The popular slang database urbandictionary.com aptly defines “guilty pleasure” as “something that you shouldn’t like, but like anyway,” which is elegant in its simplicity. It is also suitable to describe my relationship with the popular singing competition show American Idol, which is currently a few weeks into its eleventh season. I have experimented with a few other similar shows, including NBC’s America’s Got Talent and the relatively new Sing-Off, which limits itself to a cappella performances, but was unimpressed. I never really thought I would find another singing show, but then NBC hit me one more time, premiering The Voice back in April of 2011 (not accidentally riding the coattails of the Idol finale).
Those acquainted with the show can skip this paragraph, but for the uninitiated, The Voice is a singing competition that distinguishes itself from more traditional programs like Idol or Talent in two important ways. The first is its use of blind auditions, in which the judges hear auditions with their backs turned, and must commit to voting for a particular singer before they are permitted to turn their chairs around and see them. The second distinction lies in the talent base, which for other shows is drawn from massive open auditions, but for The Voice is actually recruited from individuals who already have successful small-time, low-exposure music careers (singing teachers, wedding singers, etc). This makes for a higher-caliber competition from day one, which is a positive for everyone who thinks the painfully awful auditions in the early phases of American Idol are precisely that - painful.
Those acquainted with the show can skip this paragraph, but for the uninitiated, The Voice is a singing competition that distinguishes itself from more traditional programs like Idol or Talent in two important ways. The first is its use of blind auditions, in which the judges hear auditions with their backs turned, and must commit to voting for a particular singer before they are permitted to turn their chairs around and see them. The second distinction lies in the talent base, which for other shows is drawn from massive open auditions, but for The Voice is actually recruited from individuals who already have successful small-time, low-exposure music careers (singing teachers, wedding singers, etc). This makes for a higher-caliber competition from day one, which is a positive for everyone who thinks the painfully awful auditions in the early phases of American Idol are precisely that - painful.
