Facing the music on new talent shows<\/p>\n
Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Popstars who?<\/p>\n
The fresh-faced five-member group formed from Trans TV's
\nPopstars talent program popped up to make an appearance on Lepas
\nMalam late-night talk show a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
They hit the not too high notes and made all their well-
\nchoreographed moves, the Indonesian equivalent of S Club 7
\nwithout the Disney TV series or a gaggle of teenybopper
\nfollowers.<\/p>\n
For those in the know (their moms, maybe), the group is Joe,
\nAndi Lee, Elsa, Dini and Dandy. For the rest of us ignorant
\nsouls, they were the first products in the percolating TV talent
\nshow craze. Relegated to a thankless late-night slot, they are
\nnow bringing up the rear amid the country's love affair with
\ntalent shows.<\/p>\n
While we once had Asia Bagus, which offered a regional contest
\nfor the budding Whitneys of the world and launched the careers of
\nsuch local talent as Krisdayanti, today the airwaves are clogged
\nwith star search talent shows taken from foreign franchises.<\/p>\n
Popstars is missing in inaction, but Akademi Fantasi Indosiar
\n(AFI) and the long-awaited, humongously hyped Indonesian Idol on
\nRCTI are an almost constant nightly presence. They offer a
\nconcert tour of major cities (the former) and behind-the-scenes
\nglimpses of the kids with stars in their sights (both shows).<\/p>\n
We not only get to see them harmonize, but also get up close
\nand personal about their lives, loves, losses, the whole
\nemotional, heart-tugging kit and caboodle. Of course, it gets
\nviewers hooked in supporting their favorites, even if it's not so
\nmuch about evaluating their musical talent as the hard-luck
\nbaggage they bring with them.<\/p>\n
Obviously, the networks think they have a money-spinner going
\nfor them, andAFI certainly has had its moment in the spotlight.
\nIn its first run last year, it made household names of the batch
\nof hopefuls, from the eventual winner Veri to runners-up Mawar
\nand Ve, the towering Smile and boy-next-door Dickie.<\/p>\n
Tears flowed every week when the finalists were sent packing
\n-- literally, by being given a suitcase and told to leave the
\nstage. Each member of the panel of judges became known for their
\nown idiosyncrasies, with the diminutive Tri Utami taking on the
\n\"bad guy\" role of Simon Cowell from American Idol.<\/p>\n
When the grand final rolled around last February, there were
\naround 400,000 votes by SMS, according to the May 2 edition of
\nKompas daily.<\/p>\n
While Shirley Maclaine may have lost out to Elizabeth Taylor
\nin the 1960 Oscars due to the latter's famous brush with death
\n(\"I lost to a tracheotomy,\" Maclaine reportedly said later),
\nresonant-voiced Ve could not compete with the sentimental pull
\nfrom Veri's hard-scrabble background, the boy from the boondocks
\nof North Sumatra whose father had once rode a becak (three-
\nwheeled pedicab) for a living.<\/p>\n
Although the individual winner, the unprepossessing Veri is
\nnow back as part of the ensemble, performing in concerts from
\nDenpasar to Surabaya and Semarang. The Central Java capital was
\nhost to last week's extravaganza, which had the performers
\ncamping it up in ancient Egyptian garb, with a bit of Superman
\nkitsch thrown in as well.<\/p>\n
Veri and the rest have been given their 15 minutes of fame,
\nbut the clock is tick, tick, ticking away. Fast. For only a
\ncouple of weeks after the Grand Final, the next batch of AFI was
\nready for its close-up.<\/p>\n
The inevitable feeling is that the concept is being
\nrelentlessly worked to death, and that the young performers, now
\non contract, are being exploited for as much as they are worth, a
\ncharge that Indosiar has consistently denied.<\/p>\n
But AFI does not have the arena to itself anymore. Indonesian
\nIdol is now on the air, taking the Fox TV concept to major cities
\nnationwide. It shows the would-be aspirants as they try to sing
\nfor their supper before the judges, composed of musicians Indra
\nLesmana and Dimas J., singer Titi DJ and radio personality Meutia
\nKasim.<\/p>\n
Despite the blitz of promotion for the series, including the
\nbig lead-in of the nail-bitingly close Clay-Reuben showdown from
\nAmerican Idol (except that it happened a good six months ago),
\nIndonesian Idol seems an overbaked, overly slick concept which
\nfails to ignite any real interest.<\/p>\n
The shows go on interminably -- the same scene played out over
\nand over, only with different faces in different cities -- with
\nMeutia offering some withering look or pithy put-down, while we
\nat home wonder what she has done lately.<\/p>\n
How many times can one watch the same scene of public
\nhumiliation, whether it's a guy singing doing the splits as
\nMeutia and co. guffawed behind their hands, or the young woman
\nlast week whose false teeth flew out during her performance.
\nFunny at first, perhaps, but it gets stale pretty fast.<\/p>\n
It's true that there is no accounting for taste, and the
\ntalent shows underline that a pretty face and sweet personality
\nwill probably win out over a talented diva with an attitude
\nproblem at the end of the day.<\/p>\n
Likewise, while talent shows have succeeded in winning the
\npublic's attention, the people behind them also need to learn to
\npace themselves, or else risk becoming a spent force.<\/p>",
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