Hi guys,
I know I haven't been on here a lot lately, I've been finishing up schoolwork for the summer. However, I wanted to drop in for a minute and post something that is immensely important to me at the moment, an issue I feel needs enlightening, and I hope you'll take a minute and read. It's something that I wrote up for another blog, but I figured it would be all right to post up here, as well.
Thank you for stopping by! I'll be out of town for a little while, but I'll be back at the end of the week. Hopefully, finishing school will go smoothly and then I'll be on here a bit more! :)
Anyway, thanks again for stopping by!
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Why the World Needs Adam Lambert
1. The truth in music is dying.
We live in a day and age where music doesn't matter. You heard me, I said music doesn't matter and I mean it. There are more singers than artists, more songs than lyrics, and more so-called role models than inspirations. There are those who wake up in the morning, decide that they will sing, and get signed simply because their rich daddy can afford it or is already famous himself. There are those who "act" (and I say this with quotation marks, because it isn't really acting - it's repeating words off of a piece of paper and looking at the camera with a cheesy grin), who are handed recording contracts with million dollar budgets, tickets, and tours with less than an ounce of knowledge of the industry and music, owning a reason none other than that they are on television, why not sing, too? You can turn on the radio and hear one of these, sing one of their songs dry with souls so void of emotion you wonder if they even comprehend the lyrics...or words. That's what these songs are without the emotion, just words. They don't carry you like lyrics. They don't leave you begging for one more line, one glimpse into the mind of the person singing it, and don't give any absolute meaning to the moment. They are lacking everything that makes a moment - lacking everything that reminds you of something, that leaves you breathless or hopeful, perhaps looking toward the future. They're simply words and a voice - nothing else. If I asked you to tell me what in the world The Black Eyed Peas were singing about in their new song "Boom Boom Pow" you couldn't tell me a thing - while they might sound cool, there isn't any substance - nothing to hold on to from it. It is in a way, nonsense, which is really what the music industry is coming to, nonsense and it's sad. It's really sad. It makes me wish that true artists like Bob Marley were still around. You know, people who had a passion for the music and for love, so much so that each of their songs exuded with it like rays of sun bathing your back in the summer with so much heat that it warms your body in an instant. Inch by inch it covers your body with purity and energy, sung in such a light that you can read the mind of the artist. You might ask what the difference is between an artist and a singer and I would gladly tell you: an artist paints a picture with his song. He involves himself in it, envelopes himself into the emotion, paints it piece by piece with every ounce of his being. He's experienced the heartache in "I Can't Make You Love Me", he understands the melody in "My Heart Will Go On", and he becomes completely aware of his surroundings in "Waiting on the World to Change." In other words, he believes what he sings, he knows it by heart, by soul, by happenings in his life and he brings it into yours, making it into your own. And that's what brings me to a fan favorite on American idol. You see, I have watched this reality show for just under five seasons now and never have I ever experienced what I experience when I watch Adam Lambert perform on the show. He walks out onto the stage, bearing himself as he is, completely embraced by the music and the melody, entranced by the emotion of the song, and impassioned with a fire so deep in his eyes that you know he believes the music, the lyrics and he wants you to feel it, too.
2. He is all about the music and what makes a song.
Adam cares not just about the emotions portrayed and realized in the lyrics of a song, but he refuses to dismiss the message behind it, the story behind it that the artist wanted to get across. Almost half way through the season of American idol, Smokey Robinson mentored the contestants. Each contestant was to pick a song from the Motown era and sing it in front of him, so that Mr. Robinson could point out what could be improved and what needs not be. Each contestant arrived on turn to sing for Mr. Robinson, but when Adam was about to sing his chosen song, which happened to be written by Mr. Robinson, he chose instead to ask him why he wrote the song. Mr. Robinson explained that he wrote it with people in mind that were so hurt, that when you got up close to their face, you could see the tracks of their tears. Adam was clearly moved by the deepness in the song.
3. He knows what a performance is.
Definition of the word "performance": the manner in which or the efficiency with which something reacts or fulfills its intended purpose.
You've turned your television on for a show and by golly you're going to get one! A song is not only something to hear and feel, but to also see at certain times. Adam brings his performances to the table with clear direction from the song. While performing Gary Jules' cover of "Mad World" Adam sat on a stool with a pool of warm blue light surrounding the stage. He waited, sat and sang through it, and then got up mid-song and belted it out. "Mad World" is about someone inside himself, feeling lonely and distressed, noticing the differences in the world and people around himself. He proved that symbolically with his single light shining down upon the stool on which he sat, as if representing that the loneliness and lack of confidence in one's self brings you to be in your own world, "a single light" on you and only you, because of your fear. However, when he performs Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" , he jumps around the stage, at times skipping, giving one a visual of exactly what the song is meant to be and that is fun and energetic, fearlessness.
4. He refuses to compromise.
Whether you have heard the original of the song he sings or not, you won't hear it the same way from Adam. He refuses to compromise with the original. It is in a way, similar to how you would take notes from a book. You read the book, write down the important things, try to comprehend it, and put it into your own words so that it's memorable. So, when you hear the song from Adam - he's read the lyrics, picked out the important things, understood it, and made it his own, so that it is now his to share and give, it's now his very own - it fits him and his heart. Take Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You" for instance. Adam heard the song in it's original form and turned it down, changed it into what he felt - which was a slow heartfelt ballad. He made it something he could relate to.
5. He's not your stereotypical Hollywood boy.
While he doesn't seem to mind rebelling against today's st yl e and standards, you won't find him pitching a fit or swearing up a string of F-bombs (hello, Christian Bale!). After every performance, he gracefully listens to the show's judge's critiques, while mouthing "thank you" after a compliment, and accepting it quietly if they don't approve. Results night, when one of the contestants is eliminated from the competition, he doesn't shout for joy when he's safe nor does he smile when another is extinguished from the contest. In fact, most of the time you willl find him congratulating the other's who are safe and hugging the one's who are headed home, while adding words of comfort or friendship in between. He respects the people around him, who make idol what it is, thanking the band and crediting others for arrangements (Michael Orland, Rickey Minor and the band) and even hugging the staff occasionally, who bring water, as was reported in a recent live recap. Family is important to him, as well, and unlike some redneck grown men, he doesn't mind talking about his supportive parents or telling his mom he loves her during an interview in his hometown.
6. He's been trying to make it in the business for years, making music is his dream.
Adam moved to Hollywood to pursue music and has been in many plays in the process of trying to make it in the industry, with club gigs on the side. He's starred in the musical Hair, been Charlie in Brigadoon, starred as Joshua in The Ten Commandments: the Musical, and most recently been the understudy for Fiyero in Wicked. He performed often at Los Angeles's The Upright Cabaret, where he covered everything from Prince's "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore" to One Republic's "Come Home" and Seal's "Kiss From a Rose."
I find it rather sad, that even though there are wonderful reasons like these above for Adam to be in the media, instead the magazines and articles are involved with him for another reason: his sexual orientation. Normally, I would dismiss such discussion in my blog, because I don't see any point in discussing another's private life especially if they do not wish to discuss it, but I brought it up to make a specific point. It doesn't matter. The fact that he touches people's lives with music, does. The fact that he is an original artist, does. The fact that he can hit higher notes than most, does. The fact that he is a throwback to amazing artists like Elvis, David Bowie, Freddy Mercury, and Steven Tyler, does. The fact that he cares about other's, does. And in a world filled with wannabes, lookalikes, divas, unoriginals, whatevers, and don't-cares, that's what should matter. Adam once said in an interview, "This is about singing, nothing else. I'm an entertainer, it doesn't change anything," and he was right. True artists like him, should be given the spotlight for exactly that reason, because it is about singing and nothing else. Which is why, in my opinion, he should be the next American idol. He not only dares to be different, as Paula Abdul once put it, but he recognizes and succeeds in what it takes to make it in Hollywood AND the music business every single week, while inspiring us all through his music with every song.
Note: The photo I used, is from a forum, I apologize if it is yours. I meant no copyright infringement. Credit goes to whomever took the photo.
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Adam Lambert
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