Crooners

The mention of John Stevens in class the other day took me pretty off guard. To be totally honest, I had completely forgotten about him since he had been on American Idol several years ago, and I think this speaks volumes about the direction popular music is heading in today.

Just by hearing the clip of John's performance in class, anyone can tell that the guy has a good voice. Maybe it's not sensational, but it's pretty good. Obviously, John Stevens didn't win American Idol. But I don't think it was because he didn't have a good singing voice. I think it was because of the style of music his voice fits into. Crooning is becoming a sort of lost art. The warmth and intimate personality of the genre is no longer in demand. Instead, the music winning all the awards now is that which features extremely simple and catchy, often lacking in sentimentality, hooks, and rowdy dance club beats. Sorry John, but if you want to be a multi-million dollar performing musician, you have to give the people what they want.