by Olusegun Akanji

Created on: June 23, 2008

Before any comparisons can be made on which show better, the primary question remains what do people enjoy watching? Dancing or singing? I can not speak for the population however I can make suggestions at to why people will be more inclined to watching a singing show as opposed to a dancing show. In a singing show,it is easy to judge a better singer just by listening however in a dancing show, judging who gives a better dance performance is determined by one's preference for a dancing style.Unfortunately, so-you-think-you-can-dance hardly covers the wide variety of dancing styles everyone will enjoy.In reality, people do not dance like the way the show portrays. You do not go to a club and find people throwing themselves in the air or swinging umbrellas while trying to balance on the hind legs of a chair. Those moves are thrilling to watch however, they would not mean much to a person who is fascinated by street dancing or hip hop dancing for instance.The same can be said of American Idol wherein, the music is strongly of the western and modern influence but the good thing is many of the songs sang on the show are songs that a wide generation of people have listened to and have emotional attachments to. It is fun to watch several renditions of many of these songs done by fresh singers and they never get old year in year out. Some people will complain that a show like American Idol only glamouralize the pop culture and focuses less on underground rock or urban music but the truth is several songs that may have infact remained underground are sometimes sung with a popp-ish feel further giving the show some excitement.

In a dancing show, watching someone who just less than a week ago was a clumsy dancer become transformed on the day of the show is intriguing however it is not hard to notice the inexperience of most of the dancers giving the show a redundance. However with a singing show, when done with cleverness, one watches the mere mortal with gifted pipes become transformed by the end of the show. What most people realise but do not give cognizance to is the fraud behind such a strategy. We are made to watch real singers sing, the catch, we watch real singers sing when they look like us up until the point when they become stars. Other singing shows that take inexperienced singers and try to transform them into singers are never successful. This is why American Idol is fun to watch because with every song, we hear a real singer sing. In contrast, so you think

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