Is This Spinal Tap?
Is This Spinal Tap? or David Cassidy Returns? by Roxanne McDonald
 |
Dedicated to little Ashley, the number one Sanjaya fan. |
They swooned in their poodle skirts—cried, sobbed, heaved, and fainted when Elvis undulated on stage uh-huh-huh.
They flipped in their schoolgirl sweaters, ponytails and bangs a bobbing—weeping, crying, sobbing, and fainiting when the Beatles came on stage singing about secrets doo-wah-doo.
And she leapt to her feet, then stood paralyzed and sobbing in a shuddering grimace when Sanjaya appeared, trying as hard as he did to up his performance and smarten his style.
Okay. The Beatles were brilliant.
Elvis was an unmatched icon.
And one lovely child of millions of American Idol fans did not—still—an instant pop cult figure make.
But to be fair, what if there are, say, five million or more tweenies all a twitter over this pretty toy boy—in the same way we were not over the Beatles or Elvis but over Donny Osmond or David Cassidy?
Donny and David likely would not have won an American Idol crown in the seventies, but they could sing well enough to carry the tune of random puppy and other love ballads…and they were lovely to look at. That was all we wanted in an obsession we could make collages of, dream about, build mini personal shrines to, and hope one day to meet and maybe touch.
At first, I shuddered to think Sanjaya would make it to the Top 12. Then I balked as he outlasted better singers. And as a fan of Chris S., Lakisha, and Blake, I was horrified at the young man’s distorted, freakish, Spinal Tap performance—in a hokey coat and with a shrieky but smiling sound.
But now I think about it, while he will not be one who like Clay Aiken or Chris Daughtry are utterly spot on in voice and style, Sanjaya will not have to be brilliant. He will not make it much further in the Idol game, but he will not need to. For he is our David Cassidy for the double oughts.
He doesn’t need to win American Idol (and we don’t have to worry that he will). He only needs to be groomed for and marketed out to the demographic headed by one little Ashley, who, if she could have spoken last night, would have cried out to him, “I think I love you!”
SirLinksAlot American Idol links
No Comments »
No comments yet.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
