Blog: Idolator

What makes American Idol such a pop-hit-generating juggernaut? The show-closing singles its winners are forced to sing are uniformly awful, so there must be something about Idol itself that ensures hits. Is it the fact that it's a cannily crafted competition that gives pop fans a rooting interest in budding acts with compelling backstories? It's been said that Idol is the closest thing we Americans have to Eurovision , the annual nation-vs.-nation song smackdown, which has been generating pop hits reliably since the middle of the last century. [...]