The Voice Is SO Good!!!

But what exactly is it good at is the question. Let’s break it down.

The Judges: This is The Voice’s competitive advantage and why it became a hit show in the first place. The competitiveness and banter between the four judges are evidence of the kind of chemistry that can’t be made up. It either happens or it doesn’t. It didn’t on X Factor at all, hence the firing of Paula and Pussycat Nicole. Idol has good judge chemistry, too, but it isn’t nearly as entertaining.

The Host: Carson Daly is competent and smartly knows how to stay in the background. This is a complete contrast to the X Factor’s Horrific Host Steve Jones who was incompetent and allowed too much time in the foreground. Of course, Ryan Seacrest is matchless at this job but The Voice is smart in not trying to have someone play the host role like Ryan. They have four big personalities already and the show is designed for them rather than a host.

The Talent: The talent level of The Voice is much higher than Idol or X Factor in that they are drawing from a pool consisting mostly of professional musicians. Some of them are working at a high level or have already done significant recording. I was really angry last year when they didn’t come clean early about this as they were bragging about how much better their talent was than Idol’s. It was disingenuous and they eventually were called out by the media for it – and by me before the media figured it out.

In this regard, Idol and The Voice are two different shows. Idol is the zero-to-hero American dream story – the raw, undiscovered talent that becomes a star. The Voice is the redemption story – the talented down-to-their-last-chance musician who tried and failed and just needs a lucky break.

To their credit, The Voice owned up to that right away in the first episode this year. I don’t have a problem with their premise and as a fan of a lot of talented performers who I think deserve a bigger audience, I love that there is this kind of show.

A case in point – one of the stars tonight was rock singer Juliet Sims. Diandra recognized her right away as being the singer in Automatic Loveletter, a band she is quite familiar with.[1] Last year, she recognized Dia Frampton right away who went on to finish second.

The Recording Stars: Here is where The Voice has work to do. If its reason for existence is to find “the voice” that will become a star, then it failed to do so last year. Both winner Javier Colon and runner-up My Girl Dia Frampton released critically acclaimed albums in November-December of last year and both have been big disappointments in terms of sales. Javier’s album Come Through For You spent only one week in the Billboard 200 at #134. It sold less than his prior album whose sales were weak enough to get him dropped from his prior label deal.[2] A December concert date in D.C. was cancelled with no explanation given which generally means poor ticket sales.[3]

Likewise, My Girl Dia’s album Red[4] was on the charts for just one week at #106. It was recently on sale at Amazon for $3.99 an indication of an album that was overstocked. This is a very surprising given that Dia’s songs on the show went to #1 on iTunes each week. The weekly success that she and Javier had did not translate to later album or ticket sales. This is the big challenge for a show whose major draw is NOT the artists for whom the show exists, but rather the judges. The judges star-making abilities don’t seem to be as great as they like to promote.[5]

How The Voice will do in the ratings this year remains to be seen. Not only is it running during Idol season but it’s also up against The Bachelor in the same time slot. As for me, I don’t like it more or less than Idol. I like them both for different reasons and am happy to be entertained by them both.

___________________________________________________________________________

---

[1] I am proud, awed and intimidated at how often my daughter demonstrates greater knowledge than me in some obscure aspects of the music business – and by the business I mean the industry.

[2] Javier recorded albums for Capitol Record in 2003 and 2006.

[3] Likewise, 3^rd place finisher Bev McClellan had a local concert date in December cancelled.

[4] I won a copy and love it. I do not have Javier’s album.

[5] As opposed to Javier and Dia, the show worked out pretty well for Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera whose Moves Like Jagger debuted on The Voice and has sold over 4 million copies.

My Girl Dia – a Voice Voting Victim?

All-Time My Girl Dia Frampton

Well there is nothing that says you are a serious reality singing show like a voter controversy! (Oh, and you thought the annoyingly on-cue hand-waving during ballads was the sign that you are a serious singing show? Well that, too.) Despite being behind on the charts and in every poll everywhere in the world where there is interweb service, somehow Javier Colon managed to eke out that 2% margin of victory over the presumptive mortal lock, All-Time My Girl Dia (ATMGD). So, how did that happen?

Word is that Javier’s coach, Adam Levine, urged his boy Justin Bieber to get out the vote for his other boy Javier. And apparently (but with no actual way to verify), the Bieberite legions responded en masse as they are wont to do when their boy Justin calls them to arms. With almost 11m Twitter followers for the Biebs to put to work, ATMGD really had no chance. It speaks to her popularity – and the restrictions on multiple voting – that she only lost by that 2%.

I can sense your outrage already. How fair can that be? Well, actually quite fair if you truly understand what this show is all about. Unlike, Idol which gives all power to the voters, The Voice empowers its coaches to a larger degree than the voters. Once the contestants are picked by them in the blind auditions, they decide who survives the battle rounds. Then in the first voting round, they decide on four other contestants to save. In the final eight, their votes count as much as the public vote in getting down to the final four.

And all along the way, they provide their own coaching talent, resources and song choices in an effort to see their mentees survive. Miranda Lambert buys ATMGD a pretty dress. Adam Levine gets Justin Bieber to tweet his peeps to vote for Javier. The Voice is as much a contest between the coaches as it is between the Voicers. Not only that, they don’t exactly make a secret out of their love for Twitter given the sort-of-cute-but-sort-of-annoying blonde hysterically screaming THAT CHRISTINA AGUILERA’S CLEAVAGE IS TRENDING ON TWITTER!!!!!!!!! (#XtinaCleavage) The aggressive use of Twitter as a marketing and a competitive tool is yet another way that The Voice has effectively differentiated itself from Idol.

The truth is, if we’re talking about a reality show, this is reality – who you know and what they’re willing to do for you is how you can make it in the business – and by the business I mean the industry. Frankly, we all know it’s how you can get a leg up in any business. One day, The Civil Wars are toiling in obscurity. Then Taylor Swift tweets to her bazillion followers that they are her favorite group and – BOOM!! – almost overnight they go to #1 on iTunes and become one of the country’s hottest acts. Seventies rock icon Leon Russell was barely making ends meet until Elton John rescues him with a critically acclaimed duet album and national tour. A 15-year old Rihanna’s band gets introduced to a music mogul while he’s on vacation in Barbados and he’s enamored just with her. So it goes.

Regardless of that 2% “loss”, ATMGD will be just fine. Universal Republic (label of Taylor Swift, Jack Johnson, Florence + the Machine) has 30 days to exercise their option to sign any of the Voicers to label deals and Dia’s already talking about having her old band support her solo project and what kind of album she wants to make. So it’s highly likely ATMGD and the label have already been talking which makes sense since every time she did a song on the show it went to #1 on iTunes. And supposedly Vicci Martinez has already had some label discussions, too. As always, I’ll be keeping an eye out on who’s doing what in the bizness.