December 7, 2007
The top four bands performed one original song tonight on The Next Great American Band, along with one Queen cover. Now, the Queen cover would pose problems for any band given Freddie Mercury's almost unparalleled vocal range, but the bands did pretty well with the task, all things considered. The originals, on the other hand, were a big disappointment and point to the real reason these bands have yet to hit pay dirt on their own – their songs aren't all that good. Covering songs well is one thing, writing good songs is a completely different skill.
December 4, 2007
Here we are, down to the final five on The Next Great American Band, the most watched network band competition since Rock Star: Supernova. FOX is merely being polite in letting this first and likely only season of American Band finish on the air. We saw the same politeness with last summer's On the Lot, who finished its seemingly unending season despite abysmal ratings. The common thread between American Band and On the Lot? Executive producers with clout (Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett for On the Lot, Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe for Band). 19 Entertainment probably is still holding out hope that the winning band will sell a bunch of records, but that's probably unrealistic. If Jordin Sparks can only sell one hundred thousand records, what chance do The Clark Brothers have?
November 30, 2007
Rod Stewart is the man. The final five bands performed Rod Stewart songs tonight on The Next Great American Band, but there was no sign of Maggie Mae, which was unfortunate. I was also hoping for some old school Faces tunes, but no luck. The final five bands have two clear favorites, who both showed off their dominance of the other bands tonight. One of the bands is good, but not good enough. The other two don't really belong.
November 28, 2007
Sheila E., former drummer for legendary artists like Prince and Ringo Starr, is currently enjoying her latest gig as a judge on FOX's The Next Great American Band. We got a chance to speak with Sheila prior to the season, but that was before the show premiered. Since then, we've seen some great bands, some pretty good bands, and some mediocre bands. Sheila E. was brutally honest in her conference call, especially critical of FOX's handling of The Next Great American Band's promotions. The following is a summary of what Sheila discussed during her lengthy conference call.
November 23, 2007
The Next Great American Band went from seven bands to six tonight. The six final bands all performed songs by The Rolling Stones. Given the ridiculous library of diverse songs the Stones have recorded, every band should have been able to easily find a perfect song for them. Most chose well, some did not.
November 20, 2007
Let's not kid ourselves. No matter what Dominic Bowden or the FOX promos tell us, The Next Great American Band has and will continue to be a popularity contest. With so few viewers, the variability from week to week on American Band makes it possible for random outcomes based on highly specific groups of viewers to occur, hence Franklin Bridge's elimination last Friday. However, ultimately, FOX wants the band with the most commercial appeal to win. With something like American Idol, FOX and 19 Entertainment can assume that whoever wins IS the one with most commercial appeal because of the millions and millions of votes that are cast. With American Band, it's quite possible that the winning band will not be the one FOX wanted (unless, of course, they rig the competition). But, for argument's sake, let's take a look at who probably has the most widespread commercial appeal among the remaining seven bands.
November 16, 2007
Only one band was kicked off The Next Great American Band tonight. I was under the impression that American Band would be kicking off two bands per week until the very end, but either I was wrong or FOX switched it up. Considering the terrible ratings The Next Great American Band has received, you'd think FOX would want to burn through the series as quickly as possible. I guess not. Tonight, the seven performing bands played songs by legendary song writing duo Lieber and Stoller.
November 13, 2007
Unlike the ridiculously epic American Idol season, in which viewers gain a feel for how America votes, who might be receiving more votes than logic would dictate and so on, on The Next Great American Band things are rushed. We don't know who the Sanjaya is on The Next Great American Band (I suspect it's Light of Doom, but I have no idea). Therefore, we can only count on logic and an attempt at objectivity with the faulty assumption that this is what America will base their votes on. Then again, with the abysmal ratings American Band is receiving, it's impossible to know who might be a surprise audience favorite. Regardless, this is who I view as the pretenders and contenders on The Next Great American Band, in as objective a way as possible: