[bryant]

Originally Posted by horseshoe

Some of this amazes me. Them most popular television show is a contest between different people doing different styles of music.

I had the honor of being asked to be a judge at a contest last week. I work in the bar on Wednesday night, but this was the Sunday night crowd. It was a final elimination contest for a big cash award and a recording contract. All the judges were neutral and didn't know any of the singers. There were six of us, and we all came from different backgrounds in music.

One guy runs a very successful singing telegram company, and is a radio personality. Another is a lawyer who is a talent scout and an agent who represents different singers. One had attended the Julliard school of music. The rest of us were KJs who have worked around this area for a number of years, and were invited to participate, and be judges.

We graded on several unique qualifications. One was pitch control and another was the ability to change pitch in the song they chose. This gave us a good example of their vocal abilities. You have never heard some of the versions of songs they sang. They made them their own, and were fabulous to hear. We also judged them on interaction with the audience, and eye contact with it. The best ones sang to the judges, as well as the audience.

We didn't grade them on reading a screen or on memory, though every one of them sang without the help of the monitor. If they had glanced at the big screen, no points would have been deducted. We were looking for skill and entertainment.

One contestant had won all the local events before, because they had graded on the audience clapping and screaming. Therefore, he always brought his big crowd with him, wherever a contest was held. Then of course, they would leave. He did not place in the top three, because he was not as good as the winners. Everyone of them were allowed to look at the score cards if they wanted. He requested to do that, and then said he was satisfied with the results. Not one person in the audience said anything bad about the judging, except to say it was very fair, and almost to a person agreed on the top three. Almost everyone said the winner had been the best, however second and third could have gone either way.

We stayed and sang the rest of the night, and were warmly greeted and had drinks bought for us all night long from the contestants. I thought they were very gracious and every one of them showed class. Of course, many of them left, and took their crowd with them. Hell, they didn't buy anything but soft drinks anyway, so no big loss.

I can't wait to do it again next year, though I won't do any contests in my Wednesday night gig.

I admire this exception to the rule, as is the "American Idle" contests. These contests have very very exceptionally trained judges who are looking for very specific and unique abilities that are worked on for years by the contestants who also have practiced for years and know exactly through a series of pre-interviews what is being judged and by who, and it still takes years for the "Idol" contest to come up with a winner. Anyone that assumes that the "American Idol" is an over night sensation thing is fooling themselves. Someone in my area once went to a state final. The work that was put into it eve at that point was like a full time job. It was like his job performance was simply finally being evaluated. Very unlike a local typical "no sense" karaoke contest.