With the advent of manufacturing stars nowadays, the record companies forgot the basic fundamentals of their business model. With the pressure of pleasing shareholders they have to make money now. Whatever happened to the A & M, Capitol records of the past. A & M records for example was Herb Alpert (we went to the same high school, woo hoo), they signed and developed talented artists (The Police, e.g.).

If you draft an athlete for your team, you want that athlete to have certain characteristics and traits such as game intelligence, good instincts, quickness (not necessarily speed), instead of being fast, can you play fast, etc etc etc. That's why the consistently good teams even though they don't draft high have good scouts that recognize a player with good fundamentals.

So what happened to the records companies??? They blame downloading for their lack of sales or drastic drop in sales. Is it really? I would say not. I would say it's a contributing factor, remember correlation does not equal causation. I say it's suits who don't play instruments, don't have a clue of the difference between a pedal point and a counterpoint (you musician know what I'm talking about) they're the ones determining what they think we'll like. So let's do a simple mathematical equation: Suits that don't know music + crappy music + downloads + lack of true music business fundamentals = drop in sales.

I was listening to the Howard Stern show today and Cindy Lauper came on she sang "All through the night" live in the studio. It brought back a lotta memories of my Jr High days and sent chills up my spine. It also made me appreciate truly talented singers in the backdrop of the American Idol and manufactured stars era.

So the question becomes what makes a good singer? Good looks? Mick Jagger, Steve Tyler, they knew how to make their looks work for them. Biggie Smalls, 50 cent, likewise.
Strong voice? Karen Carpenter, she knew how to interpret the lyrics that were presented to her.

Let's also look at background, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne similar backgrounds, similar sound, themes in their lyrics. The only difference is that Bruce has the bigger commercial success.

Comparing the American Idol finalists.

David Archuleta - relatively strong voice, has the crooner singing style. But when he sings he sings like he's singing mechanically (vocally trained style) without personality.

David Cook - strong voice, has a little more personality but lacks a certain something, he lacks the "IT"

This is Nike Ardilla (may she rest in peace), she was about 17 y.o. when this song came out (keep in mind this is Indonesia in about 1995), so the video and the recording quality may not be that great but listen to how polished she was at 17 y.o. Singers like her just aren't around anymore, why is that? Is it because life is too easy?