Aaron Kelly Says Goodbye to American Idol: Now His Real Career Begins

Aaron Kelly, at 17, the youngest of American Idol's "Final Five," got sent home tonight by fans' votes. But there was not only great tonality and feel in his farewell rendition of Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon," there was power, grit and a sense of determination in his voice that suggest we haven't heard the last of this talented young man.

Here in The A& R Room, we feel that by finishing in Idol's 2010 Top Five, enough intellingent industry folks and fans have heard and recognized Kelly's talent to nurture and support it.   It will only be a matter of time before a smart record executive launches Aaron's "real career" in a genre that is relevant to today's music scene.  And, that won't be singing insipid show tunes or moldy oldies.  It will be a solid career singing songs of today - in either the pop-country or pop-R&B-soul genre.

Advancing to the "Final Four," were Lee DeWyze, Crystal Bowersox, Casey James and Big Mike Lynche, with DeWyze being the first to be declared "safe" by host Ryan Seacrest.  DeWyze definitely had the strongest performance on Tuesday night with "That's Life," followed by Kelly, Lynche, Bowersox and James - in terms of singing in key and interpreting what may be called "classic," but are mostly boring songs from a bygone era.

Mentor Harry Connick, Jr., while paying props to Ole Blue Eyes in his arrangements and piano accompliment Tuesday night for the contestants, pulled a major left, but smart turn by not performing any Sinatra songs at all in his solo featured performance.  Instead, Connick delivered a spot-on Sinatra vocal imitation on the beautiful Lennon & McCartney classic "And I Love Her."  And, while Connick emulated Sinatra's vocal approach to the Tee, he delivered his vocals out of the corner of his mouth in the inimitable style of another great saloon singer, Mel Torme.  By adapting the Beatles' classic to a jazz and Big Band arrangement, Connick showed how timeless the Lennon & McCartney song is.  But by choosing not to perform a Sinatra classic himself, Connick may have inadvertently underscored how antiquated and irrelevant most of Sinatra's classics are to today's music scene - and to Idol's young performers.

In a painful display of simply lousy music and grotesque theater, Lady Gaga unviewed her new single "Alejandro," mumbling a melody reminiscent of a Madonna 1980s album cut, while half-naked male dancers cavorted around in high-waisted boy girdles.  Her proclivity for high camp tonight bordered on self-parody.  Gaga's fishnet costume and theatrics and her transgender-looking dancers conjured up the image of comedian Will Farrell in drag, slithering around in a Gaga impression - turning suggestive S&M into a laughable SNL skit.

While Gaga is undeniably a commercial suggest, her immemorable dance music and contrived attempts at being outrageous - are only stark reminders of how gullible and susceptible a non-discerning public has become to pretentious performance art, "in" trends and bad music.  Today's buying public is all too willing to accept bad writing and grotesque performance as "high art."  While Gaga has a decent voice and some menial keyboard skills, she is so focused on being "outside," that any talent she actually may possess is being highly eclipsed by her bad theater, poor songwriting and repetitive, overblown productions.

And Gaga hit record or not, Idol's producers ought to be horse-whipped - or at least heavily fined by the FCC for bad taste, for dragging Gaga's horrid music and insincere, artless performance into American Primetime TV.

And by having young singers stumble and falter with Sinatra's songs - a genre that has nothing to do with any of the young performers' talents, genres or career aspirations, one has to ask the questions:   Is anyone at American Idol even slightly in touch with the American audience or really care about giving contestants songs to sing that will enhance their careers?  Or has Idol completely become a TV ratings and advertising cash cow that cares nothing about finding and nurturing real and talented singing artists?

While AI fans have had a bad and deserved reputation for picking "safe" and conservative performers over more alternative ones in the past, such as Adam Lambert or Chris Daughtry, by spotlighting Gaga tonight, the show went 180 degrees in a misguided and tasteless direction.  And tonight, Idol sank to a new low in entertainment values and musical relevance.

And that's our view from The A&R Room.