How I discovered Clay Aiken

This is a repost of an entry I wrote several months ago at another board, now enhanced with video:

It's January 22, 2004, and I'm watching The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The guests tonight are Jennifer Aniston and Clay Aiken. This is the last season of Friends, which has been a favorite show of mine through my college years, so I will certainly make an attempt to see JA tonight. This Clay Aiken guy, I don't know much about, although I do recall that there was a skit about him on SNL a few weeks ago when Elijah Wood hosted and recall being rather confused about the fascination over him, so I'm a little curious to watch him tonight.

After JA's segment, which had fewer Friends mentions than I had hoped, and I'm watching this Clay Aiken fellow walk onto the set. I don't know much of anything about him, except that he sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" on American Idol, and that he should have won and his fans made a big deal when he didn't. That's what my mother and the internet tell me, anyway. He is taller than I would have thought, since the last picture I saw of him was in Entertainment Weekly, when he was posing with a giant black man. He settles in easily to banter back and forth with Jay. What surprises me most about him is his sharp wit and the animated expressions on his face. He reacts with such bright alacrity to Jay's teasing and jokes that it's impossible not to be drawn to him. When Jay asks for his driver's license, he hands it right over, and I'm a little surprised that he wouldn't anticipate Jay's showing it to the camera. I burst into giggles when he snatches the license back after Jay jokes about the picture; there's a certain authority about him, an open, natural gutsyness to talk back and say exactly what's on his mind that I can't help but admire, even as he's squirming on the couch while watching a clip from his high school musical. I'm impressed and find it rather difficult to reconcil that he could be a pop star (all of the ones that I've seen are total bubbleheads) and certainly can't imagine his having ever been a reality show contestant considering his laid-back boldness and obvious comfort in front of the camera. I've watched many popular movie stars struggle to be interesting or connect with the host or camera, and this guy is just such an utter professional it blows my mind.



We're back after the commercial break, and he opens his mouth to sing. Damn, I didn't expect that. His singing voice is quite distinct from his speaking voice, so full and resonant and completely different than the usual variety of screaming or whiny voices I hear on these shows when "musicians" perform. I almost always turn the channel when musical guests perform on late night shows because they're almost always awful in my estimation, but this man is unquestionably a singer. And again I can't get over the fact that he could have been a reality show contestant less than a year ago. He has such a connection to the camera and moves with such grace that I honestly can't believe he hasn't been a professional for years. It's absolutely mindblowing for me, a person who has been so completely put off by musical acts for all my teenage and adult life, both by their "talent" and their "too cool for school attitude" through all my years of watching late-night television that I take pride in having never purchased a CD ever or been to a concert. I mean, who would pay money for music when it's A. not worth the money, and B. you can listen to it for free if you really want to by turning on your radio? I don't know what I'll do because I'm actually strangely compelled to seek out more of this "Clay Aiken"'s music that of course I'll turn to my omnipotent best friend, the internet and look for more information about him before I decide whether I can actually take the monumental step of actually purchasing a CD. Google turns up ClaytonAiken.com and its accompanying message board and I begin reading. And so it begins...



Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Tonight Show, Jay Leno

Clay Aiken sings with fans!

Since we're still in the wake of Clay Aiken's watercooler-talk worthy appearance on American Idol Wednesday night where he appeared and sang with a fan, I thought it would be nice to reminesce about the summer of 2004, during Clay's first solo tour. Every night at each venue, Clay would encourage audience participation by selecting a fan to sing on stage with him, which made for some really cute and memorable moments. This video I've linked on YouTube is my favorite of that summer, it's from the Ohio State Fair in 2004, where Clay sings with a little girl named Faith, and their interaction is absolutely pricelss.

Video by va_1587:


Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Ohio State Fair

Let's Give 'Em Something to Talk About

So a couple of days ago I was speculating that Clay Aiken needed to somehow shatter the stereotypes associated with his old image to move forward with his new music, and lo and behold on last night's American Idol 5 finale with 200 million people watching per Ryan Seacrest:


Shock. And. Awe.

On the Clay Aiken fanboards I read, people have speculated about this strategy for some time now, but all of us fans have been thinking it would be more a reveal of the Clay Aiken "we know" as fans to the general public. But he surprised us too. I consider myself a pretty dedicated but decidedly reserved fan of Mr. Aiken who is cool and calm with most career decisions he makes, and the bit on AI hit me like a truck. When the impersonators' segment started I was sinking into gloom thinking "Oh no, here comes a horrible Clay impersonation" *cringe, cringe* "They're going to make Clay's appearance this awful joke" *can barely watch, let alone listen* and then Clay took the stage and I was like WTF?!?! for at least twenty minutes after looking at his hair. Just totally shellshocked.

After some of the feedback from general public, long dormant fans, and even the media came in stunning favor of his new look and showed that people actually understood that Clay was re-establishing his image apart from the ridiculous stereotypes loosely based on his appearance three years ago, my brain started resuming its normal functions. And you know what? I think it's brilliant. Tons of people are talking today about Clay's new look and he's very much been jolted back into the public consciousness again with tons of buzz. Just in time for a new album release announcement, perhaps? Well played, Team Clay, well played.

As for me, I'm slowly coming around to the new haircut. It's kinda endearing after you watch the segment back ten times. And the initial horror of having the impersonator guy sing with Clay has somehow been replaced by an appreciation of how genuinely surprised and happy the kid was at meeting his idol and how professionally and kindly Clay responded. It's sweet really. And squee! Clay's back!

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, American Idol 5 finale

American Idol's Final 2 Night

Boy, talk about anti-climatic. Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee both reprised two songs they did previously on the show and then sang a horrible original song to close the show. I think Katharine was at a distinct disadvantage having chosen two songs she did relatively recently on the show and the far worse of the two awful original songs in "My Destiny." Of course I pretty much have no memory of any songs that Taylor has done on the show since I've had little interest in listening to them back, not being a particular fan of his voice (whereas I've played back Kat's performances numerous times and know them pretty well), so his songs did seem a little fresher to me in addition to being performed earlier in the season, but still. I've watched three seasons of this show, I was laughing at the lyrics of "I Believe" in season 3, cringing at the lyrics of "Inside Your Heaven" in season 4, but last night made me realize that at least those songs had melodies. Taylor's "Do I Make You Proud" only had some semblance of melody in the chorus and Kat's "My Destiny" had none whatsoever. You would think for the number one rated show on television they would have the best songwriters in the world just dying for a chance to have their songs be the final two's singles, but apparently Simon Fuller has a lot of relatives...or something like that. :/

The watercooler moment of the show has got to be Taylor's purple velvet jacket though:


It's not a good thing when that's the most lasting impression the most watch show on TV leaves you with. I definitely think the big winner this season has to be Daniel Powter, whose "Bad Day" got five weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 chart and may very well be the biggest song of 2006. It was pretty weird that they played a montage of contestants in the screen on the background and tried to simultaneously show both the montage and Powter. It seems like it would make more sense to focus either just on the performer (which is what I would want if I were DP) or the montage the audience is watching instead of having weird long shots incorporating both that show no detail whatsoever.

Tonight: Clay and Carrie! And Taylor's inevitable coronation.

Technorati Tags: American Idol, Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee, Daniel Powter

New CD, New Image

Today I was reading the Time cover story on the Dixie Chicks, which featured this particular photograph as one of the accompanying pictorials:
I was thinking "dang!" because in my brain full of mock magazine pieces for Clay Aiken's new album that was one of my concepts. Clay gets so much crap from "comedians" and "journalists" (and filth of the underworld that deserve no specifics other than being tabloid lies) that I thought it would be fitting. But maybe it's too cloyingly playing the victim though (see Kayne West's Jesus crown of thorns Rolling Stone cover). I'm actually kinda sick of the Dixie Chicks' whining already since I seem to encounter an article about them every where I turn. :P

So an alternative more proactive kind of image to project might be Clay with a hammer swinging away to shatter some stereotypical representation of him. That would be kind of hot actually. *Pauses for a moment to imagine the picture* But in any case I would like to see Clay plainatively call those media types on their ridiculous stereotyping and bullying him based on stereotype and thus refusing to listen to or play his music. He already started hitting back at "too cool" interviewers with razor-edge snark and blunt emotion in the articles that were published during last summer's tour, and I'd love to see him tackle the national press with that same attitude. It should be very clear that he's a grown man with real feelings who has paid his dues, won't let anyone take away his inner peace, and is determined to stay in the business because he loves performing.

I guess I'm a little worried about the "love songs" concept CD because I wonder if the label would try for a soft sell of Clay is a nice boy singing pretty songs just like Barry Manilow, and I'm not sure how a tougher, Clay as-an-adult image that I feel is necessary to develop fits with love songs. But there was the TV Guide article from last summer (that I did not love at the time but retroactively understand better) to set it up, so we'll see.

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Dixie Chicks

American Idol Ramblings

So I've been watching American Idol for three years now--never used to be much of a reality TV watcher, but that adorkable guy with the voice of a god, Clay Aiken, put it on the radar for me back in 2004. I saw him on Jay Leno's show and he absolutely blew me away. His sense of humor had me laughing out loud, and not only that he was this talented, charismatic singer with an unbelievable stage presence that could work a camera better than, well, anyone I'd ever seen musical guesting on a late night TV show. Just such a total professional that I couldn't believe he was an amateur from a talent show less than one year ago. I figured if they could discover a talent like Mr. Aiken, then maybe it might be worth watching. I've since become a huge fan of Ms. Carrie Underwood, another classy, intelligent lovely individual with amazing pipes.

This year, I'm a fan of Katharine McPhee, and am very excited that she's made it to the finals. I'm not terribly optimistic about her chances to win given the judges clear predilection for a male winner this year and the devotion of the "Soul Patrol," Taylor Hicks's fan base, but hopefully it will be close. It's pretty impressive that Kat has even made it this far considering she is from LA and not some place in the south that's mobilized their entire county to vote for her with free text messaging booths like some of her competitors have had. She's also been leading the AOL poll wire-to-wire, so she might have a chance at this thing. I hope so.

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee, American Idol

How "singer/songwriters" are ruining pop music

Let me say first that I respect the true singer/songwriter/musicians that write and compose all their own music; however, the current trend of all pop stars selling their own personal lives I find rather disgusting. Suddenly they're all "songwriters" churning diary entries about "my life sucks and it's everyone's fault but mine, but don't feel sorry for me because I'm so tough." *Gag, hurl* Not to mention all the songs are really written by professional songwriters lifting the same old hooks and instrumentals and just rearranging them all to make the songs "new." I understand how something can touch you so deeply that you want to share it in song, but when it becomes more about "look at me, I have so much credibility for sharing my personal life" than about the actual quality of music, there's something wrong there. I think this is a big part of why so much contemporary music sucks; everyone is obsessed with spilling their personal lives all over their albums and don't care or realize how poorly written and derivative all of their music is. Ick. Not to mention that some of these people, in addition to not being real songwriters capable of constructing their own music without professional help, are also not good singers. So now instead of rewarding either good singing or good songwriting, the charts are basically rewarding whose sexiest and shares the most from their sad personal life or their polarizing political views. But what about the music? How about original melodies and beats and meaningful lyrics for a change?

Current mood: disgusted

Technorati Tags: singer/songwriter