Saturday, August 20, 2011

The Voice

Okay, so we talked about reality TV the other day and most of you who commented said you didn't watch it. And I think maybe a couple people mentioned reality TV shows like American Idol and similar "competition" type programs. In fact, it seems to me maybe someone said American Idol was based on looks more than singing talent. Or maybe I heard that criticism somewhere else. And yeah, I can see that.

Anyway, today I learned that one of my co-workers, Chris Fields, received an invitation to try out for The Voice. It you click HERE, you'll see I mentioned him about a year ago when he sang with the Q-Balls at one of my firm's annual events. Talented guy.

From what Chris said, I think he feels The Voice is based more on talent than looks, particularly since the judges can't even see the contestants to begin. I haven't watched it--so far. But I've seen the commercials and it looks like an interesting show.

The Wild Child tried out for Idol. From her description, the try outs were so brief that I think many talented people don't get much of a chance, particularly if they don't make an instant visual impression.

Unlike Idol, Voice views applicants' You Tube videos and invites some of the best based on their videos--which seems like a more reasonable way to find people with talent, doesn't it?

I'm excited for Chris. I have no idea how the selection process goes from here and what his chances are, but I think this will be a pretty cool experience, don't you? Did you watch the first season? I'll let you know how Chris does and whether he makes it though the first round of auditions.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't watch The Voice, have only watched Idol once. I do watch Survivor and The Amazing Race. Just wanted to wish good luck to Chris. I might even watch the show if he gets on. Thanks for sharing.
cindy

Three Birds Inspired said...

I watched "The Voice" and LOVED it. The contestants were definitely chosen by their voice with no regard to how they looked. There were some very talented folks on the first season. I am looking forward to the next!

Gwen said...

Watched The Voice and found it very interesting. It seemed to all happen in a shorter anount of time than some of the others. There were some great voices. Good Luck, Chris!

Shirley--Knot-y Embroidery Lady said...

Go Chris, Go Chris!

Josie McRazie said...

I have the voice dvr'd but I do not get to waqtch a lot of TV in the summer. so it will wait for this fall when I can no longer sit outside in the evening with my kids in the pool!

pcflamingo said...

I watched The Voice because a local woman, Vicci Martinez was on it. She did pretty well but didn't win. I also watched NBC's The Sing Off because my grand-niece and her dad's group Groove For Thought was on that. They didn't win, but got some good nationwide exposure. Not surprisingly, the producers on shows like that have preconceived notions of who the "marketable" talent is and that absolutely influences the outcome.

Anonymous said...

I LOVED the VOICE. Absolutely loved it. I don't watch AI, as I feel it's too scripted, etc. The Voice was just that, the judges had to judge soley on how they sounded. I loved the comraderie between the 3 male judges (and loved Blake Shelton - never heard of him before, but his wry wit was hilarious). Can't stand Christina Aguilera (or as Blake calls here Argue-lera). But it's a great show.
---Kathy in northern BC

Susie said...

I was the one that made the comment about Idol being about looks more than talent. :-)

I've watched an episode or two of The Voice and agree that it's based more so on actual talent than the looks. I liked that. I saw one of the shows where they were choosing the singers for their "teams." The "coaches" had their backs to the singers and had to actually LISTEN to the voices of the singers for the talent. They weren't looking at them. I thought that was a pretty good way to do it. If you want to find a person with good singing talent, you have to hear their voices, not see what they look like on the outside alone. More than one of the contestants' appearances surprised the "coaches" but, in the end, they didn't care. They wanted them on their teams because of their voice, which is why they were there in the first place.

I also liked that the celebrities on the show weren't judges. They were "coaches" that were there to help those on their teams, even though it was a competition. (If that makes sense.) There was no blasting them like you get from the Idol judges.