Rockstar : Recap

James — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 04:26:00 GMT

OK, now that Rockstar: Supernova has been over for a couple weeks, I guess it's about time for me to review my earlier predictions. My top four were all in the final five. Dilana, who I said was the most talented, made it to the last two, so my sense of talent is on the mark, even if I misjudged the vote patterns. I'm blaming Dilana's unexpected longevity on Storm's earlier than predicted exit. Toby & Ryan, who I had placed in the "hopeless boring" category before, came on strong in the later weeks (although except for one really good original song from Toby, they really only rose to "slightly less boring"). I should note that in an interview for Icelandic TV, Jason let on that his first choice was Magni; Tommy's was Lukas; and Gilby, Dilana. Note that Toby, despite finishing third isn't in there, and Lukas & Magni were my top two. The real question is how Magni ended up fourth.

However, the spot where I really blew it was the other women on the show, specifically Jill, Zayra and Dana. I had predicted that, even though they were complete wrong for the band, they were very entertaining, so they would be around for a while. I guess that band didn't see it that way. They were gone in a few weeks.

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RockStar : Supernova

James — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 00:08:00 GMT

My guilty please of the summer of watching the Reality show "RockStar : Supernova". It's the sequel/spin-off/second season of last year's "RockStar : INXS" where the surviving members of the band INXS selected a replacement for Michael Hutchence who had committed suicide some years ago. This year, not having a band wanting to replace a dead member handy (but see note below), they created a new band from scratch with three established rockers (notably Tommy Lee).

The basic idea of it show is, each Tuesday, each of the remaining contestants sings a song (which they choose from among a collection selected each week by the producers), and gets feedback from the band. Then there's a "world-wide" phone in vote, and then on Wednesday, the three contestants who got the fewest votes perform a song to attempt to redeem themselves (It would seem that they could choose any song, but as songs done on Tuesdays are frequently done as redemption songs, I'm guess they are limited to just a large pool of songs). Then the band chooses among themselves who'll be cut.

The important thing to realize is that the final decision is always in the hands of the band (as it should be), so that, if on the second day, they decided who they wanted, nothing could happen that would force him out of the competition.

With that set up, I'll give my prediction --- The final three will be Magni, Lukas, and Storm.

The choice of the two men was easy --- the rest are hopelessly boring. They are good singers, but nothing special. Of my choices, Magni has the voice, but is a bit lacking on stage presence. Lukas is exactly the reverse: All stage presence but a weak voice. Whichever closes that gap first will win.

So, what about Storm? She has both the vocals & star power. I don't think she'll win, just because she's a woman, and I don't think they are really committed to have a woman front the band. A female lead singer changes the whole dymanic of a band. How many female-led bands can you name where the rest of the band was any more than just the first back-up band of the woman's solo career? What exactly became of Blondie without Deborah Harry? Til Tueday without Aimee Mann? (Whether No Doubt survives Gwen Stefani's solo career remains to be seen).

If I'm wrong about the band's intentions about a woman fronting the group, then Storm is a serious contender.

In the fourth place, I'm put the person, who, if this were based purely on talent, would have this wrapped up in the second week: Dilana. The reason Dilana won't win (besides being a woman --- see above), is that she's just not "right" as a member of Supernova. She clearly needs to be in a band where she's the leader and she's the star. That's not Supernova.

The others I expect to be around late in the game are Jill & Zayra even though both are regularly critized by the band. They are, in fact, both completely wrong for the band, but they are both very entertaining. So, I'm guessing that the band will figure that if they are going to have to sit through several weeks of performances by people they already know they aren't going to pick, if doesn't matter what order the losers leave in, so they might as well keep the ones that are fun to watch around for a while. (On the other hand, I would have put Dana in that group as well, but she was sent home today).

A few interesting things I've learned watching the show.

It seems that Zayra cannot sing and wear spandex at the same time. Whenever she drags out one of her (very) sexy catsuits (Week 2, " You Really Got Me"; week 4, "Call Me" & Week 5, "857-4309/Jenny"), she just speaks the lyrics instead of singing them.
No Rolling Stones song was performed on Tuesday, but there was a song by Nirvana. This is significant, because each band had been represented on each of the previous four weeks. If we don't count encores, the Who and Coldplay are the only other bands performed by than twice in the five weeks.
When you include the 5 performances songs, one encore, and one redemption song, Nirvana songs have been performed seven times in the course of the series so far.
It's been noted on the show that Supernova member Gilby Clarke is "The world's biggest Stones fan", which could explain the regular appearance of their songs on the show. I don't know of any connection between the band and Nirvana, but I think it's interesting to note that, like INXS, Nirvana had also lost it's lead singer to suicide. Makes you wonder which band that wanted to find a replacement for.
Dilana is the only singer to have never recieved a negative comment from the band. In fact, she's left them speechless at least once. (Did I mention she's clearly the most talented ?)

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