TAYLOR HICKS AMERICAN IDOL STAR COLOR 11X14 PHOTO

Readers learn about the life and career of American Idol's fifth season winner, Taylor Hicks whose music was greatly influenced by soul and blues.

American Ideal: How American Idol Constructs Celebrity, Collective Identity, and American Discourses by Amanda Scheiner McClain provides an insightful analysis of the popular television show American Idol and explores contemporary notions of celebrity, American collective identity, and other American themes. American Idol depicts how a new star is constructed, supports American ideals such as individualism and archetypes, and reinforces an idealized American identity through verbal and visual discourse. The monstrous popularity of American Idol demands study of the program and the ideals contained within. This book consists of discourse analyses of the first seven seasons of the program, contextual press coverage, and of the official message boards. By amalgamating this research, it becomes clear that American Idol presents an idealistic vision of American life, where everyone is equal, democracy chooses the right winner, power is shared, and celebrity and success can be attained simply by "being yourself." In American Idol's rendering of America, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and sexism do not exist. This idealized America consists of perfected extant ideological systems and apparatus. Through American Idol's American themes, representations of celebrity, and facilitation of collective identities, the show provides an idealized version of American culture. These idealized versions of America, national identity, and celebrity support contemporary economic and cultural norms: capitalistic ideology and concomitant materialism, beauty, race, gender, and sexuality standards, and ostensible equality epitomized by possibility for success. This book is an indispensable reference for not only scholars, undergraduate and graduate students, but anyone with an interest in American Idol and popular culture.

The currency is fame and it's bigger than money more desired than power.Each season American Idol delivers on a promise whose epic scope is unparalleled in the annals of competition: to take an unknown dreamer from the middle of America and turn him or her into a genuine star. It has become not only the biggest show on television but the biggest force in all of entertainment; its alumni dominate the recording charts and Broadway win Academy Awards and sweep up Grammys. In fact American Idol has reshaped the very idea of celebrity.But it didn t start out that way. When the little singing contest debuted as a summer replacement on the U.S. airwaves it was packed between reruns and low-cost filler. The promise that it would find America s next pop star produced a hearty round of guffaws from the country s media critics. Now some ten years and millions of records later no one is laughing.American Idol: The Untold Story chronicles the triumphs and travails the harrowing backstage drama and the nail-biting onstage battles that built this revolutionary show. In this revealing book veteran journalist Richard Rushfield goes deeper inside the circus than any reporter ever has. Candid interviews with Idol alumni including Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell shed new light on the show that changed the entertainment industry. And because Rushfield had full access to the people who created the show starred in it and kept it atop the pop culture pyramid this book is the first to take Americans behind the curtain and tell what has really been happening on the world s most watched and speculated-about stage.

The currency is fame, and it’s bigger than money, more desired than power. Each season American Idol delivers on a promise whose epic scope is unparalleled in the annals of competition: to take an unknown dreamer from the middle of America and turn him or her into a genuine star. It has become not only the biggest show on television, but the biggest force in all of entertainment; its alumni dominate the recording charts and Broadway, win Academy Awards, and sweep up Grammys. In fact, American Idol has reshaped the very idea of celebrity. But it didn’t start out that way. When the little singing contest debuted as a summer replacement on the U.S. airwaves, it was packed between reruns and low-cost filler. The promise that it would find America’s next pop star produced a hearty round of guffaws from the country’s media critics. Now, some ten years and millions of records later, no one is laughing. American Idol: The Untold Story chronicles the triumphs and travails, the harrowing backstage drama and the nail-biting onstage battles that built this revolutionary show. In this revealing book, veteran journalist Richard Rushfield goes deeper inside the circus than any reporter ever has. Candid interviews with Idol alumni, including Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell, shed new light on the show that changed the entertainment industry. And because Rushfield had full access to the people who created the show, starred in it, and kept it atop the pop culture pyramid, this book is the first to take Americans behind the curtain and tell what has really been happening on the world’s most watched and speculated-about stage.