A New Victor

Kris Allen is the new American Idol!

And what an awesome finale show! We haven’t really watched the finales in past seasons, so I don’t know how last night’s compares, but I thought it was fantastic. They had some great talent on! The performance by Adam and Kiss was phenomenal. Kris and Keith Urban’s performance was a close runner-up for me.

Up until the moment they announced the winner, I didn’t think I would be shocked either way. For several weeks, I’ve been convinced that Adam and Kris deserved to make it to the finals, and I was really excited to see America agree with me. I personally enjoy Kris’ style more, but I think they’re both amazing. So I figured it could go either way, and I didn’t think I’d care much one way or the other. But when they announced that it was Kris, I was a little shocked. I think Kris was shocked too. Check out this photo from the NYT.

In the article accompanying the photo, the author, Allesandra Stanley, suggests that perhaps picking Kris over Adam “says something about the mood and mores of the country, that viewers are too conformist to anoint a sassy, androgynous individualist.”

But then she immediately backs away from that statement, saying: “Then again, maybe not: Mr. Allen’s victory may merely reflect the voters’ conventional taste in pop music.”

Why even throw that out there if you’re not really going to talk about it, Stanley?

I don’t doubt that there may be some people who are turned off by Adam for non-music reasons, but I don’t think that’s what’s driving the votes. It’s not like Adam is the first man to sing rock while wearing flashy outfits, makeup, and hairspray. I think it’s the genre of music that comes with his whole get-up that prevented him from winning. I imagine plenty of folks would love to have a resurgence of 80s rock and would love to have someone like Adam lead the charge. But, unfortunately for Adam, they’re not the ones watching AI.

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