Nov 23 2009
Adam Lambert: New Talent or Vulgar Flash in the Pan?
The American Music Awards has always been pretty much about performance rather than actual awards that mean anything.
Each of the musical stars on the schedule for the 2009 AMA performed large extravaganzas with big stage effects, backup dancers and often full orchestral arrangements.
Most of the faces and names were familiar: Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Keith Urban. There was even a special performance by Whitney Houston, which was a really tearful, heartfelt performance which I think everyone enjoyed.
But the teaser at each commercial break was a promised “spectacular” by newcomer and American Idol first runner-up, Adam Lambert.
Adam Lambert, the flamboyant and out-of-the-closet gay man, delivered what was either OVER THE TOP, OUTRAGEOUS AND FANTASTIC! or else was VULGAR, OBSCENE, OFF-KEY, SELF-INDULGENT, SADO-MASOCHISTIC TRASH. Trash.
The reviewers around the country on the morning after were just about evenly split between the two extremes. In other words, no one said it was just hum-drum, so-so, average or just okay.
NOPE. Feelings about the performance were strong on both sides. Why couldn’t he have been a little more subtle? Perhaps brushing his hand against the keyboard player’s cheek instead of laying a full open-mouth lip-lock on him?
Why did he have to carry the bondage thing to the point of rubbing a man’s face into his own crotch in a gesture that was deemed “repulsive” enough to get the censor’s cut for the West Coast tape delay broadcast?
I don’t know the answers. I do know that he missed some notes, sounded flat, seemed to run out of energy. I think it will all take a toll on him. He might be fiercely defensive for the next few days, but I hope he realizes that he doesn’t have to go to such extremes to separate himself from the “pop” music of American Idol.
My wife was a big fan, but last night left her shaking her head and wondering if he will be someone she will bother to watch in the future. She did not pre-order his CD, which surprised me, and now I don’t know if she will even buy it.
Of course, we have to recognize that there are some differences between the generations, we are 59 and 62 years old. But why should a grandfather have to answer his 7-year-old granddaughter’s question about the crotch-pelvis thrust and grind maneuver? “Why is he doing that, Grandpa?”
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