Are American Idols Keeping Music Industry Afloat? Options

[Daniel]

Question was touched on in article I posted.

I think the winners and runner-ups have helped and hurt music industry at same time.

People are to quick to say the winners and runner-ups are the best singers in the world and are also to quick to say that they all have no talent.

[Brad1963]

I think they have a slight edge because they are so well known. It is becoming less necessary to actually win the competition. Chris Daughtry is outselling Taylor Hicks by a very large margin.

[Johnt]

Guess I don't care, but I think at best all of them are mediocre talent at best. They are really starting to make me stop listening to country music on the radio, and I have listened since I was a kid.

[Derek]

Hmm American Idol has hurt and helped the industry.

[Ali]

I said both, but I just dont like how after going through one show they are pretty much already famous. Not saying they didn't earn it, but I like the more tradional way of struggling for a while then hitting it big. Look at Reba, struggled to get ariplay because she was a woman, and look how wonderful she turned out. Same thing with Martina, she struggled at the begining of her career and I think that had a lot to do with her sucess. It just kinda bothers me how these contestants just jump out and for the most part dont even struggle with air play(Carrie, Kelly, Fantasia(sp), Chris...)
But thats just my opinion.

[Remy266]

I don't really see how it does either. To me, it's just another form of finding new talent, though admittedly the talent it's actually produced has been sparse. Except for Kelly and maybe Clay, the winners since then have been less than impressive. (Fantasia? pffft! Please, don't make me laugh.) Whether a person achieves stardom instantly or after years and years of hard work doesn't really matter to me as long as they've got the talent.

[Heidi]

I think it helps the music industry. Look at Carrie and Bucky. Even though Bucky didn't win, he still broke a record set way back in 1992 with strong sales. And Carrie's been breaking all kinds of records since winning American Idol, as well as maybe drawing in some not before she came along country music fans.

[sjfc102]

I don't really see how it does either. To me, it's just another form of finding new talent, though admittedly the talent it's actually produced has been sparse. Except for Kelly and maybe Clay, the winners since then have been less than impressive. (Fantasia? pffft! Please, don't make me laugh.) Whether a person achieves stardom instantly or after years and years of hard work doesn't really matter to me as long as they've got the talent.

Actually Fantasia may not have sold as many albums as Underwood or Clarkson- but she has done well on the R&B and some other types of music and she is for real...

[Indiana Jeff]

I said 'No'. Carrie Underwood has obviously done well. Chris Daughtery has been decent considering he didn't actually win, but Taylor Hicks is not exactly 'blazing the trail' nor will he ever. Personally, I don't see anyone coming out of this season who is going to make a big splash, either.