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Cook Won the Battle . . . Will Archuleta Win the War?
26-May-2008
Written by: Angela P. Cobb
Reporter weighs in on Archuleta’s assets, but Cook’s edge still may have been his winning ticket.
While David Cook beat out loveable, 17-year-old David Archuleta by 12 million votes, crowning him this season’s American Idol, it is speculated that the loser may win bigger in the future. Los Angeles Times reporter Tom O’Neil feels the younger David has what Cook is lacking – the ability to seduce the audience.
While Cook is ingenuitive, with a rocker edge, and musical talent, Archuleta may fair better in the age-old congeniality category. Sources continue to praise his romantic angle – the fact that he has what puts any male pop sensation on top of the charts . . . female adoration.
“He's a more romantic figure. Female fans ache for him. Even crazy ole Paula Abdul admitted getting “goosebumps” when he sang those I-gotta-have-you-or-I'm-gonna-die power ballads. In short, there's an extraordinary, passionate connection between David Archuleta and female fans,” opines O’Neil.
According to O’Neil, “Cook is terrific at stylizing music to give tunes a hip sound, but he doesn't break hearts when he sings. He needs to do that to establish a music career that echoes on.” He also observes that singers from Frank Sinatra to Justin Timberlake have all beat out the competition largely due to their appeal to fans of the opposite sex.
Cook has drawn comparisons to previous Idol contestant Chris Daughtry, but even in this, O’Neil does not cut the Idol winner any slack. “Daughtry gets it. When he croons, he's admitting to a woman how worthless he is and how desperately he needs her love in order to breathe and to find his way back home. The song is more about her and how much he needs her than it is about him,” he says.
In the end, however, why should rockers have to sell out to sap when it seems they can attract just as much female attention by staying tough? One has to imagine that a gross majority of the votes that Cook received to put him in the winning slot were from adoring female viewers.
Besides, since when has selling out been more important than musical talent? Perhaps since American Idol debuted.
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