American Idol Offers Studio Tracks from Contestants

As American Idol chugs its way through its sixth season, it is still looking for ways to keep the show fresh and cutting edge. Perhaps taking their cue from the multitude of websites that offered mp3 downloads of the weekly performances, the American Idol website (www.americanidol.com) now offers full studio versions of each contestant's weekly offerings. It offers the Idol machine a way to make an extra dollar off the young people on the show, but according to Internet message boards the polished studio recordings may have a serious impact on who will be voted off and who will remain standing on the American Idol finale in May.

The point of American Idol is, ostensibly, to find a pop star that will sell records. Some past contestants who were wonderful on the show have produced lackluster records (Taylor Hicks) and those who were less than spectacular on the stage produced surprisingly listenable CDs. (Kelly Pickler comes to mind.) American Idol has shown the public what was a secret for years- some great stage voices do not translate into great recording voices and some mediocre stage voices sound great in the studio.

Listening to some of the tracks from this years contestants yields a few expected results (inexplicable teen heartthrob Sanjaya Malakar sounds the same on the show and in the studio. I'll leave it up to you to decide if that is a good thing or not), but Hayley Scarnato's tremulous voice is confident and strong when tweaked by an engineer. If you listen to her studio take of "Tell Him," you get the feeling she would make a passable CD. Melinda Doolittle, who is consistently wonderful on the show still has a strong, polished voice on record, but lacks the spark that makes her live performances so mesmerizing.

The real revelation in listening to the tracks is Blake Lewis. Already a standout for his beatboxing and unique style, Lewis' adequate stage voice soars on the recorded tracks. His version of "Keep Me Hangin' On" was panned by the judges, but the studio version breathed new life into a song almost twice as old as Lewis. The British Invasion Week's "Time of the Season" was a radio ready track that would be a hit if only it were eligible for the Billboard charts. The songs show that Blake Lewis doesn't need American Idol as much as American Idol needs Blake Lewis. He could be vote off and still make a hit record.

The die heard fans of the show have noticed the differences in the studio recordings and are changing their voting strategies. Previously strong contenders are losing ground to contestants that will be more likely to make a good record. By making these recordings available, American Idol not only stands to make money from the sale of the tracks, but also from increased sales of the winner's CD.