to chronicle the second week of ‘Idol’ Season 7. It should be noted that I am a music journalist who, prior to 2008, had refused to watch the contest. My long-held refusal to tune in to ‘Idol,’ said Rushfield, is the precise reason why I was drafted. After this week, I’ll be back to my regular, non-’Idol’ duties.

‘American Idol’ concluded its sixth hour in two weeks on Wednesday night, and of those 360 minutes, only a small fraction were devoted to actual music.

That may seem odd, seeing as how ‘Idol’ is out to find our next pop star and all. But this is not a show about music. In fact, in these early Season 7 episodes, ‘Idol’ has done little, if anything, to actually celebrate or promote pop music. Simon even went so far as to tell ‘Idol’ lovebirds Randy Stark and Crystal Ortiz, a couple who met on the ‘Idol’ message boards (hey guys!), to essentially not even sing for their families.

A dose of truth for the delusional, perhaps, but for a show about music, ‘Idol’ has an amazing ability to shatter dreams, and to make one feel stupid for ever trying to sing in the first place. A lifetime passion? Destroyed in about 20 seconds -- 20 seconds in which technique (the ability to hold a note and carry a tune) is held in higher regard than passion and personality.

Oh, I want to believe you Jeffery Lampkin. Jeffery performed with his sister Michelle on Wednesday’s Charleston, S.C., auditions, and had an energy that would make Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo proud (as well as a waistline). ‘Anybody can sing, but you have to have the ‘ow’ factor,’ he said. Not sure if the family act he has with his sister is going to work (OK, it isn’t), but as far as a singer with an ‘ow’ factor, Jeffery is the closest there’s been in Season 7.

That’s why it’s surprising the pair were actually voted on to Hollywood. For there were two moments in Wednesday’s episode -- admittedly, the most entertaining ‘Idol’ episode this season -- that did a fine job of capturing the way the pop-star-making end of the music industry actually works.

1. Sixteen year-old singer Amy Catherine Flynn (pictured), or, in her words, ‘AC, whatevs.’ There was only one way she was not going to make it to the Hollywood round, and that was to botch Christina Aguilera’s ‘Reflection’ so horribly that to pass on her would have required Fox’s intervention. The girl is the captain of her dance team at Knoxville Catholic High School in Tennessee.

So: Catholic high school dance team captain + decent signing voice = golden ticket into the music industry. Sorry, but anyone who disagrees hasn’t been paying attention to pop music. Plus, she preaches abstinence. That’ll be downright adorable in Hollywood.

Ah, but one couldn’t help but feel a little worried for her. There was a horrifying moment from the 2006 South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, that popped back into my mind (try as I might, I haven’t been able to forget it), and it made me wish that Amy Catherine had not been granted a trip out West.

Jeff Fenster, the A&R executive who signed one Britney Spears, told a roomful of people that the soon-to-be pop star scored a record deal simply because ‘she looked like the sweet, all-American girl that you just wanted to defile and do bad things to.’

Now, that is most certainly not why the trio of ‘Idol’ judges sent Amy Catherine to Hollywood, but it’s safe to say those in the music business are not the kind of folk you want to introduce your teenage daughters to, and Amy Catherine is the kind of wannabe-artist that the industry can’t resist.

2. DeAnna Prevatte, or ‘little tiger,’ as Simon called her.

She sang ‘Fancy,’ a song popularized by Reba McEntire, and, apparently, was also sung by Season 5 ‘Idol’ contestant Kellie Pickler. Prevatte belted and wailed the tune, dropping to her knees and shouting it across the room to the judges. With a bluesy rock band behind her, Prevatte probably would have sounded alright.

But it’s ballads ‘Idol’ will be wanting this season (every season?), and the judges were clearly taken aback by Prevatte’s strong personality. ‘A bit angry,’ Simon said of her performance. ‘It’s an angry song,’ Prevatte calmly replied.

She also corrected Simon on the pronunciation of her name, and ranted against poor tippers at the restaurant she waitressed at. Yet she was one of the few ‘Idol’ auditioners we’ve seen with a little fire, and that’s probably what doomed her.

This isn’t a contest for those who are going to be talking back and reinterpreting songs and going their own direction. Just look at the brouhaha that happened with Kelly Clarkson‘s album last summer.

Also of note: Oliver Highman, who came off as a pretty solid wedding singer, had to have his audition delayed because his wife went into labor. After being rejected by the trio of judges, he asked if he could show the panel his newborn.

Because one can’t turn down an invitation to see a baby when cameras are rolling, Highman brought out his daughter for some show-and-tell. As the Highman family walked off, Simon said: ‘We’ll be seeing her in 15 years.’

Am I the only one who heard that as a threat?

--Todd Martens