American Song Contest - General Discussion

[BetterButter]

US Eurovision Song Contest: Michael Bolton, Macy Gray, Jewel, Sisqó All Set To Compete In First US Version

[Lois Sandborne]

Noooooooooo

[peachmangosteen]

I'm so excited for this!

[BetterButter]

How ‘American Song Contest’ Voting Will Work Via TikTok, and Who’s on the 56-Member Jury Panel

[SunnyBeBe]

4 hours ago, BetterButter said:

How ‘American Song Contest’ Voting Will Work Via TikTok, and Who’s on the 56-Member Jury Panel

I’m trying to watch this now.  It’s rough.  I’m not sure how much more I can take.  

[Atlanta]

So far I only like the country singer from Arkansas and I'm not into country music.

[auntiemel]

Oh, I know two of the people in this contest, I was excited for this show, I didn't realize it had started. Bummer it seems like people aren't liking it. I'll have to figure out where to stream it.

[Angeleyes]

I liked Alexa the K-pop girl from Oklahoma. I’m thinking she’s going to hit it big even if she doesn’t win this contest. I also thought the guy from Puerto Rico had potential. The others were just meh for me.  
I’m not sure when his episode will air, but the guy representing Texas is named Grant Knoche and he’s from Frisco (DFW area). He’s a pop guy. 

[HerkyJerky]

1 hour ago, Angeleyes said:

I also thought the guy from Puerto Rico had potential.

ITA!

[Vermicious Knid]

Pink girl from Iowa was a big nothing.

[HighQueenEB]

4 hours ago, Atlanta said:

So far I only like the country singer from Arkansas and I'm not into country music.

She wasn't that good.  Painfully off-pitch the entire song.  

Minnesota boy band was meh.

The Oklahoma K-pop girl was interesting - she has super stage presence and sounded okay.  

Indiana hip-hop - not my taste at all.

Puerto Rican guy was decent.  Not sure how I feel about Kelly channeling Blake and the alcohol on live TV, even if rum is way better than vodka, lol.  And, don't even get me started on wondering just what she did to piss her stylist off.  That polka dot monstrosity was not flattering.  

Why is Michael Bolton competing on this show?  Or any other artists who've won Grammys or had multiple #1 records?  

Iowa - she was okay but the girl-power anthem was a little too "on the nose".  Pass.

Will Wisconsin's song be as cheesy as his intro?  This guy is trying to sell me on "quirky and weird" the same way Iowa was trying to sell me on "go women!" so I suspect his song will be just as unimpressive.  Eh.  He's kind of got a bit of a rockabilly look and his voice could be as cool as Marty Stuart or Dwight Yoakum, but this "Nuvo Retro" thing isn't going to take America by storm (and he's not as singularly cool as either Stuart or Yoakum were when they were cranking out hits on the country charts).

Sweetie, there are less syllables if you say the letters instead of "crooked letter" and "humpback" when spelling Mississippi.  And you don't sound like you're trying as hard as either Iowa or Wisconsin when you say the letters the normal way.  I also FFW through your song because America hasn't been big on pop divas belting out songs in a long time.

Wyoming - Oh, I notice Kelly's put on the Michael Bolton shirt she got autographed to cover up the polka dot monstrosity...  Well, this song ain't no "Boot-Scootin' Boogie" of a hit.

Why did you take the Bolton shirt off, Kelly?  I just noticed the white Mary Janes she's got on with black tights.  Really.  Her stylist hates her.

Rhode Island - the most genuine, real song and singer of the night.  He's my dark horse of this group.

[SnideAsides]

Do you remember the year the Met Gala went viral because they picked "camp" as its theme and the rest of the world mocked America for not knowing what it meant? This is that, but for music instead of fashion. Like there was attempted camp, sure, but this was basically Eurovision as interpreted by people who think the filler performances during award shows are the height of camp culture. And I know it's unfair to compare something that's in its first year to something that's been around since the Soviet invasion of Hungary, but... you know, you want to trade on the brand and you hire people who've produced the OG version, you get the comparison whether you like it or not, show.

And since I'm comparing them, I don't think many of these songs would have made it through a Eurovision semi final. Rhode Island sure, it's the sort of song that always finishes like fourteenth because juries love it but phone voters don't care for it. Wisconsin absolutely, and probably Oklahoma and Iowa on the strength of K-pop and punk rock voters alone (certainly not on song quality in either case), but that's about it. Maybe Puerto Rico in a weak semi, but it's the sort of thing that typically only just squeaks through and then flops in the final. The rest? Not a chance, and I'd struggle to imagine a situation in which that awful Wyoming song would've even gotten a single point.

In conclusion, Minnesota's act is the non-union American knockoff of Lake Malawi, and one is enough.

[katalizt]

I turned it on right before Puerto Rico so I didn't see anything before that.

Puerto Rico was solid, i could totally see that song being on Latin radio right now, but it's nothing groundbreaking.

Michael Bolton - I knew nothing going on so I was surprised when they announced him. Song was meh.

Wyoming - horrible

Iowa and Mississippi - didn't care for them.

Wisconsin - literally forgot about him until right now when I realized pink girl is Iowa and not Wisconsin

Rhode Island - best one of what I saw and I'm glad it was the jury's choice.

 

[JenLily]

I think this is going to be a fun show to watch. I understand why they toned it down from the original Eurovision though; I'm guessing a wide swath of America has never seen Eurovision before (Mr. Lily asked if they were basing this on the Will Ferrell movie 😂) and would be super confused at any wild performances.

I missed the first two performances but I listened to the songs on YouTube. MN was okay, the song sounded like pretty much any generic boy band song one would hear on the radio. I really liked OK's song though, it had a fun beat. I'm looking forward to seeing her perform it. I thought the AR song was pretty, even though I'm not super into country music. IN's was fine, it had a catchy hook but otherwise not particularly memorable. I really liked the Puerto Rican artist but the song itself was only okay. I wish he'd sung it in Spanish. I wonder if he chose to sing in English to be more appealing to a mainstream American audience, a la Ricky Martin. I was surprised to see Michael Bolton there. When they announced his name, I thought it would be an Office Space situation where some poor soul was also named Michael Bolton and lived his entire life constantly getting mistaken for the real thing but no, there the real thing was. I haven't looked to see who else is slated to perform. Are there any other famous artists representing states/territories besides him? I liked the song well enough but his performance was lackluster to say the least. He looked like he was reading his lyrics on a teleprompter. I didn't really care for IA's song, it was a little too girl power for me and the tune itself wasn't particularly catchy. WI's song didn't stick with me at all. I can barely remember what it sounded like and I can't be bothered to go looking for it for a re-listen either. It took me a while to get into the MS song. There was so much going on onstage that I was distracted and couldn't really focus on the song itself. But by the end I liked it well enough. I really liked WY. The performance was a lot of fun and the song itself was a toe-tapper. I hope he moves on. I loved RI as well. It was a gorgeous song and I love the quality of the singer's voice. I'm glad he was passed through immediately.

I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the performances. This will be a nice way to pass the time over the next few weeks. I just hope there's a nice balance of upbeat songs and ballads that end up advancing. I can't think of anything more boring to watch than a finale filled with slow songs.

9 hours ago, HighQueenEB said:

Sweetie, there are less syllables if you say the letters instead of "crooked letter" and "humpback" when spelling Mississippi.

The way she spelled it made me giggle. When I was little, my mom taught me how to spell Mississippi by reciting, "M-I-crooked-crooked-I-crooked-crooked-I-P-P-I" in a little singsong voice. To this day, her song runs through my head when I have to spell it out. 😊

[SnideAsides]

2 hours ago, JenLily said:

I wonder if he chose to sing in English to be more appealing to a mainstream American audience, a la Ricky Martin. I was surprised to see Michael Bolton there. When they announced his name, I thought it would be an Office Space situation where some poor soul was also named Michael Bolton and lived his entire life constantly getting mistaken for the real thing but no, there the real thing was. I haven't looked to see who else is slated to perform. Are there any other famous artists representing states/territories besides him?

Macy Gray, Jewel, Sisqo, and The Crystal Method are representing Ohio, Alaska, Maryland, and Nevada. I think the thing to remember is these are all legitimate recording acts who are already in the industry to various degrees; it's not like they raided Youtubers who were edited out of The Voice when none of the judges picked them.

Puerto Rico: Possibly? I don't think it's an actual rule that they have to sing in English - again, this is based on Eurovision, which kept "you must sing in your own language" as a rule until Ireland and the UK kept winning every year (added context: one of this show's executive producers, Christer Bjorkman, represented his native Sweden right at the start of this era) - but also I don't think there's many other acts that might sing in other languages? Like maybe the territories and Hawaii, but from the mainland I don't think there's any First Nations acts. Arizona's got a Latina folk duo who seem likely to sing in Spanish, but that's about it.

[CrystalBlue]

What with the red/blue background, Snoop Dogg's wild outfit and Kelly's fugly polka dots doll dress with big sleeves which make her look even bigger, too much incohesive clashing going on.  Hurt my eyes.  The Minnesota Boy Band who should call themselves The I'm Sorries instead of Yam Wham Whatever it is, lasted until after the first cutesy wink from the singer and when I realized what they were, I turned the channel.  Hurt my ears.

I might resume on Hulu to see if there's anything worth trying to hope for after reading these posts, but I'm doubtful I will be a season watcher.

[JenLily]

47 minutes ago, SnideAsides said:

Macy Gray, Jewel, Sisqo, and The Crystal Method are representing Ohio, Alaska, Maryland, and Nevada. I think the thing to remember is these are all legitimate recording acts who are already in the industry to various degrees; it's not like they raided Youtubers who were edited out of The Voice when none of the judges picked them.

Thank you for the info! I guess I probably should've said "mainstream artists" rather than "famous artists"? I knew that the performers aren't complete unknowns but tonight the only name that I actually recognized was Michael Bolton's. Then again, maybe I'm not as plugged in to the music scene as I used to be. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised either way considering the artists that have performed on Eurovision.

[SnideAsides]

Yeah, they're definitely going for the "best of the best" vibe of Eurovision. I don't think there's many household names (it's basically just those four I mentioned and Bolton, so even though none of them are really that current - Jewel and Macy have both been demoted to appearing on versions of The Masked Singer within the last year, for example - I wouldn't be too shocked if they end up split into one heat each, just like I'm expecting the territories to be split up), but almost all of them have recording deals or TikTok fame already or have worked with big stars or so forth.

[katalizt]

Ok I just watched Alexa from Oklahoma and that was a fun song and performance.

[Twilight Man]

10 hours ago, JenLily said:

The way she spelled it made me giggle. When I was little, my mom taught me how to spell Mississippi by reciting, "M-I-crooked-crooked-I-crooked-crooked-I-P-P-I" in a little singsong voice. To this day, her song runs through my head when I have to spell it out. 😊

When I was little, they spent one year showing these classic Fleischer Studios cartoons called "Screen Songs".

They were educational and would always feature a "Bouncing Ball" song at the end.

I still remember the silly song at the end of "Drippy Mississippi" that would help little kids

remember how to spell that word.

[Whimsy]

On 3/22/2022 at 3:22 AM, HighQueenEB said:

She wasn't that good.  Painfully off-pitch the entire song.  

Minnesota boy band was meh.

The Oklahoma K-pop girl was interesting - she has super stage presence and sounded okay.  

Indiana hip-hop - not my taste at all.

Puerto Rican guy was decent.  Not sure how I feel about Kelly channeling Blake and the alcohol on live TV, even if rum is way better than vodka, lol.  And, don't even get me started on wondering just what she did to piss her stylist off.  That polka dot monstrosity was not flattering.  

Why is Michael Bolton competing on this show?  Or any other artists who've won Grammys or had multiple #1 records?  

Iowa - she was okay but the girl-power anthem was a little too "on the nose".  Pass.

Will Wisconsin's song be as cheesy as his intro?  This guy is trying to sell me on "quirky and weird" the same way Iowa was trying to sell me on "go women!" so I suspect his song will be just as unimpressive.  Eh.  He's kind of got a bit of a rockabilly look and his voice could be as cool as Marty Stuart or Dwight Yoakum, but this "Nuvo Retro" thing isn't going to take America by storm (and he's not as singularly cool as either Stuart or Yoakum were when they were cranking out hits on the country charts).

Sweetie, there are less syllables if you say the letters instead of "crooked letter" and "humpback" when spelling Mississippi.  And you don't sound like you're trying as hard as either Iowa or Wisconsin when you say the letters the normal way.  I also FFW through your song because America hasn't been big on pop divas belting out songs in a long time.

Wyoming - Oh, I notice Kelly's put on the Michael Bolton shirt she got autographed to cover up the polka dot monstrosity...  Well, this song ain't no "Boot-Scootin' Boogie" of a hit.

Why did you take the Bolton shirt off, Kelly?  I just noticed the white Mary Janes she's got on with black tights.  Really.  Her stylist hates her.

Rhode Island - the most genuine, real song and singer of the night.  He's my dark horse of this group.

I liked the K-Pop girl because of the performance, but she “sounded ok” because she was lip-syncing. 
 

I liked the Minnesota guys, and not just because I’m originally from MN, heh.  
 

I FF’d through the rest. I was trying hard to focus on the lyrics and music since this is American SONG Contest, not American SINGER Contest, but it was really hard. 
 

I didn’t really thin’ it was fair to have someone of the caliber of Michael Bolton on the show. They couldn’t find any other songwriters from CT?  I didn’t like his song, either, so I guess it didn’t matter anyway. 

[Angeleyes]

I only got to see the lady from MS’s performance on Instagram, so I did not see her intro package. I grew up in Mississippi and the crooked letter/hump back thing is how we are first taught to spell it in schools. Plus, you’d be surprised how many times people ask us to spell it when placing orders, conducting a business call, etc. Also, people misspell it all the time. I’m guessing she was trying to be cute, but spelling the name of the state was not necessary here. As for her performance, it seemed like her performance wasn’t matching up to the song. She was trying to do too much for the type of song that it was and that was distracting. I wonder how they chose these performers because I know my home state has a lot of great song writers and performers.   

[Ilovepie]

On 3/21/2022 at 5:34 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

I’m trying to watch this now.  It’s rough.  I’m not sure how much more I can take.  

Same. Came here to see if it got any better. We made it through the K-pop girl performance and half the next backstory before turning it off. Too much backstory. Sadly, I don't think me and the hubs will be taking this journey. I wish it was more bananas like Eurovision. I feel like they scrubbed it clean into a generic American singing show with the slick backstories - just another version of Voice/Idol. It's a pass......

From the standpoint of a song writing contest, I think Song Land was superior. Bummer because I was looking forward to this.

[SunnyBeBe]

1 hour ago, Ilovepie said:

Same. Came here to see if it got any better. We made it through the K-pop girl performance and half the next backstory before turning it off. Too much backstory. Sadly, I don't think me and the hubs will be taking this journey. I wish it was more bananas like Eurovision. I feel like they scrubbed it clean into a generic American singing show with the slick backstories - just another version of Voice/Idol. It's a pass......

From the standpoint of a song writing contest, I think Song Land was superior. Bummer because I was looking forward to this.

I wonder if the premise is to consider the song and not the performers, but that’s difficult to do.  Sadly, I don’t think I liked any of it. Just painful.
 

 I am curious as to what the contestant from my state will perform.  NC is jam packed with musical artists and I’m not kidding.  They often do well on music competition shows and some have won big time awards.  I hope they have a good one. If so, I’ll be tempted to vote for them, but not watch the show.  

[Cinnabon]

On 3/22/2022 at 1:28 PM, JenLily said:

I'm guessing a wide swath of America has never seen Eurovision before (

That’s just so sad and frankly, pathetic. The Eurovision competition has been around since 1958, I believe. I adored the band from Minneapolis and the guy from Wisconsin, at any rate. K-pop girl was also very good. 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Cinnabon

[Cinnabon]

On 3/22/2022 at 1:28 PM, JenLily said:

I was surprised to see Michael Bolton there. When they announced his name, I thought it would be an Office Space situation where some poor soul was also named Michael Bolton and lived his entire life constantly getting mistaken for the real thing but no, there the real thing was.

Ha! I was thinking the exact same thing. No idea why this Michael Bolton was on this show. It did give me the opportunity to share my riveting story about seeing Michael Bolton sitting around the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the 90s with my mom, though 🤣.

8 hours ago, Ilovepie said:

Same. Came here to see if it got any better. We made it through the K-pop girl performance and half the next backstory before turning it off. Too much backstory. Sadly, I don't think me and the hubs will be taking this journey. I wish it was more bananas like Eurovision. I feel like they scrubbed it clean into a generic American singing show with the slick backstories - just another version of Voice/Idol. It's a pass......

From the standpoint of a song writing contest, I think Song Land was superior. Bummer because I was looking forward to this.

I agree. Just skip the unnecessary backstories - they’re  one reason I hate AI and The Voice. I just want to hear the music.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Cinnabon

[SnideAsides]

7 hours ago, Cinnabon said:

That’s just so sad and frankly, pathetic. The Eurovision competition has been around since 1958, I believe. I adored the band from Minneapolis and the guy from Wisconsin, at any rate. K-pop girl was also very good. 

I mean, it's not like it's been particularly accessible in the US until very recently. Like, I wouldn't expect the average Belgian to have ever sat down to watch the Superbowl, for example. Sure, you could probably expect people who've spent a lot of time in Europe (or Australia) to know what it is, but when the proportion of Americans with passports is infamously low compared to the rest of the developed world, that's not going to be a massive number.

I don't mind that they toned down the Eurovision, I just wish they toned down the NBC. It's a miracle none of these people were "while you were away"-ed, especially with how bad the pacing is. Like, they barely got the jury qualifier announcement in the last ten seconds, and it's only going to get even worse in coming weeks when you've got to reveal the previous week's public vote qualifiers and do a full Live Via Satellite tour of the country during the final. I didn't mind the "Snoop reads facts" filler, but they really need to cut like fifteen seconds (at least) out of each intro package and cut out Kelly's green room pop quizzes entirely.

[Cinnabon]

4 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

I mean, it's not like it's been particularly accessible in the US until very recently. Like, I wouldn't expect the average Belgian to have ever sat down to watch the Superbowl, for example. Sure, you could probably expect people who've spent a lot of time in Europe (or Australia) to know what it is, but when the proportion of Americans with passports is infamously low compared to the rest of the developed world, that's not going to be a massive number.

I don't mind that they toned down the Eurovision, I just wish they toned down the NBC. It's a miracle none of these people were "while you were away"-ed, especially with how bad the pacing is. Like, they barely got the jury qualifier announcement in the last ten seconds, and it's only going to get even worse in coming weeks when you've got to reveal the previous week's public vote qualifiers and do a full Live Via Satellite tour of the country during the final. I didn't mind the "Snoop reads facts" filler, but they really need to cut like fifteen seconds (at least) out of each intro package and cut out Kelly's green room pop quizzes entirely.

I bet the average Belgian has heard about the Superbowl, though. I just find extremely sad that so many Americans are unaware of much of the rest of the HUGE world out there. Very myopic, and to me, sad. The US is just one of 198 other countries.

[Atlanta]

But you have to remember, it's pretty easy to hop around Europe since the countries are smaller. It's akin to hopping from state to state. You can go from east coast to west and that's about 3,000 miles.

[Cinnabon]

11 minutes ago, Atlanta said:

But you have to remember, it's pretty easy to hop around Europe since the countries are smaller. It's akin to hopping from state to state. You can go from east coast to west and that's about 3,000 miles.

I know. But I bet most Europeans, Australians, etc know a lot more about the US than Americans know about them. I just have contempt for that. 

[katalizt]

6 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

cut out Kelly's green room pop quizzes entirely.

If she hadn't dragged out the one question about the state bird so long they would've had at least 20 extra seconds to announce the jury selection at the end...

[SnideAsides]

55 minutes ago, Cinnabon said:

I know. But I bet most Europeans, Australians, etc know a lot more about the US than Americans know about them. I just have contempt for that. 

I feel like you're drastically overestimating how much the world gives a metric shit about America, to be honest. Like, I'm a reasonably well-educated person from one of the most pro-US countries outside the US, and I could not confidently point to a map of American states and tell you which one is New York, let alone Iowa, Minnesota, Connecticut, Indiana, et cetera. Alaska and Hawaii are obvious, and California, Texas, and Florida are pretty easy to guess, but the rest? Not a fucking clue, and even in those states I couldn't tell you which major city is which. And that's just the basic geography, we're not even talking about things like the cheese hats yet. (Please don't explain them to me, it's much funnier this way.)

Heat 2 entries: Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia.

[Cinnabon]

8 minutes ago, SnideAsides said:

I feel like you're drastically overestimating how much the world gives a metric shit about America, to be honest. Like, I'm a reasonably well-educated person from one of the most pro-US countries outside the US, and I could not confidently point to a map of American states and tell you which one is New York, let alone Iowa, Minnesota, Connecticut, Indiana, et cetera. Alaska and Hawaii are obvious, and California, Texas, and Florida are pretty easy to guess, but the rest? Not a fucking clue, and even in those states I couldn't tell you which major city is which. And that's just the basic geography, we're not even talking about things like the cheese hats yet. (Please don't explain them to me, it's much funnier this way.)

Heat 2 entries: Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia.

I probably am overestimating, and I’m glad to hear it! The US is not the center or leader of the world, no matter how myopic many Americans can be. 

[TheGreenKnight]

I wasn’t surprised at the winner of the night considering I thought his only competition was the “Loco” guy. I’d rank the KPOP star as my #3 and country woman #4 (her voice was on the weak side, but I did like the song itself).

Overall, I wouldn’t say I’m crazy about the show so far. I know Snoop Dog and Kelly Clarkson were trying their best to make it work, but I’m not so crazy about it so far. I think that show from a few years back called Rising Star (Brad Paisley was one of the judges) had more potential than this one. Who knows though. Making it a state versus state competition does add a new element.

[SnideAsides]

Heat 2 rehearsals (minus Ohio, because Macy Gray must've pulled a Bolton and got a later rehearsal time):

Unless Macy turns it the fuck OUT, Kentucky is getting the jury spot.

[HerkyJerky]

8 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

Unless Macy turns it the fuck OUT, Kentucky is getting the jury spot.

I don't know; OR is pretty fly!/s 

(WTF was that?)

[peachmangosteen]

Is that the guy that won The Voice?

[Amy Beth]

I liked Kansas the best.

[BuckeyeLou]

On 3/27/2022 at 9:25 AM, peachmangosteen said:

Is that the guy that won The Voice?

Yes, Jordan Smith from KY won "The Voice"...I guess he's trying to boost his career...

[BuckeyeLou]

Well, this show just seems to be a mess, I dont understand why people like Michael Bolton or Jewel are competing against 'average kids" from across the USA(Altho most of these kids seem to have careers in the music business already).  And Kelly Clarkson's outfits are Horrible!  Who is her Stylist?!  The ugly polka dot dress last week was so unflattering(and hideous shoes with it), and tonite, she had an ugly leather(pleather?) outfit...I dont know what it was...pants? An apron? It was very unflattering.  Dont know if I will continue with this show.

[TheGreenKnight]

The "jury"'s top four from the first show would've been my top 4. And I wasn't surprised when Michael Bolton's name value ended up bumping out country girl thanks to the audience vote. At least he wasn't awful, but I thought her song was much better than his.

Same thing happened at the end of the show with Jordan from The Voice making it in safe. He did sing better than everyone else, but that song wasn't a favorite for me. I imagine Macy Gray has another one of the four slots on lock for the same reason. She looked wiped out, btw. Seeing really well-known people mixed in there, it almost feels like the show has no rules at all... Broderick (Kansas) had my favorite of the songs. I thought Chloe (North Dakota) and Enisa (New York) were good, too. Most of the people on both episodes so far have been very poor though, tbh.

[SnideAsides]

Yeah, I don't know whether it's a sound mixing issue or the singers trying to work around the small studio or what, but out of 22 songs so far I've properly liked... one? Which didn't qualify last week? And because the jurors are mostly pretty similar Grammy execs and commercial radio DJs and songwriters, who explicitly have "hit potential" as part of their judging criteria, anything that's not mainstream is dead in the water. Like, if you're going to brag about the diversity of genres (oh, look! Country! And... a slightly different type of country!) but apparently not going to have metal and disco and jazz and reggae and musical theatre songs competing, at least give us jurors with those sensibilities to make the qualifiers less predictable.

[peachmangosteen]

I can pretty much never even hear what they're singing. That's a big part of why I quit watching The Voice.

[jpgr]

3 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

I can pretty much never even hear what they're singing. That's a big part of why I quit watching The Voice.

Yes! The mix is off, and many of these singers don't enunciate at all. I don't expect operatic diction, but if the lyrics are meaningful, I'd like to know what the heck you are singing about.

[peachmangosteen]

I wish they'd put the lyrics on the screen. This is supposed to be about the songs, right? It'd be nice to actually know what the lyrics are lol.

[sharifa70]

NBC can’t seem to hire anyone who can do proper sound mixing: AGT, The Voice, and now this show all seem to have similar terrible, terrible issues. 

RE last night’s performances:

Oregon: I am embarrassed to say I have anything to do with Portland (though I live across the river in Washington). First, “Courtship” is a stupid band name. Second, you get one shot in a nationally televised contest and you sing about smoothies? Smoothies? They were just oh-so-too precious and and cringeworthy.

Montana: More terrible mixing. I couldn’t hear him over the band at all except for a large amount of reverb. Also, what was with his weird, hunched-over singing posture and T-Rex arms?

New York: At least I can see this one getting some radio play time, though I thought there was a lot of autotune, which is an affectation I do not enjoy. Also: are some of the singers lip-syncing their performances? This didn’t feel live to me. Oklahoma last week felt the same.

Nebraska: Well, it was definitely live. Nice voice, nice song, but something I can hear in any coffee shop.

US Virgin Islands: The dancers were super-distracting. I think I liked the song but I’d never remember it.

Kentucky: Hi, Jordan from The Voice! Still doing you, I see.

North Dakota: I actually really liked this one. Too bad she won’t win.

Kansas: Another radio-ready song but nothing to distinguish it from any other current radio song.

Virginia: No. 

Maine: As soon as I saw “Kyote” I hated him for spelling it like that. I don’t even remember his song. 

Ohio: I won’t cry if Macy Gray moves to the next round; I’ve always liked her.

General thoughts:

I’m okay with well-known names appearing since it’s not meant to be an amateur competition and most of the performers appear to be established in their various careers.

NBC needs to hire sound engineers who can actually mix sound.

They also need to hire people who can work cameras and do some proper editing. The camera work is truly terrible. Like, Halle Berry playing basketball in Catwoman with more than 100 cuts-level awful. And all the swooping! Dear god, make it stop!

[HighQueenEB]

7 hours ago, sharifa70 said:

Oregon: I am embarrassed to say I have anything to do with Portland (though I live across the river in Washington). First, “Courtship” is a stupid band name. Second, you get one shot in a nationally televised contest and you sing about smoothies? Smoothies? They were just oh-so-too precious and and cringeworthy.

Just catching up since I have insomnia and I'm in Washington (County) and highly embarrassed also.  The whole song and the fact that they name dropped "Portlandia" screamed "we're wannabe hipsters!" in such a sad, overdone way.  The only thing missing was the Dutch Bros logo on those smoothie cups.  (Not a slam against Dutch Bros in any capacity, btw - I love their peppermint hot cocoa any time of the year, lol).  This cannot be the best my state has to offer.

Montana - he's country radio-ready.  From a songwriting perspective - there are so many country songs that are so much better, but I'm betting he gets through to the semi-final because he sounds like Luke Bryan, and he's a young, hunky guy.  

New York - I liked her!  The song was catchy and you could definitely hear the international influences in it.  

Nebraska - name-dropping Darius Rucker automatically gets my attention...  Not the greatest singer, sweet song.  Can't see her making it through, though, and I FFWed through the last half of the song because I couldn't with the off-key singing.

Virgin Islands - not too shabby, but I doubt he makes it to the semi-finals because we just had a Latin singer with PR make it through from last week.

At least Kelly's stylist likes her better this week.  She still doesn't really like her, but she doesn't full-on hate her.

Kentucky - I didn't like Jordan Smith on The Voice, so I'm pre-disposed to not like him here.  Well, this is a better inspirational song than Nebraska, so there's that.  I still FFWed through the last 30 seconds of it because, nah.

North Dakota - liked her too!  Similar to NY, the song has some interesting influences in it, but she's probably not going through even if she should.

Kansas (we're really covering a wide swath of the Midwest tonight, aren't we?) - eh.  I can't be bothered to give more of an opinion than that.

These "just statin' the facts" tidbits need to go.  I know that they're supposed to be funny but I feel like Snoop Dog is delivering them too straight - he's missing the punch line.

Virginia - It's been over 25 years since I went to college in Virginia, but I've never heard nor seen any of my DC-MD-VA friends refer to their area as "the DMV", so, yeah, no...  See plenty of NoVa references, though...  And yeah, even 30 years ago, the differences between NoVa and the rest of the state were pretty apparent, lol.  She does have good stage presence, so I could see her advancing.  More likely, though, she and NY are going to split votes and neither will get through.

Well, Chloe from ND has sewn up the quilters' votes.  And there are probably more of those than y'all realize.  Maybe there's a chance for her to advance to the semi-finals after all.

Maine - this guy's from the other Portland.  Tell me, Maine folks, is this guy as try-hard-Portland-hipster as the Oregon duo with the stupid band name?  He kind of reminds me of Kid Rock, who is from neither Oregon nor Maine.  

Ohio - so, here's the night's "star".  Anyone else positive that the "names" who signed on for this show are guaranteed to advance to at least the semi-finals?  I'm annoyed that this is going to move forward over one of New York, North Dakota, Virginia, the Virgin Islands or even Montana.  There ain't no saving this song even with the gospel choir backing her up.  

Meh.  Jury got it wrong advancing Kentucky over North Dakota or New York tonight.

[sharifa70]

3 hours ago, HighQueenEB said:

I love their peppermint hot cocoa any time of the year, lol).

Beverage twins! Hi!

I was disappointed (but not surprised) by Jordan’s jury win. I also thought there were better acts, though I agree that NY and VA were similar enough to probably split the vote (I didn’t get through VA’s performance, though).

[Whimsy]

3 hours ago, HighQueenEB said:

Virginia - It's been over 25 years since I went to college in Virginia, but I've never heard nor seen any of my DC-MD-VA friends refer to their area as "the DMV", so, yeah, no...  See plenty of NoVa references, though...  And yeah, even 30 years ago, the differences between NoVa and the rest of the state were pretty apparent, lol.  She does have good stage presence, so I could see her advancing.  More likely, though, she and NY are going to split votes and neither will get through.


Maine - this guy's from the other Portland.  Tell me, Maine folks, is this guy as try-hard-Portland-hipster as the Oregon duo with the stupid band name?  He kind of reminds me of Kid Rock, who is from neither Oregon nor Maine.  

It's also been 25-ish years since I lived there, but we lived in Alexandria and worked in DC (military).  NO ONE called it that.  We called it the DC Metro area or the belt (looking at traffic, you knew which way to go on the belt lol). I mean, maybe it's new jargon, but it struck me as odd too.

Maine- yes. I am not from Maine, but from Massachusetts but he's for sure a try-hard-Portland-hipster.  I did like his song, though.

I agree with many of you that the mixing is terrible and I FF most of the songs because either they sound terrible or I just don't like the lyrics.  I have noticed that some people lipsync and some sing live.  I honestly think they should all lipsync so we can hear the words and the studio mix if this is something that's intended for radio play. 

[Lovecat]

17 hours ago, sharifa70 said:

Also: are some of the singers lip-syncing their performances? This didn’t feel live to me. Oklahoma last week felt the same.

I'm quite certain some singers are lip-synching; last week there were a couple that were very obviously doing that very exaggerated enunciation thing with their mouths that to me is a dead giveaway.

I watch this show in speed mode:  I watch the intro packages, and then they have a verse and a chorus to hook me or else the rest of the show gets the FF button.  I skip most of Snoop and Kelly's in-between stuff, too; I love them both, but I don't have time for their foolishness :)  Kelly Clarkson's stylist must REALLY hate her; this week she looked like she was wearing a Hefty bag, and as a fellow zaftig lady, I make a point not to wear anything with "hefty" on the label.  You can do better, Kelly Clarkson's stylist!!