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The Morning After: Don't You Like American Music, Baby?

By James Poniewozik | @poniewozik | November 23, 2009 | +

Even if I covered music, I probably would have a hard time taking the American Music Awards very seriously as an awards show. That doesn’t make the performers last night any less famous/spectacular/insane, though. And as a further TV angle the show included, among other things, the primetime-TV bow of American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert behind his new album, performing “For Your Entertainment.”

Question 1: did you like it? Question 2: if you didn’t (and I wasn’t crazy about it), was the problem (a) the song itself (it’s often disillusioning when Idols stop covering classics and must move into the flawed world of mediocre original songs), (b) Lambert’s over-the-top singing/performance style, (c) the sound system, which did not seem to be doing him any favors or (d) the simple fact that he doesn’t translate as well outside the context of American Idol?

Or was the spectacle of the performance itself enough? Say this for Lambert: if nothing else, he’s not watering his style down post-Idol.

Related Topics: adam lambert, American Idol, american music awards, the morning after, Uncategorized

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  • drewglover19

    didn’t like it. the gay kiss and the faux oral sex was too much…his performance seemed more appropriate at a gay rally. not on a music award show.

  • samposts

    I also didn’t like it. Some of the… um… simulation… was just too much for the time slot. As someone who lives without a tivo/dvr – if you can call it living – I know what it’s like being a slave to the time slots, and that should have been in late night – if at all televised. Young kids shouldn’t have had to see it, although it does amuse me thinking of the questions parents had to awkwardly answer last night.
    And seriously, what was with the sound system? It’s beyond pathetic that an award show – for MUSIC – can’t figure this out.
    But, as always, I watched it for the continuous string of stars who have no idea how to exit the stage and must be guided off like children. It never ceases to amaze me.

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