Guest Blogger: Angela on American Idol: Hollywood Week – group round

As I wrote before, I always expect cattiness and tension during the Hollywood Week group round, and of course American Idol 9 didn’t disappoint. From choosing compatible group members to finding a somewhat private rehearsal location to sacrificing sleep for practice time, this season’s group round was very much like seasons past. Bickering within groups, bickering between groups, forgotten lyrics, awkward choreography… we’ve seen it all before. This round is really about personality, not performance. Occasionally a group will come up with an impressive, original take on a song, but most of the groups are average and forgettable (unless they’re horribly bad). Really this is the viewers’ chance to see how the contestants relate to others and handle pressure. It can be very revealing but not necessarily in a musical way.

Ultimately the group round is fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of the show. Regardless of the drama that ensues before they take the stage, most groups are decent enough to make it to the next round, and most of the people who get cut didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of making it to the top 24 anyway. It’s just a way for the producers to “create drama” and for the judges to weed out the mediocre singers, this year reducing the number of contestants from 96 to 71 (they should have cut at least a dozen more in my opinion).

So I’ll simply break the groups (that were featured on the show, some weren’t shown at all) into three categories: good, decent, and bad. For the most part, the strongest individual singers were also members of the strongest groups. Coincidence? Hardly.

Good
Team Awesome (featuring Michael Lynche) – “Get Ready”
Middle C (featuring Janell Wheeler and Casey James) – “Closer”
3 Men and a Baby (featuring Andrew Garcia and Katie Stevens) – “No One”

Decent
Faith – “Irreplaceable”
Destiny’s Wild (featuring Todrick Hall) – “Bad Romance”

Bad
Neapolitan – “Bad Romance”
The Mighty Rangers – “Closer”
Phoenix – “Carry on My Wayward Son”
The Dreamers – “Thunder Only Happens When It’s Raining”
Every group that attempted Gwen Stefani’s “Sweet Escape” (What IS that lyric?! Something about milk on the floor and refrigerator?)

With the Hollywood group round behind us, American Idol can return to what the competition is really about: finding the best individual singer. Next Tuesday we’ll see each contestant perform one more time and then we’ll find out who’s in the top 24 on Wednesday. Hopefully some of my early favorites will make it!

- Angela Pasqinelli


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