The Voice Season 8

[mercfan3]

And to be honest, I wonder if Ryan would have done that if three former Idols weren't a part playing a role in PMJ, and three former Voice contestants were..Truthfully, these shows tend to give the artist enough time to say "thank you" to the judges comments. Especially The Voice..in fact, most of the time on The Voice, the contestant doesn't say a word after their performance.

I always appreciated that Adam would do that..but to be honest, I think it bothers me more with Idol than with The Voice because it's not the artist not receiving credit that bothers me..it's the contestant taking credit for the arrangement.

On Idol, the contestant will get credit for the arrangement unless they state otherwise. And often times the judges will comment on how much of a musician they are. Idol likes to push that.."we have artists" "We have musicians" "Look at how brilliant these contestants are."

On The Voice it's assumed that the contestant didn't come up with the arrangement. The show is all about coach/outside influences. In fact, even when the contestants do get to make artistic decisions, the show tries to make it look like it didn't come from them. I can't think of one time where Sawyer got credit for his arrangements and changes to the melody. It was just assumed that it was Pharrell, (Heck..Pharrell had to constantly tell the Coaches that his contestants picked their own song, because that was assumed too) when if you look at Sawyer's songs..covers and originals..it's clear it was all him. Christina Grimmie is another prime example. Adam Levine got credit for her song choices every week, even though they were all of her youtube covers.

The shows are just different. Idol, at it's best, is completely about the contestants. That's good and bad. It's good because people get to know them as artists, contestants get to show their creativity and have their own authority and identity.

But it's bad in a tv show sense..because that means there's a story. Their needs to be an antagonist, a dark horse, roles need to be played. How many times has the pretty girl contestant been victimized? (Nikki, Diana, Katherine, Carly, Syesha, Alison, Haley, Jessica sanchez, Jessica Meuse...) The contestants have to create the drama..that means that they aren't always in the best atmosphere.

The Voice tried to be the nice show. In order to do that, they decided that any banter would be between the coaches. They sold the show as the nice show..the show that gives people an opportunity to work with established stars. So the established stars are the stars of the show. That means it's a nicer atmosphere. There has never been a Haley situation and there never will be. Unless it happens live, a bad performance is almost never shown. They don't really judge, they leave the improvement to the coaching sessions..but because the coaches are the stars people don't get as attached to contestants. And the contestants have a lot of outside influences (producers/coach/coaches team)..It's good in a way. Adam Levine takes the blame for bad song selection, not his contestant. It's "That poor contestant..Adam got them again." But it's bad in that the contestant doesn't get a chance to be authentically themselves and to exercise creative control unless the coach fights for them to get it (Which, Pharrell apparently did this season. Usher did for specific contestants, and Gwen did...that's about it..) and they want to sell an artist like that.