A "Shocking" Idol and a Crazy Robin

What can I say? Chris is gone, I'm happy and someone named Robin Givhan is insane. Well, maybe not insane, but he or she is certainly deluded.

Robin Givhan, in case you (like me a few hours ago) don't know, writes for the Washington Post. Oh yeah, and apparently Givhan thinks Chris was the best thing since American Idol invented sliced bread. At first I thought maybe Givhan was being facetious, but at no point is there a wink-wink, a just kidding or anything to make you think it was a joke. But it seems to be for real.

Givhan claimed Chris had "confidence and cool." Really, how cool a rock star can you be on American Idol? Also doesn't anyone remember he is a huge Creed fan? (And I'm pretty sure that is the closest the words "Creed" and "cool" will ever be without a "not" somewhere in between.) Givhan spends the entire article acting as if Chris was some sort of seminal artist, the likes of which had NEVER been seen on Idol. Which might have been true had there not been a season 4 with some guy named Bo Bice. Bice undoubtedly had the "rock-star growl" and "distinctivness" Givhan saw in Chris.

The crazier thing is that, although Givhan is pretty out there, he/she isn't exactly by him/herself. A bunch of news sources and tv shows seemed to at least agree that Chris's departure was a "shocker." So once again to use one of my favorite Pulp Fiction quotes... Well, allow me to retort!

I have already pointed out that, at least in the beginning, Chris screamed most of his songs. He got better about that recently but he never sung better than Taylor and, in my opinion, Elliott. Plus, Elliott and Taylor performed much better this week than Chris and Katharine. So really the only "shocker" was that Chris lost to Katharine... but I'm not all that surprised. Katharine is much more likeable (if less charismatic) and has improved much more than Chris (granted she had more room to improve on). So really, at best, it was a mild upset.

But even if you don't want to consider objective musical asthetics, you can check the previous bottom groups. When looking at that, there is no denying that the only favorite should be Taylor, who has never been in the bottom group. Elliott has been there 3 times, and Katharine and Chris had each been there once before. So, really, how much of a "shocker" is it when someone who had already been in the bottom group is booted?

So... pretty please, with sugar on top: don't be so shocked. Thanks!