As many people know, American Idol is a cultural sensation. I know this first hand because I worked on the show during seasons 6-9.
What I am hoping to do is share with you insight on how American Idol works. More than anything, I am sharing with you first hand enlightenment of how a portion of the American Idol machine runs that very few people are aware of.
My employment on American Idol was working directly with the contestants producing, engineering and recording their vocals for the full length downloads. I was also responsible for producing, recording, editing and uploading the Idol performance show ring tones to the Fox/AT&T servers for seasons 6-9 that many of you probably purchased. It's hard to imagine, but during any given week of Idol I played an integral role in about ten Billboard & Itune hits every week and picked every ringtone download weekly for every contestant for 4 seasons straight.
Now, you won't discover my name associated with many of the top ten hits or ringtones nor will you find my name when they roll the credits from the show. In TV, film and music, there is what they call "above the line" and "below the line". The big name producers are "above the line" and guys like me fell "below the line". Many others received credit for my individual professional endeavors. Not a big deal as that is just the way the industry operates and I am okay with that. I was happy to be part of the cultural phenomenon of this TV show called American Idol. I'll get in to the details more about Idol in later blogs but for this blog I want to share with you my route that lead me to Idol because it was from this path and the experiences as a major label recording artist & subsequent producer that hedged me to work with the contestants. At the cornerstone of my experiences, my path to success isn't much different from many of the contestants that audition for Idol.
Have I sold millions of records as an artist or a producer? No. Do you know my name? Probably not. But what I do have that very few of the people participating in Idol do not have is that I was a major label singer/artist, songwriter, and am a music producer, among other ventures. And, probably the most important part of this whole experience is that I've spent time on "the other side of the glass". What that means is that I have survived in the recording studio vocal booth recording vocals for many years. I have experienced what it feels like to blunder in the studio singing. I know. I labored when I did my first recording sessions. It's difficult. I also know what it is like to excel in the studio as, the more I sang on songs in the studio and recorded, the better I got. Quite a few artists are either a decent live singer or a so so studio singer. Not too many are both. I was one of the rare few that was good at both.
So, my experience is first hand. I know what it takes to write a song, record a song, sing the song in the studio, perform that song live, tour, promote, do phoner's, videos and interviews, etc. These are several of the reasons that I related so much to the contestants and why many of them could relate to me. With the exception of being on a TV show, everything they were experiencing or about to experience, I had experienced already.
About the Author:
Looking to find the best strategy for Idol or tips for singing, then visit Dennis' site to find the best advice on exercises for singing and strategies to get on American Idol and the X.. Also published at Seasons Six Through Nine of American Idol.