American Idol: The SPAN Bridge

Where does American Idol fit into the new, SPAN (Sustainable, Personal, Authentic, Networked) Society?

On one hand, the answer is obvious. American Idol is a throwback, a relic of a time when Americans all tuned into the same show, and were served up the kind of non-niche, generic fare that could have the widest possible appeal to the entire country. As the NYT states in an article on the series today:

“American Idol” matters not just as a pop culture phenomenon, but as an institution that works — with scary efficiency — at a time when so many other American enterprises seem flawed or imperiled. It stands out this season in particular: “American Idol” is a money-making machine in the middle of a worldwide recession, an old-fashioned must-see television hit at a time when the Internet and cable have eaten away at the networks’ hegemony.

In other words, American Idol is lacking a personal quality. It's the ultimate in mass-produced music. Singer-songwriters are not encouraged to participate -- rather, those who can best take the pain, joy, emotion of other songwriters and sing about it as if it were their own are rewarded. So it's also lacking an authentic quality.

But certainly part of the appeal -- and part of what makes it SPAN -- is found in two distinct features of the show: the fact that the audience decides the winners, and the presence of Simon Cowell. A culture that is getting used to taking matters in our own hands, whether participating in political campaigns, making our own tee-shirts or producing our own blogs, is tired of having studio executives tell them what to listen to. They want to choose pop music winners. In that sense, American Idol has crowdsourced a job usually saved for high-paid producers with an ear for what American teens and tweens want to listen to.

The other feature that speaks to SPAN Society is Simon Cowell. He brings a stark streak of authenticity to the show. He's not cheesy or sentimental. He knows what he thinks and he states it clearly.

Watching American Idol, (which I admit I do either at the very beginning to watch Simon rip apart contestants, or at the very end, so that I can participate a bit in pop culture) I do get the sense that the whole production is extremely dated. But at it's heart -- audience participation and the authenticity and honesty of Simon -- it's a bridge to the SPAN Society. The Times sums up the contradiction this way:

It’s a live show so elaborately edited and overly produced that it seems taped, yet at the same time, this formulaic series still manages to look spontaneous even in its eighth iteration.

[Late update: VentureBlog got to the American Idol/crowdsourcing angle as well, a few hours before me.]