Tonight's show was on the dull side, to me. I'm not a huge fan of the Whitney Houston style of singing, which is maybe why I liked that kid who missed his guitar (Michael Perrelli, I think). Not that he sang great. No doubt he would have done better with the guitar. (Though why he didn't know the rules until the last minute and expected to play an instrument is weird. I'd think they must issue guidelines for auditions.) Anyhow he's the first human being I seemed to able to get interested in, and he sang the way a lot of 18 year olds who front bands these days sing. In a way I think AI is old fashioned since the style of music they're into was really hot fifteen years ago. CI dug up some people this year who were pretty much "today," and, aren't those the people who actually may go somewhere in the business and be actual Idols, rather than young Whitney and Mariah clones?
I agree with you on most of what you said. Tonight was really dull! I hope they're hiding some talent and keeping it for Hollywood (next week! finally!), because right now, I'm only interested in following maybe 3 or 4 out of all the ones we saw making it to Hollywood since the beginning of the season.
I'm also not a fan of the Whitney/Mariah clones, which is also one of the reasons I mostly prefer CI. Actually, I liked last year of AI (the talent that is), because the R&B was kept to a minimum, especially the "divas". Well, there was Syesha I guess. But, apparently, there were a lot of "big voices" during the previous seasons, so I think I would've found that very boring. But, R&B, or country for that matter (which I don't really like either), are really popular music styles in the US, even right now. I agree that AI is still old-fashioned is so many ways though.
The only one I liked tonight was Anne Marie. I didn't think she needed to come back and look more like a star. I liked that she was just very natural (and a natural beauty as well). The rest: very mediocre. And about Michael, I also wondered why they didn't put him through when they were putting through so many mediocre people. "Oh, she has a cute dog, let's put her through!" At least tonight, we didn't have a big sob story to conclude the episode.
The thing I hate the most about AI is the panel of judges. If it hadn't been for David Cook last year, I don't think I would've made it to the end. They just like to hear themselves talk (or sit in each other's lap I guess), but they often don't really care about the contestants. I really like Ryan though, almost as much as Ben.
Sorry, that was long!