New Kara talent show to focus on singer-songwriters

[koganbot]

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/10/26/kara-dioguardi-jewel-going-platinum-bravo

The series... will follow 12 musicians as they compete in songwriting challenges across a variety of genres — everything from dance tracks to love ballads... — and perform these self-penned tracks for the cameras.

I think that Kara likes to think of herself as a teacher and would like to give substantive advice in a way that American Idol didn't really permit. But I don't know if this sort of reality-show format will permit it either; it does have potential, however, since it might actually take one into the process of how good songs are constructed. But I'm skeptical about how telegenic that process is. What's going to grab the viewer? I would expect it's pretty rare to find an Ashlee-quality person with live-wire self-expression and an obvious connection between life and song, much less a houseful of such Ashlees.

Comments

[koganbot]

Also, Ashlee worked with collaborators, which made some of that work viewable. Whereas if the contestants here are working without assistance, what's to look at?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It sounds a bit like

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fame_Academy

which was a lot worthier and a lot duller than our version of Idol.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

We actually already had a Fame Academy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One:_Making_a_Music_Star

It was canceled after 4 episodes. The three-judge panel included...Kara DioGuardi.

[koganbot]

Worthiness seems like a definite danger here. A line of inferior Taylor Swifts would be a nightmare (Taylor's singing is simply impossible to copy). But strangely, most of the interesting Idol contestants over the last three years have been idiosyncratic singer-songwriter types; in order of preference: Brooke White, Didi Benami, Jason Castro (an out-and-out stoner), and Crystal Bowersox. Of course we didn't get to hear their actual songs. I got a pre-Idol indie album by White and the only track I liked on it was her cover of Aerosmith's "Dream On." I haven't yet risked her subsequent LP; one of my lj friends likes it, but I snoozed through the single. I'm still in awe of slight, nervous, girly Didi Benami being able to take on and take control of the Rolling Stones' "Play With Fire." She was eliminated early (10th place), so who knows if there even will be an album.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

I think they're looking less for an Ashlee and more for a Kara -- someone who can write in multiple genres, for multiple artists. I also doubt they're going to have the contestants work completely on their own. Music competitions almost always make people work together, because, as you said, watching people writing on their own is boring as fuck -- and the casting notice for the show mentioned special guest stars and a partnership with "The Writing Camp" (which is what Evan Bogart and a bunch of other songwriters are calling themselves these days) so it seems they're planning on bringing in other performers and writers to work with the contestants.

I agree with you re: her thinking of herself as a teacher and wanting to give advice, which is why I was hoping the American version of The X Factor would scoop her up, but this is good enough, I guess.