Indian Idle - Page 2

Originally posted by: xobile

The Idol format works in America because they have a thriving pop industry. Pop music biz is all about singer-led sales. Pop singers have to be saleable in the way they dance, look, perform as well as sing. The voting system is a measure of how much the audience is willing to shell out for each contestant. The winner, i.e. the most saleable, is the Idol! Music companies can therefore have confidence in the singer and give him albums. The audience who have shown their support through voting will also buy the CD's.

In India, voting is not a good measure of saleability as regionalism and family-voting is an important factor in winning. These factors do not always lead to high album sales. Secondly, the Indian film music industry is very different from pop music. A singer can't release their own album as such. They have to wait to be offered songs which are composed by OTHERS, to be performed on screen by OTHERS. Thus Indian singers are in competition for the best playback offers. So to be a successful singer, you have to woo the Music Directors and Lyricists before you woo the audience... Indian Idol vaguely finds the audience favourite, but never the MD/lyricist favourite.

As always Bang on the target. 😊

Its really sad that none of these winners have made it big in the music industry. Not only from Indian Idol but most of the contestants from other reality shows also haven't made their mark yet. Some of them are truly talented but as xobile mentioned the Indian music industry is very bollywood centric & its very important to have the right contacts.

atleast abhijeet is popular, he's seen mostly than other II winners...like participating in reality shows or hosting....but the other 3? i didnt even remember their names until this post came up!😆

Originally posted by: xobile

The Idol format works in America because they have a thriving pop industry. Pop music biz is all about singer-led sales. Pop singers have to be saleable in the way they dance, look, perform as well as sing. The voting system is a measure of how much the audience is willing to shell out for each contestant. The winner, i.e. the most saleable, is the Idol! Music companies can therefore have confidence in the singer and give him albums. The audience who have shown their support through voting will also buy the CD's.

In India, voting is not a good measure of saleability as regionalism and family-voting is an important factor in winning. These factors do not always lead to high album sales. Secondly, the Indian film music industry is very different from pop music. A singer can't release their own album as such. They have to wait to be offered songs which are composed by OTHERS, to be performed on screen by OTHERS. Thus Indian singers are in competition for the best playback offers. So to be a successful singer, you have to woo the Music Directors and Lyricists before you woo the audience... Indian Idol vaguely finds the audience favourite, but never the MD/lyricist favourite.

Completely agree, but don't you think that the concept of II is kinda the opposite of what it achieves to fulfill.....my comment was a sarcastic one, just to let you know.

Originally posted by: debayon

Completely agree, but don't you think that the concept of II is kinda the opposite of what it achieves to fulfill.....my comment was a sarcastic one, just to let you know.

Yes of course you were being ironic there! 😆 And yes, the intricacies of the way the Indian public votes (i.e. heavy regionalism, emphasis on sob stories, family voting - effectively vote rigging) help to overturn the actual aim of finding even popular singers, let alone good singers ! As of now, winners aren't even that popular...

i also think marketing should play a great part in the success of the indian idol. when the winner gets a contract, the music company should make sure that the music director assigned to make the music for that album is the best, the videos should be shot in exciting locales...i mean, ur granting a one year music contract...then do it the proper way! ive watched all the episodes of indian idol - but can u believe, i have never seen even one video playing on sony? apart from abhijeet's song's (mohabbatein lootaunga and that other one).
im sure if those songs were given the right amount of publicity, the albums would have been successful or atleast average.
i'll use saurabhee as an example...she was the perfect indian idol. beautiful, good screen presence, reasonably good voice and she could dance. sony could have really promoted her, made her into a rockstar...coz she had the potential and with time, she'd have carved a niche for herself (not to say she cant now). i guess, after reality show ends and producers have made the money...thats it.

@desilawyer...

I dunno man. Pop music in India is very high risk. Even with a lot of marketing, album sales won't be as successful as those of film albums. A tiny proportion of non film music achieves great success, and for that you have to be a singing star like Sonu Nigam, Kailash Kher or Himesh Reshammiya. I have my doubts about the effectiveness of an expensive marketing campaign.

These contestants should quit doing so many live shows and just focus on improving their voice/singing skills, making contacts in the film industry and getting a break in playback! It's not an easy task - but then nobody can just skip the struggle to achieve the success....

In American Idol, even getting lots of votes is a struggle, but in Indian Idol people use connections to win easily. Now real life can't be that simple, can it!

@ !xobile