American Idol 10: Why Scotty Won

American Idol 10: Why Scotty Won

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by David Bloomberg -- 05/26/2011

Scotty McCreery was not simply a good singer – he also demonstrated other characteristics that helped push him from merely being a performer to being the American Idol. Indeed, it may be that some of these other factors were even more important than his singing abilities. What did he do well enough to carry him to an easy victory? Why did Scotty win?
















When we first saw Scotty, he immediately caught our attention with his deep voice, his obvious country roots, and his aw-shucks charming personality; for a certain segment of the audience, the fact that he was a cute young guy didn’t hurt! Indeed, in my “Contestants to Watch” article that first discussed him, I noted that despite the fact I’m not a country music fan, even I could see that, “dang does he have the ultimate classic down-low country singing voice!” I predicted he might even make it to the finals – little did I know he would go even better than that and get to the finale, and then coast to victory!

But this is where we get to the question we’re here to answer. How did he get to this point? What road did he travel? When others went wrong, how did he go so right? To put it concisely: Why did Scotty win?
Each week throughout the season, we have asked the inverse question – why did each finalist lose? Now we will use the same criteria, found in What ‘American Idol 10’ Contestants Need to Know, to look at how well Scotty did in his victory.

We begin at – where else? – the first rule. It discusses the need to show both singing and performing talent. From the beginning, Scotty showed poise and professionalism, seeming completely comfortable the stage. That’s not to say there weren’t any problems, as he took on a bizarre “squinty, half-leaning country posturing,” as I put it in We’ll Be the Judge of That! at the time. I didn’t personally enjoy his performance – because I’m not a country music fan – but even I could tell, “Scotty definitely has a good voice and I have no doubt that country fans absolutely loved it. He’ll be around for quite a while.”

So began his run of solid performances that simply didn’t end. Week after week, with only a few blips, Scotty showed his singing ability. Unlike some of the male country singers before him, he didn’t suffer from their vocal problems. He had a good voice and performed well – it’s as simple as that. And while Scotty’s rather odd microphone-holding technique certainly drew some comments and jokes, it obviously wasn’t weird enough to scare away voters.

One issue, however, that did cause some people dismay was in his song choices. With only a relatively few exceptions, Scotty essentially sang the same thing over and over again. Amusingly, recapper Jenn even foresaw this after his first performance, saying, “there’s showing people who you are as an artist and there’s doing the same thing over and over. Guess which one Scotty’s doing? If I were planning to vote, I would have a hard time coming up with a reason to vote for Scotty. So I can hear him sing the same kind of song week after week? No, thanks.”

But here’s the thing: Jenn (and myself, for that matter) don’t represent the audience that Scotty was targeting. Of course we weren’t going to vote for him singing that same kind of song over and over again. But you know what? We probably weren’t going to vote for him anyway!

Scotty benefited from a change to the way Idol operated this year. Gone were disco week and big band week and all the times that would have normally pushed him outside his comfort zone. Instead, Scotty was able to pretty much pick songs that continually represented who he was as an artist.

Throughout the process, he stuck to his guns. He was country through and through and he wasn’t going to pretend to be anything else. He knew how to play to his audience and he chose his songs accordingly. A perfect example of this was a couple weeks ago, in the final four. The NGH Report’s Joseph said it best, so I’ll quote him:

Scott showed us that, once again, he was made to strategize. When I heard the theme was “Inspirational Songs,” I immediately turned to my father and said, “I bet you he sings a song about, Jesus, America, or 9/11.” Who would have thought he’d find a song about all three?!

But Scotty’s good choices in songs went much further back than that – all the way to the first few auditions and in Hollywood. Scotty defied the conventional wisdom by repeatedly singing the same song (I don’t even have to quote it – the lyrics just popped into your head all by themselves). Many of us watching and commenting on the performances thought he was crazy to do it! Contestants were supposed to show an ability to sing different songs! But Scotty knew where he was the most solid and he wanted to put his best foot forward – so he did… and it worked perfectly for him.


Another thing that worked perfectly for Scotty? Well, I already mentioned it: The format change that didn’t force him outside of his comfort zone. The third rule tells singers they need to be consistent and able to sing different genres. Guess what? Scotty is forcing me (along with Idol themselves) to likely delete that second part come next year. If the producers aren’t going to make the singers jump around in different genres, then there is no reason they need to be able to do it! Scotty just proved that!

Scotty also proved just how important the first part of the rule still is – consistency can mean everything. It’s clear as day: This rule says, “you need to be able to sing every week consistently.” Scotty did. Sure, there were a few minor slips, but those came after his voting base was solid enough to handle them. Until that point, he was a rock.

Actually, Scotty did even a bit better than that. Like Haley showed us, Scotty didn’t just stay on a level playing field – he improved as the rule instructs… at least to a certain point. Unlike Haley, Scotty didn’t start as an underdog and have to scratch and claw his way to stick around each week. Scotty’s path was a bit different in that he was seen from the get-go as a likely frontrunner, but he still improved along the way.

Several of our Foxes On Idol writers have suggested that Scotty essentially coasted and held back a bit in the finals until he was criticized (albeit mildly) by the judges. After all, why change or improve when you’re being told you’re already great? It can be much better to wait and then show such “improvement” after you’ve been told to do so! Then everybody believes, “Wow, you’re even better than we thought!”
 Presuming Scotty was thinking along these lines (and I do believe he is cagey enough to have done so), it was a great plan.

But not everything can be planned. Scotty’s role in this season as the male country star, for example, needed some help because he couldn’t control who might be up against him. Even so, though, Scotty stood out in terms of the fourth rule by showing himself to be unique – certainly among his own competitors and also throughout the show’s ten seasons.

Sure, we’ve had male country singers before, but none of them were this charming, this young, or – most importantly – this good. And as I mentioned before, none of them had the opportunity Scotty was given to keep himself firmly planted in a single genre. Just as Scotty didn’t need to worry about tackling various different types of music, he was better able to define exactly who he is as a singer, again emphasizing his uniqueness.

Because of that, Scotty was also extremely memorable. While one or another of the various young ladies who were on the show might have fallen out of your recollection (I have to admit, I struggled a bit with some of them on finale night!), Scotty was firmly planted there. Heck, I even suggested as much earlier when I mentioned the song we all know he sang several times in the early goings and noted that I didn’t need to quote the lyrics because they would just spring into your head. Like I said, memorable!

Pulling those aspects together made Scotty into the complete package he is, in accordance with the sixth rule. I’ve already said it a couple times, but I’ll say it again now: Scotty has looks, charm, voice, performance skills, and a well-defined musical genre. We all know what to expect from his first album. Voters knew exactly what they would be getting when they dialed (or texted, or whatevered) in for him. Scotty knows who he is and he made sure we knew it as well.

The seventh rule was a non-issue. Why? Because it says not to argue with the judges and, other than maybe once (the very mild criticism/guidance), Scotty had nothing to argue against!

So that brings us to the eighth, which says to create a fan base. Obviously, Scotty did an awesome job here. We’ve always known that country fans are a solid support base for any decent Idol contestant. We’ve also known of the power held by young teenaged girls, who seem to be among the most dominant voting bloc (if such reports are to be believed). Scotty managed to hook into both of these groups! Heck, he and Lauren even managed to somehow avoid the vote-splitting we almost always see in situations where two contestants with similarities are up against one another.

We know the overall voting tally for the finale was huge. According to the information – mostly unofficial – that I’ve seen, the margin was quite wide as well. Scotty had been so successful at turning himself into a vote-worthy package that he also created an unstoppable fan base.

Scotty’s Idol journey helps to emphasize one of the main reasons for these articles. If it was all about singing, we wouldn’t need to worry about why one person lost and another won. But it’s not. Scotty did a good job not only on the stage but also in his preparation. He sang what he knew. He picked good songs that would appeal to his target audience. He stayed positive and focused on the goal. To properly use a phrase, he was indeed “in it to win it.”

Scotty not only performed well, but he did so on a consistent basis and then improved when he eventually needed to do so. He showed all the viewers exactly who he was as both an artist and a person in general, grabbing up a big chunk as his voting support in the process. Scotty didn’t just sing his way into the American Idol title – he seemed to have planned it out, defining himself early and lodging himself in viewers’ minds. Strategy combined with talent and charm – that is why Scotty won.

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American Idol 10: Why James Lost?

American Idol 10: Why James lost?

Firstly, I'd start with his curtain call:


American Idol 10: Why James Lost



(For SOURCE: CLICK ON THE TITLE)

by David Bloomberg -- 05/16/2011

James seemed to be the frontrunner to win American Idol, but instead he followed so many other talented singers who left in fourth place. What happened?! Should we be surprised? Does it remind us of a previous rocker who also went out in fourth? How did other factors affect James this past week? Why did James lose?

I should have known better.

In my prediction article with Sting7, I said I didn’t know if he would win, but, “If I were forced at gunpoint to make such a prediction right now, I’d say yes.” I did give myself a bit of an out, adding, “But this is American Idol and crazier stuff has happened!” Back and forth I went, both in my own mind and in the article. After that statement, I said, “Still, it won’t be so crazy that he’ll go home.” Then I noted, “I said something similar about Chris Daughtry at about this time in his season,” and related the story of how I predicted Chris’s win in a newspaper column that was pre-printed… and appeared in the paper the morning after he lost!

James’s loss has a similar feel to it, and as I said at the top of this article, I should have known better. I got caught up in his performances as much as anybody, but now it’s time to take a step back and objectively look at our question: Why did James lose?

Even in shocking times when I give myself a head-slap and wonder what I was thinking, we go about this the same way – by looking through What ‘American Idol 10’ Contestants Need to Know to figure out just what happened here. (And yes, for the record, I know I’m behind on Jacob’s column – but I wanted to jump ahead for James’s because I felt that question needed answering more than Jacob’s did.) While we’re at it, I have a feeling some points from Why Chris Daughtry Lost may appear here as well – like I said, this has a familiar feel.

We begin with the first rule, which says to show singing and performing talent. It should be obvious to everybody that James has both of these in spades. However, in his final night, not everybody loved him. Well, the on-site judges did, but that’s no surprise. As for those of us here at Foxes On Idol, it was a bit of a mixed bag.

In her recap, Jenn said James’s first performance was “actually … boring.” She liked his second song much better, though. Our We’ll Be the Judge of That! duo felt essentially similar, with Tyler calling the first song only “solid” and Erika saying it was a “normal” James performance. Not really criticism, but not singing his praises. The second song earned higher marks, with Tyler saying it wasn’t as good as some previous performances but was definitely worthy of becoming a hit, and Erika chiming in that he rocked the house.

Joseph, in The NGH Report, ranked James as only third out of the four performers. He said James’s first performance “felt really lazy” and “something was missing.” Joseph, like our other writers, preferred the second performance, saying it was a “great vocal” and “just soared.” However, he also noted, “it wasn’t the moment I think he needed.”

As for me, I felt pretty much the same as my fellow writers. His performance of that classic Journey song (which was my absolutely favorite song back when it came out) was not up to his usual level in my opinion, despite what the on-site judges said. And his second song rocked the house.

However, it’s time to turn back to look at what happened to Chris Daughtry. To quote from “Why Chris Lost”:

One of the items mentioned in the first rule, but rarely referred to this season, is the issue of confidence vs. overconfidence: “You need to be confident when you are up there. Look like you belong there. But don’t overdo it and become overconfident, because then people will turn against you, thinking you’re egotistical.”

At the time, I said I personally didn’t think that Chris had crossed the line, but others did. The same is true here. I have heard whispers that some viewers felt James was getting overconfident. Indeed, a little bit of that even showed after he was informed he had lost, as he talked about having done things on the show that nobody else had done.

Continuing with my Daughtry article:

Could it have been that he too believed he would be in the final two? Is it possible that some people saw this in him even if I did not? I’d have to say yes. After all, if a few people … thought it, odds are they are representative of people elsewhere, and that factor cannot be ignored.

Interestingly, another line from the first rule in the Chris article also mirrors what we have already talked about already: “But getting back to his recent performances, last night gave us a bit of a mixed bag.”

So let’s talk about that a little bit more in terms of the second rule. Besides the general opinion around here that James didn’t kill “Don’t Stop Believing,” most of us also thought it was a poor song choice. Jenn noted, “Of all the songs in the world, he chose this one? … Steven thinks this was a good choice because the song is really popular right now. Correction: It was popular two years ago when Glee did it.” I’m glad Jenn brought that up, because I was thinking the very same thing! I mean, sure, “Don’t Stop Believing” enjoyed a popular resurgence because of Glee, but even besides the fact that it happened a couple years ago, it’s also a double-edged sword because you often don’t want to compare yourself to a recently-popular song.

His second song was definitely a better choice, with Jenn noting, “The arrangement is easily the most original one of the evening – “Love Potion No. 9” as a rock song. Thank you, James!” Tyler similar said, “About time we heard James Durbin hard-rockify another song. … [T]his is the kind of song that James could have hits with. It screamed pure rock, and that's all I want.”

It may have been what Tyler wanted, but was it what overall viewer/voters wanted? We’ll get to that later.

I don’t want to leave this rule without once again looking back and what I had said about Chris Daughtry, as it seems eerily familiar:

This week, I think [another contestant] picked two absolutely perfect songs. Chris, however, picked one good song and one that maybe wasn’t so good. I can’t say it was definitely bad because some people did like it. I didn’t.

Replace “Chris” with “James” there and it would have seemed to be written about this week’s performances!

The third rule discusses the need to be consistent. James not only did well in that basic portion of the rule, but the more complex aspect involving risk-taking. We saw such behavior from Blake, Adam, and David Cook in previous seasons, and James was right to follow that path.

But there is also a part of this rule that talks about Lee and applies here in something of a reverse way

Last season, Lee did even a little better than just being consistent – he got consistently better. … There were certainly little blips here and there, … but overall, he did better and better as time went on in the competition.

The on-site judges commented on it, as did many columnists and viewers. The Lee we saw on the finale looked very little like the one we saw early in the competition – he had gained a ton of confidence, which allowed him to put more of himself into the performances and make them that much better. Lee started off good but ended up, as Simon said, going from a normal person to a star. That is even better than being consistent and even can help explain why so often we see those who are initially deemed as favorites fall by the wayside while others step into the role and win it all.

Sound familiar? James started strong and finished strong, but didn’t have that upward trend. Who did? Haley has shown it the most, but each of the other two also have boosted themselves along the way as well. It’s something of a frontrunner curse – if you’re already at the head of the pack when you start, it’s hard to get even better; meanwhile, the underdogs can catch up.

Moving to the fourth rule, it tells contestants to be unique. There is no doubt that James succeeded wildly in that regard. Sure, he was compared to Adam Lambert at first, but that was just silly. James was his own man and showed it throughout the competition. Heck, even though I’m comparing him to fellow rocker Chris Daughtry throughout this article, that doesn’t mean the two of them would ever be confused! It’s the result and some of the related issues I’m comparing here.

Similarly, James certainly gave us some memorable performances in accordance with the fifth rule. His loss definitely had nothing to do with any failures in this regard.


The sixth rule might also seem to be a gimme – James knew he had to package himself, and did so in order to show just what kind of an artist he is. He never held back the fact that he’s a rocker and wants to sing on stage with screaming guitars. And a lot of people loved it! He had talent, he had personality, and he was likeable.


But there was a problem that was somewhat out of James’s control. I’m going back to my article on Chris Daughtry again for this one (and this is also one reason I feel I should have better seen this coming):


The only issue here is that a large part of the package that is Chris is that he’s a rocker. [I]t was always clear where his true musical focus was.


At the time, I then questioned whether a rocker could ever win Idol; since then, we’ve seen it happen. But James was facing a different challenge – he was up against the country fan base. While I was focusing on Scotty and Lauren splitting that vote, apparently it’s even stronger than I realized!
But even looking at the rocker (or rockers, depending on exactly how you categorize singers) who have won, they have represented what I would call more mainstream rock. James has been emphasizing a harder rock – to the point of metal – than most viewers would embrace. And while Chris Daughtry has gone on to have a couple successful albums, when he was on, he faced a similar situation, as I noted at the time, “Chris’s brand of rock and roll went after a different audience, and that audience may simply be too narrow to win on Idol.”

This leads us directly to the eighth rule (the seventh talks about arguing with the judges, which was a non-issue for James), which discusses the need to create a fan base. Here I’m once again going to quote from “Why Chris Lost”

Chris certainly had [a fan base], and they were loyal. But were they big enough? I would have to say no. Infact, looking back, it really is something that I should have picked up on sooner... Anyway, as the show nears its end, more people tend to watch and vote. As the voting audience grows, the power of a narrow fan base will erode, which is what happened to Chris. This is not Rock Star, and most people tuning in are not looking for Chris’s brand of rock music.

The same definitely held true for James. Heck, I would say it was even more true that his chosen genre isn’t as popular with as many Idol fans, and that was emphasized greatly in his performance of “Love Potion No. 9,” with the screaming guitar and all.

At this point in the competition, it was even more complicated than that – James didn’t just have to worry about his own fan base, but about those of the other three singers. Scotty’s fans have shown themselves to be amazingly loyal (as country fans have been throughout much of this show’s history). Lauren’s fans have likewise been loyal and she was hailed as the star of the night and she was coming back from a low point – all of these things helped spur her voters on to greater heights.

And then we had Haley, the ultimate underdog this season. She was singled out for criticism by the judges, to the point that Randy even declared the first round a three-way tie – everybody except for her! While it was not necessarily good for Haley to argue with the judges, the fact is that many people thought the judges were unnecessarily hard on her, which could easily have spurred her fans and other viewers into action. Indeed, Simon seemed to have learned, through his years on the show, that when he criticized a singer too much, their fans would often respond with lots of votes. There were times when he said something mildly nice and I had the distinct feeling that was because he wanted them to go home and didn’t want the fans having a reason to vote angrily. Apparently, Randy hadn’t learned this lesson yet.


James is a great singer with a big personality who went all the way with his performances. He brought in fans from all over, and those fans certainly love him. He was unique, he was memorable, and he presented himself as a complete package. But he wasn’t perfect. He occasionally picked a bad song or had a less-than-stellar performance, as he did in leading off the final four show. And while his fans loved most of his hard-rocking songs, that somewhat closed the door to bringing in new, more middle-of-the road fans as the competition became fiercer.

The final four is a dangerous time, as many talented singers have found out – James is only the latest. It is a time when one little miscue, or even the judges being too harsh on somebody else, can tilt things just enough against you. James showed us who he was, never backing away from that, and had a great fan base because of it. But hard rock/metal fans just are not the target Idol audience, and that somewhat narrow focus hurt in terms of bringing in new voters during this crucial week – especially in comparison to the fans of the other three remaining contestants. That is why James lost.