S12.E13: The Knockouts Premiere

[Vyk]

From TV Guide:

After being paired against teammates, contestants selects songs to perform for coaches Alicia Keys, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, and Gwen Stefani.  Coaches have one chance each to steal an artist from another team.

This one will be two hours long.

[Jabu]

Just to remind you all, here are the team rosters/cheat sheets at this point in time:

Team Adam
Mark Isaiah
Josh West
Johnny Hayes
Malik Davage
Hanna Eyre
Jesse Larson
Autumn Turner
Davina Leone

Team Gwen
JChosen
Johnny Gates
Aaliyah Rose
Stephanie Rice
Troy Ramey
Brandon Royal
Brennley Brown
Hunter Plake

Team Alicia
Anatalia Villaranda
Quizz Swanigan
Chris Blue
Vanessa Ferguson
Jack Cassidy
Lilli Passero
Ashley Levin
Dawson Coyle

Team Blake
Lauren Duski
Casi Joy
Andrea Thomas
Aliyah Moulden
TSoul
Enid Ortiz
Felicia Temple
Caroline Sky

[viajero]

The first sneak peak is up.

Spoiler

For me, Lilli was the clear winner, but who knows what Alicia is going to do.

[Vyk]

 

It's at the point where it's really hard to predict any of what Alicia will do.  Lilli, I can see, was the better one vocally, but Ashley was more ambitious.  Ambition tends to be rewarded more than great vocals nowadays, but what we'll see what Alicia thinks tomorrow.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Vyk

[Dots And Stripes]

Not a good night to be named Johnny. I thought both Johnny should have won their knockouts. Also disappointed to see Autumn go.

Enough with he children, Gwen. Quizz is talented but he is so not ready. I was happy Alicia cut him because I think the younger artists tend to struggle with the live rounds. I think he would have been better off leaving after the knockouts.

I still think that Alicia is being too generous. I think Lily should have beaten Ashley. Both coaches with steals said they would pick Lily, so she makes Lily available for the steal. 

[FrauBlucher]

That rendition of "Fancy" was just awful, I'm sorry.   

Spoiler

Was really surprised that Alicia chose Ashley over Lilli. Like choosing a karaoke singer over a professional. I'm glad that Lilli was picked up and I think she can do well with Adam.

[TiredMe]

Shocked that Adam chose Josh over Johnny. That piercing whine I heard must have translated differently to Adam. It was painful.

[Jabu]

Current team rosters/cheat sheets:

Team Adam
Hanna Eyre (defeated Autumn Turner)
Josh West (defeated Johnny Hayes)
Lilli Passero (stolen from Team Alicia)

(Still Waiting)
Mark Isaiah
Malik Davage
Jesse Larson
Davina Leone

Team Gwen
Hunter Plake (defeated Johnny Gates)
Quizz Swanigan (stolen from Team Alicia)

(Still Waiting)
JChosen
Aaliyah Rose
Stephanie Rice
Troy Ramey
Brandon Royal
Brennley Brown

Team Alicia
Ashley Levin (defeated Lilli Passero)
Chris Blue (defeated Quizz Swanigan)

(Still Waiting)
Anatalia Villaranda
Vanessa Ferguson
Jack Cassidy
Dawson Coyle

Team Blake
Casi Joy (defeated Felicia Temple)

(Still Waiting)
Lauren Duski
Andrea Thomas
Aliyah Moulden
TSoul
Enid Ortiz
Caroline Sky

Names in bold indicate an artist who has newly performed and stayed on his or her team or has been stolen by another coach.  An asterisk indicates that this artist was montaged.

[Vyk]

What the hell -- ?!  What were Gwen and Alicia wearing?!  Gwen looked like she was at one of her own shows, and Alicia looked like she was entering a pageant for adults!

Strong start to the Knockouts, but there were at least two decisions with which I didn't agree.

Chris vs. Quizz: Glad your fiancée is still doing well, Chris.  And since I'm about the only one here who isn't an ass to you, Quizz, congratulations on your new baby brother.  Now, then.  On to the performances.  Ahem.  Chris, far and away, was the better one here.  His voice was so strong, clear, and powerful, with no hint of breaking or giving out.  He knocked my socks right off.  Quizz, while he did an interesting thing with that very low part in "Chains," was very much inferior.  So I agree with Alicia picking Chris (and I have a feeling that the show is pushing really hard for him to win or at least go far for Alicia, judging by all of these comments saying that he's going to win, especially in Blake's confessionals).  As for Quizz, while it feels, in some ways, like a wasted steal for Gwen, this might actually be a good thing.  If America isn't feeling him when the Lives start in two weeks, he can be easy fodder for Gwen's true chosen artists (I'm betting that those are JChosen, Troy, and Hunter.  I'm sure she likes Brennley, but can't possibly see her connecting with America.)

Autumn vs. Hanna: Going in, it would look like Autumn had it in the bag.  But the coaches' comments did help me see why Hanna deserved to win.  Autumn gave another strong, confident performance . . . but it really was like Aretha just giving another version of her own song rather than Autumn herself doing it.  Hanna took a Leona Lewis song and did it extremely well.  So I think she deserved the win.  Oh, and Autumn?  Bet you wished you picked Gwen now, huh?

Hunter vs. Johnny G.: I actually don't think Gwen could've gone wrong with either choice.  Johnny had great power, as usual, and an amazing tone to his voice, even though I think the choice of Lady Gaga probably wasn't the best for him.  Hunter, I'll admit, came out of nowhere tonight.  His rendition of that Foreigner song was pretty damn awesome, and he probably made me feel a bit more than Johnny.  I think what swayed Gwen is that Hunter felt a bit like Taylor John Williams, her top artist from season seven.  He did make me feel the way Taylor did, after all.  Johnny should still feel proud of himself for doing so well, though.

Casi vs. Felicia: Casi was strong and solid, as always.  She did a fantastic job and definitely connected with her song.  She knew exactly what to do with it.  Felicia did a strong job of her own, taking on a hugely popular Celine Dion song.  That said, I don't think Blake was all that torn.  Felicia was a Battle steal, while Casi was an original team member.  Of course he'd stick with his original team.  So Felicia (who looked hugely crushed) was screwed.  Bye, Felicia.  If there's a Comeback twist, I hope you're a slam dunk to get it.  Actually, I'm shocked that Alicia didn't steal her back.

Johnny H. vs. Josh: I straight-up thought that Adam fucked up here.  Johnny definitely impressed me more than Josh did.  I felt like he had the stronger, more consistent voice.  And like Blake said, it was nice and edgy.  Josh had far better stage presence, and I appreciate how different his singing voice sounds from his speaking voice (certainly not Siahna Im different or even Wé McDonald different, but still fairly different), but I think Johnny was more pleasing to my ear.  Josh had better hope there are enough old-time rock fans in America's voting audience, because those types of artists don't do all that well on these types of shows.

Ashley vs. Lilli: There's no doubt in my mind that Lilli dominated here.  She was pure, strong, and focused the whole way, and from what I can tell, she made no major mistakes in her vocals or even her performance.  Ashley . . . Reba must be gagging right now (and if she's not, then poor Bobbie Gentry, who seems to go forgotten all the time, certainly is).  There were parts that were really good, and parts that were really bad.  It beguiles me that Alicia kept her, anyway.  She probably really, really, really wanted a country singer because she knows that's what best completes with Blake.  And while I would've preferred Lilli choosing to join Team Blake instead when he went for the steal, since at least Blake turned around for her in her Blind while Adam, choosy and picky as he was this season, did not, I think this might be a rare case where it's a good idea to be on Team Adam instead.  Adam really does have no one filling Lilli's lane, so there might be a chance that Adam chooses to advance her past the Playoffs.  Blake has such a good team that she'd have been in a no-win situation over there.

The twist of the artists watching each other's performances was good, and it was nice hearing their reactions to their opponents' voices, but I don't think it really threw anyone off their game.  But it'd be interesting to continue this on in future seasons.

So it looks like tomorrow, we'll only have three pairs -- Aaliyah Rose vs. Brennley Brown from Team Gwen, Anatalia Villaranda vs. Dawson Coyle from Team Alicia, and Enid Ortiz vs. TSoul from Team Blake.  Let's see how those shake out.

Decent episode.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Vyk

[kathyk24]

I thought that it was interesting to see the coaches working with each contestant. I loved Casi and Hannah. I was shocked Gwen stole Quizz and let Lilli go I think she could win the competition I doubt Quizz will. I was glad she got rid of Johnny I never liked him.

[Vyk]

17 minutes ago, kathyk24 said:

I thought that it was interesting to see the coaches working with each contestant. I loved Casi and Hannah. I was shocked Gwen stole Quizz and let Lilli go I think she could win the competition I doubt Quizz will. I was glad she got rid of Johnny I never liked him.

Alicia let Lilli go, not Gwen.

[kathyk24]

41 minutes ago, Vyk said:

Alicia let Lilli go, not Gwen.

Thanks for the correction

[Vyk]

2 hours ago, Dots And Stripes said:

Not a good night to be named Johnny. I thought both Johnnys should have won their knockouts.

Eh, judging by the fact that Hunter is destroying the other seven artists tonight on iTunes, I think Gwen might've made the right choice to dump Johnny Gates, after all.

Agreed on Johnny Hayes deserving to win, though.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Late to the party and more bitter than usual due to Gonzaga's loss to North Carolina in the National Championship game. Even more bitter because of Gwen's garbage steal of Quizz and Alicia's garbage decision to keep Ashley forcing the use of an unnecessary steal of Lili by Adam. Additionally bitter about the utter lack of current music. There's a reason no one outside of country has made much of impact post-Voice and it has at least something to do with the over-reliance on beaten-to-death songs from Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion, Kansas (Kansas!), Foreigner, The Allman Brothers, Reba McEntire, Aretha Franklin, etc etc.

Chris v Quizz: I hate both of these two, so it pissed me off that this was clearly set up to keep Quizz in the competition because three grown adults can't stand the thought of eliminating a widdle 13 year old from a singing competition. I hate Chris because he's a musical show off, and it's like every performance he's trying to rack up points for individual musical skills like he's trying to complete a gymnastics or figure skating routine with the highest score possible. And I'm a terrible person, but I'm already sick of getting beat over the head by the sob story about his fiance. Quizz was actually a bit better than I thought he was in the battles. I'm still going to be annoyed that he's still here over Johnny Gates...or people from tomorrow's show to be named later.

Hannah v Autumn: Hey guess what.....don't sing Aretha Franklin and maybe you won't end up being seen as doing a pale imitation of the original even when you did a pretty respectable job with the song. It's just a no win proposition. If you do it great, you did a great Karaoke version of Aretha...you didn't make it your own in anyway shape or form. Hannah was a mildly pleasant surprise. She does seem as if she's growing in confidence on stage from her blind to this performance. I still question whether she has a distinct enough voice to make it through the culling next week (I think she's a long shot at best to get Adam's judges save), but I don't have any major issues with Adam choosing her in this KO.

Hunter v Johnny I guess I'm slow to come around on Hunter. He's got a pretty voice, I'll give him that. But he gives off no ability to connect to an audience (he's completely internalizing when he sings) and he sucked the epicness out of that Foreigner chorus so I was left underwhelmed. I'd have given that KO to Johnny, he had one of the more distinctive (instantly recognizable) voices left on the Voice and I loved hearing his voice on that Lady Gaga song. It's beyond annoying that he's completely gone and Quizz/Ashley live to sing another week.

Felicia v Casi: Was there any doubt Blake was picking Casi and kicking Felicia to the curb? Any at all? Same critique of Autumn applies to Felicia. Blake basically told her as much in the mentoring. The moment's in that Celine song are preordained and as a singer that doesn't give you much of any room to change it up and make it impactful in a new and different way. Casi was solid if not spectacular. "My Church" is quickly becoming one of "those" songs to establish your edgy female country bonafides a la Miranda Lambert or Brandy Clark. I thought her enunciation wasn't great in places...

Josh v Other Johnny: Sigh. I've been upfront about how I think this particular Johnny is overrated. That being said, I think he won this battle (although not shocking that Adam chose to reward the younger contestant). Johnny had the swing and strut that particular Allman Bros song called for. The only thing I think of is that Josh's voice sounded different in the room live....because on TV he sounded like he he was coming up short every time he had to go way up there in the chorus. He was also the victim of that song because the chorus is extremely one-notey so he ended up sounding one-notey too.

Ashley v Lili: What was Alicia hearing? Ashley sounded like hot garbage on that Fancy cover. The even more frustrating thing is that she is literally miles from the singer that made it through in the blinds. I legitimately liked that version of Ashley! This twangy impostor that showed up in the Battles and stayed till the KOs is nowhere near as pleasant to listen to. Lili was doing her audition for Postmodern Jukebox, and I'm glad that she's still in the competition. And that's about all I have left.

So do we get 3 shown and 3 montaged tomorrow?

Edited April 4, 2017 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Vyk]

5 minutes ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

So do we get 3 shown and 3 montaged tomorrow?

No.  Just three shown.  Then, nothing till next Monday, when they show six of the remaining seven and montage the last one.

Also, it's "Hanna."  No extra "h."  And "Lilli."  Two "l's."

Also, @PhD-Purgatory15, I don't get the Chris beef at all.  Everyone's guilty of the vocal tricks of which you accuse him.  He's certainly not the only one to do that this season.  Not at all.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Thanks for the spelling tips.

And YMMV times a million on Chris. He's just not my cup of tea as a singer/performer and he never will be. And if they start pre-ordaining him as the season winner, I'll just stop listening to his performances altogether and stop recapping him like I did with Alisan and Sawyer...

[Keekski]

I think Adam made the biggest mistake not picking Johnny. And I was so sure Alicia was going to steal him, too with the way they kept panning to her during his performance. Are they instituting the bring back this season?

Edited April 4, 2017 by Keekski

[Noreaster]

I think there's something about Josh's voice that works better in live settings than on TV.  The coaches have gushed before about similar-sounding performances in the past (the high vocally-challenging male rock type of songs) while I just don't get it.  I much preferred Johnny over Josh.  Still, this knockout pairing had the more interesting songs of the night for me.  The other songs were such a snooze. 

[Jillybean]

Josh was so off-key for so much of the song. It was painful hearing him try to hit the high notes. 

[gingerandcloves]

I'll agree with PhD about the dearth of current music. I don't care how much I like somebody's voice, if they're singing an oldy-moldy song, I'm not going to buy it. I don't understand their reliance on songs that have been done a zillion times before.

[SunnyBeBe]

Some older songs are okay, but, they are normally something a little unique and not played to death in contests shows.  Some older jewels can be found, but, when it's something heard over and over, it just grates my nerve.  Familiar is fine, but, not done to death.  

Josh has been so off key that I can't bear to hear the entire song.  I turn the channel and go elsewhere until he's done, so, I'm not sure if they are addressing his issue, but, it's too much for me.  Can he not hear it?  It's pretty bad, imo.  I like his look and style of music, though, it's dated, but, his off key singing is just not amusing to me at all.  I'm not sure how you overcome that, because if he doesn't hear it, how is he going to stop doing it?

[waving feather]

Felicia deserved to be eliminated by choosing that song to sing. It has been overplayed since the 90s and you're not going to compare well with Celine no matter how well you sing it. She hit most of the high notes, but didn't have the power behind them like Celine. And if you're not going to change it up even a little bit, why would people buy your version instead of the original?

Sad to lose Johnny Gates. He has such a presence about him. Hunter is a good singer but no appealing stage presence to me.

Gwen is a fool for stealing Quizz. He is probably fodder for the lives but I would rather see someone I like better sing again. Chris is kind of overrated. He's entertaining on stage but sometimes I'm distracted by his movements on stage that I don't even know what he is singing about. Lol. Not my cup of tea.

Edited April 4, 2017 by waving feather

[Vyk]

8 hours ago, Keekski said:

Are they instituting the bring back this season?

Unfortunately, yes.

[peachmangosteen]

What's the 'bring back?' I don't recall it.

[viajero]

22 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

What's the 'bring back?' I don't recall it.

Where each coach is allowed to add a previously eliminated artist to their team going into the live playoffs.  When they first introduced this, it had to be someone from the coach's own team.  But last season they opened it up to any artist eliminated in the battle or knockout rounds irrespective of what team they were on. 

Getting back to this episode, I thought most of the performances were pretty good.  Quizz and Ashley were perhaps the most uneven, while Autumn and Felicia ended up doing competent karaoke versions of overdone diva songs that only highlighted a lack of individuality and that they are no Aretha or Celine.

I personally agreed with the coaches on the winner of all the battles except the last one, where Lilli far superior to Ashley.  I also might have gone either way on Johnny H vs. Josh.   While the former did have smoother vocals, I think it was a good example of what happens when a contestant does a song they've covered multiple times during their careers.  It was a bit by the numbers.  Josh may have been a bit more uneven, but not only was he singing a much more difficult song, but I found his performance a lot more interesting to watch.

I didn't think that either Casi and Lilli gave their best performances so far, but both were still several notches above most of the rest.

The biggest surprise for me was Hanna.  While not perfect, I was really impressed by her vocal range and growing confidence.  Turns out that she has a lot more to offer than just a pretty smile.

Biggest disappointment was Johnny Gates, who I had really liked up to now.  That was a rather middling performance that didn't go anywhere.

My ranking of the performances:

1.    Chris Blue

2.    Lilli Passero

3.    Hunter Plake

4.    Hanna Eyre

5.    Casi Joy

6.    Josh West

7.    Johnny Hayes

8.    Autumn Turner

9.    Felicia Temple

10.  Johnny Gates

11.  Quizz Swanigan

12.  Ashley Levin

[Dots And Stripes]

9 hours ago, gingerandcloves said:

I'll agree with PhD about the dearth of current music. I don't care how much I like somebody's voice, if they're singing an oldy-moldy song, I'm not going to buy it. I don't understand their reliance on songs that have been done a zillion times before.

I actually think this show does a relatively good job of mixing it up with song choices. "My Heart Will Go On" and "Respect" are very famous songs but I don't remember them being done on this show before (they may have been done before but they certainty aren't commonly repeated here). After 12 seasons I think the fact that we get so many different blind audition songs, battle songs, knockouts, live performances, etc is impressive.

[ProudMary]

Dear Adam, I would have voted for Johnny Hayes had you advanced him to the lives.  I can't see myself voting for Josh West who sounds completely off-key to me.  I think you chose the wrong rocker.

In the Blinds and the Battles, I very much enjoyed Felicia and Autumn, but song choice is everything in the Knockouts and not only choosing Celine and Aretha, but choosing their signature songs was a mistake.  I honestly believe that with better song choices both women could have advanced to lives, at least via a steal.  (No way Blake was giving up Casi.  Personally, I think she's going to win.)

[limecoke]

Sorry to see Johnny Hayes go and IMHO, he deserved a steal.  Oh well.

When Autumn said she picked "Respect", I knew she was a goner.  Bad, bad choice and seen on way too many singing competitions since...well...ever.

You blew off Lili, Alicia??  Really??  She was far and away better than Ashley.  Her loss is a huge gain for Adam.  But, Adam and Blake need to stop telling people they can win because they look pretty silly a couple of episodes later when they chuck them out.  Let alone how it makes the other members of their team feel.  Stop that!!

[realdancemom]

The Johnny's might not have had good luck on Monday but if there are going to be comeback artists this season, I can see both of them being chosen.

I'm going to take the minority view because I would have chosen Josh over Johnny.  Johnny did great but I'm not entirely viewing my choice based on Monday's performances.  As somebody else mentioned, hard rock singers don't actually do well on this show.  Josh seems more marketable than Johnny.  Josh is younger and he has an interesting voice that is unique.  He also has the long hair, good looks, and knows how to perform.  While he didn't quite hit all the high notes, he did have a tougher song and IMHO, it wasn't that off key.  I just watched last night but I read the comments here first and I was expecting a disaster.

I can also see why Gwen chose Quizz.  You need some fodder on your team and I admire that a 13 year old didn't crack under pressure.  Everyone was giving standing ovations and declaring Chris the winner and Quizz had to follow that.  Even adults would have been nervous after Chris' performance.   Quizz was terribly off key during the battles but I thought he did a good job on Monday.

Alicia is similar to Pharrell but more subtle.  When she talks, it can sound so zen and philosophical like him.  However, he makes it quite clear when he lets somebody go because he knows that they will get stolen.  He's not as competitive as other coaches.  He praised Laith more than Adam did.  Alicia is more subtle about it.  She didn't say that she is letting go of Lili because she knows that Lili will get stolen.  She just said Ashley connected more to her song which she did.  However, I agree with others that Lilli should have won that battle and seemed like a professional.

[Vyk]

3 hours ago, realdancemom said:

I'm going to take the minority view because I would have chosen Josh over Johnny.  Johnny did great but I'm not entirely viewing my choice based on Monday's performances.  As somebody else mentioned, hard rock singers don't actually do well on this show.

Johnny isn't hard rock.  He's blues rock.  Josh is hard rock.

3 hours ago, realdancemom said:

Alicia is similar to Pharrell but more subtle.  When she talks, it can sound so zen and philosophical like him.  However, he makes it quite clear when he lets somebody go because he knows that they will get stolen.  He's not as competitive as other coaches.  He praised Laith more than Adam did.

This is interesting, because I thought Pharrell was competitive his first two seasons.  Especially in season eight, when he had what was probably his strongest team yet.  But yeah, after he got his win with Sawyer, maybe he didn't feel like he had anything to prove as a coach anymore.  He had his win, so why stress himself?  So you could be right.  Still, you'd think Alicia, who hasn't gotten a win yet, wouldn't be giving up the game the way she is this season.

[Noreaster]

5 hours ago, realdancemom said:

I can also see why Gwen chose Quizz.  You need some fodder on your team and I admire that a 13 year old didn't crack under pressure.  Everyone was giving standing ovations and declaring Chris the winner and Quizz had to follow that.  Even adults would have been nervous after Chris' performance.   Quizz was terribly off key during the battles but I thought he did a good job on Monday.

Alicia is similar to Pharrell but more subtle.  When she talks, it can sound so zen and philosophical like him.  However, he makes it quite clear when he lets somebody go because he knows that they will get stolen.  He's not as competitive as other coaches.  He praised Laith more than Adam did.  Alicia is more subtle about it.  She didn't say that she is letting go of Lili because she knows that Lili will get stolen.  She just said Ashley connected more to her song which she did.  However, I agree with others that Lilli should have won that battle and seemed like a professional.

I personally don't like the fodder concept.  I prefer the coaches advance the best of the lot and let the public decide who to advance in the live playoffs.  If the coaches do purposely keep or steal contestants as fodder, then that's just depriving some better-performing contestants of the opportunity to get more exposure and to potentially get the public vote.  

I'm not really sure the coaches do this anyway.  I think most of the time, they do keep or steal who they feel are the more deserving people.  You also never know how the contestants are going to perform in lives.  Banking on their "chosen" two or three contestants to continue to do well is kind of risky.  

The Pharrell and Laith stuff cracked me up at the time.  Pharrell was so enthusiastic about Laith that Adam's feedback right afterwards could only pale in comparison.  I don't know about Alicia.  All this stuff is so subjective that maybe she really preferred Ashley whether it's because of the performance or behind-the-scenes stuff or whatever.  

[realdancemom]

6 hours ago, Vyk said:

Johnny isn't hard rock.  He's blues rock.  Josh is hard rock.

This is interesting, because I thought Pharrell was competitive his first two seasons.  Especially in season eight, when he had what was probably his strongest team yet.  But yeah, after he got his win with Sawyer, maybe he didn't feel like he had anything to prove as a coach anymore.  He had his win, so why stress himself?  So you could be right.  Still, you'd think Alicia, who hasn't gotten a win yet, wouldn't be giving up the game the way she is this season.

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my post.  I did mean that Josh was hard rock which doesn't really do well on this show.  However, the other stuff about being younger, etc. still makes me think that more people would vote for him.

[Vyk]

2 hours ago, realdancemom said:

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my post.  I did mean that Josh was hard rock which doesn't really do well on this show.  However, the other stuff about being younger, etc. still makes me think that more people would vote for him.

Last season's Brendan Fletcher, who was also hard rock and fairly young, sure proved that being younger wouldn't make a difference.

[realdancemom]

19 hours ago, Vyk said:

Last season's Brendan Fletcher, who was also hard rock and fairly young, sure proved that being younger wouldn't make a difference.

Like I said,  hard rock doesn't do well on this show.  It definitely is a disadvantage over country even if the person is kind of bland like Josh.  I did like Sundance.

[Noreaster]

I don't know how you guys are defining hard rock but Brendan covering Bruce Springsteen and the Allman Brothers last season is not it.  

[realdancemom]

On 4/9/2017 at 8:55 AM, Noreaster said:

I don't know how you guys are defining hard rock but Brendan covering Bruce Springsteen and the Allman Brothers last season is not it.  

That's true.  I was answering from my phone and just quickly answered Vyk's question without thinking too much about it.  When I previously said that hard rock doesn't do well on this show, I was thinking of Kat and Keith Semple.  I really liked both singers but knew they wouldn't win. 

I also liked Brendan and he had a chance to make the finals if he sang True Colors for the last week instead of the week before.

[Noreaster]

2 hours ago, realdancemom said:

That's true.  I was answering from my phone and just quickly answered Vyk's question without thinking too much about it.  When I previously said that hard rock doesn't do well on this show, I was thinking of Kat and Keith Semple.  I really liked both singers but knew they wouldn't win. 

I also liked Brendan and he had a chance to make the finals if he sang True Colors for the last week instead of the week before.

Agreed.  I liked the same artists too.  Including both Kats (Robichaud and Perkins, not sure which one you're referring to). Also, in the earlier seasons, there were Juliette Simms (season 2) and Terry McDermott (season 3) who I think would classify as more "hard rock".  They made the finals but didn't win.  

I read this awhile back so who knows if it's still true, but someone from the Voice band and a contestant or two have mentioned that there aren't many rock songs available for them to use on the show (due to clearance and costs).  So besides the rock genre likely not being as popular as country and pop, maybe not having enough good song choices affects those contestants' chances.  

[realdancemom]

26 minutes ago, Noreaster said:

Agreed.  I liked the same artists too.  Including both Kats (Robichaud and Perkins, not sure which one you're referring to). Also, in the earlier seasons, there were Juliette Simms (season 2) and Terry McDermott (season 3) who I think would classify as more "hard rock".  They made the finals but didn't win.  

I read this awhile back so who knows if it's still true, but someone from the Voice band and a contestant or two have mentioned that there aren't many rock songs available for them to use on the show (due to clearance and costs).  So besides the rock genre likely not being as popular as country and pop, maybe not having enough good song choices affects those contestants' chances.  

I was talking about Kat Perkins.  I didn't watch Kat Robichaud, Juliette Simms, or Terry McDermott's seasons.   Your second paragraph is interesting too.  Hard rock might also be considered out dated.  I'm old so that's why I like it but some younger people might not unless their parents listen to it.