September 24, 2008

David Cook is Not a Sellout!

I am so weary of elitist (usually male) rock reviewers and other haters who don't understand David Cook or his music and accuse him of being a sellout, rock poser, or simply a schmaltzy pop singer who doesn't have a clue about what real rock music is--or insist that he can't ever be a real musician because he happened to win American Idol.
In particular, I'm referring to today's the LA Times review of "Light On" that I read on another forum. This review made my blood boil, and I'll explain why.

For the record, I want to make it clear that I appreciate and enjoy obscure indie music and hard, unique, or noncommercial rock. I include among my vast collection of music such obscure and nontraditional acts as Ween, Tori Amos, Juliana Hatfield, Fiona Apple, L-7, Sonic Youth, Brian Eno, The Clash, Roxy Music, King Crimson, Marcy Playground, Black Lab, Catherine Wheel, late 70s CBGB mainstays such as The Shirts, Television, and early Talking Heads, and local bands Mars Volta and The Clerk.

But just because I can appreciate the uniqueness of these artists in no way means that I think there is something wrong with a song that's commercially produced, played on commercial radio, and is liked by most people who hear it. Many rock snobs put down anything that's popular or commercial as "bad" or the artist as having "sold out." Cook is not selling out, he never said he didn't want to be successful or make a commercially accessable record, and there's no reason he can't be successful and preserve his artistic integrity at the same time--and I think he has succeeded, or will succeed soon enough. .

I agree with others that he does sound like Daughtry (though his voice is more powerful and raw), at least in the style of this song, and I can even understand to a point the endless Nickelback comparisons. There is nothing wrong with Daughtry or Nickelback, and in fact I am a fan of Daughtry, but Cook's voice is unique and packs far more emotion than Daughtry's ever did, or ever can. I would never mistake David's voice for anyone else's.

It should be remembered that Cook has to cooperate with TPTB at 19 Entertainment/American Idol, and take their suggestions, as that's part of the contract he's agreed to, but at this point I don't think he has any real problem with doing their bidding--to a point, if that makes him a better musician and singer. He knows he's still learning, and I even suspect that in his maturity he's come to prefer a more pop-rock sound for himself rather than the hard and angsty rock he was more into performing as a teenager with Axium. He's older now, and making a well-constructed and beautiful rock song or power ballad--commercial or not--is more important to him now than making a raw and edgy hard rock record with a minimal budget that would only appeal to a limited audience and never garner him the record sales a more polished, pop-rock or anthemic sound will do.

I for one have little patience with elitist music critics who put down a well-constructed and great record just because it's popular or accessible to the masses. What on earth is wrong with a song being liked by many people? I never really understood that way of thinking. I mean, weren't the Beatles, the Stones, The Who, Elvis Presley, Springsteen, Pearl Jam, U2, Green Day and REM all great--and weren't they also all commercial and popular as hell?

Conversely, were I to put out a record tomorrow, it would definitely not be popular or accessible, because it would, well, suck! But let's just say I did this. No doubt, some idiot indie rock music critic preoccupied with "integrity" over commercialism might even give me rave reviews for my "originality" and "raw edge," which boils down to simple incompetence on my part, not artistic integrity.

And what is wrong with schmaltz?
That's just a pretentious and condescending way of criticizing emotion or passion in a song, and if music can't elicit strong emotion or passion, then why do we even bother to listen to it at all? One of the most celebrated classical musicians of all time, Beethoven, was anything if not schmaltzy and even pompous, but his bombastic and emotional compositions are still respected and revered enough to be taught in college classes and have doctoral dissertations and scholarly articles written about them. Oh, and during his time Beethoven was definitely very "commercial" and appealing to the masses. The same could be said for Mozart's compositions.

Sure there's a lot of crap on Top 40, I have no argument with that--and a lot of it is prepackaged crap sung by talentless posers and wannabes, and people who's parents happen to have connections to the right A&R executives in the industry--but that does not mean that everything played on such stations is bad or lacks artistic merit.

I do think "Light On" is a sort of transition song between the more pop "Time of My Life" and the singles he will be putting out later, which will probably rock a little harder, while remaining accessable and listenable to the dreaded "masses." Putting out a hard rock song so early in his post-Idol career could be the kiss of death for a man many listeners have come to associate with a softer pop-rock sound. Best to ease them gradually into the type of music Cook really wants to do, rather than hit them over the head with it too soon.