March 10, 2012, at 11:53 am
I’ll be the first to admit that the first few episodes I watched of American Idol turned me off for good from reality TV with singers. Or so I thought. So it was a surprise for my wife and I to stumble onto The Voice on NBC.
I skipped the first season of The Voice because I figured it would be an American Idol clone, and I had no interest in watching it – until I found out my friend was going to be on the show. My wife and I served in the military with SSgt. Angie Johnson, who was on team Cee Lo this season.
Angie has a cool story – she is currently serving in an Air National Guard band and a YouTube video of her singing at a deployed location went viral and led to her band, Sidewinder, being featured on Entertainment Tonight, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and several other shows, and it eventually led to an invite for her to try out for The Voice.
These military bands perform an awesome service for our troops and you can read a little more about them here (click through – it’s worth the read!). Here is the video that started it all: Sidewinder, performing Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.”
I’m glad my wife and I started watching The Voice. The show is just plain fun and it’s been cool seeing our friend on the small screen. Unfortunately, Angie didn’t make it beyond the Battle Round on The Voice. But even so, she put on a good showing and proved she can sing on stage with anyone. And as for The Voice – my wife and I love it and we plan on following it throughout the season, which is something we were never able to do with American Idol.
Here are the Top 4 Reasons Why The Voice Rocks American Idol
1. The Voice coaches are awesome. Christina Aguilera, Cee-Lo Green, Blake Shelton, and Adam Levine are hilarious. Yes, they are talented performers, skilled judges of talent, and excellent music coaches. But they are also genuinely funny, and it’s a blast to watch them interact. They also have a vested interest in pulling for the performers and building them up as musicians, they don’t just sit behind a table and critique away.
2. The Voice is based on talent – ONLY. Contestants on The Voice are pre-screened for talent – so you don’t get the William Hungs of the world wasting everyone’s time (watch his tryout on YouTube if you don’t remember him, it’s awful). When the contestants first come on The Voice, the judges listen with their backs turned, so there isn’t any mockery made of the process. There is no gender, age, weight, or other bias – they listen and judge based on talent and talent alone. If the coach likes them, they choose them to be on their team.
American Idol has talented performers, sure. But they don’t screen just for talent first. They screen for talent, as well as “entertainment value.” Which brings me to my next point.
3. American Idol is Mean. Seriously – there is nothing constructive about the show. I can’t watch an episode and walk away feeling better about myself, and certainly not for the contestants – especially during the open tryouts. I don’t know why the producers feel they need to bring people on the show for the sole reason of making fun of them. That’s not entertainment, it’s cruelty. Watch this train wreck and tell me how that is entertainment:
Don’t give me the argument that they are preparing the contestants for show biz. They bring people only to tear them down in front of America, just so they can feel better about themselves. That’s not entertainment. It’s just mean.
4. The Voice is competitive, but friendly. The first thing I noticed about the judges on The Voice is there isn’t any animosity or tension between the judges. They are trying to win, but they don’t treat the other judges or contestants, rudely. It’s a friendly competition. Even when the judges aren’t feeling a performance, they either don’t say anything, or they say something constructive.
The bottom line is that I have yet to walk away from an episode not feeling good – about the show, the talent, everything. I didn’t even have hard feelings when my friend was eliminated from the show. Did I want her to win? Of course! But even though she didn’t win, she proved she can sing on stage with anyone. She brought her talent and walked away with her head held high – as did all of the performers who were cut during that Battle Rounds. You can’t say the same about a lot of the performers who don’t make the cut on AI. And that alone is reason to support The Voice.
About the author: Ryan Guina is a writer and former military member. He writes at cashmoneylife.com and themilitarywallet.com.
