City Slang: Molly Hunt and American Idol thoughts

When we heard that Detroit native Molly Hunt, a country singer now living in Nashville but still publicly proud of her Motor City roots, had made it through the first stage of American Idol, two very distinct voices could be heard in our head. The first very clearly said, “Good for you, Molly. You go on that TV show and sing your heart out in front of an audience of (probably) millions. You hold that “D” flag high, and show everyone what you can do.”

But then there was a second voice. In truth, this one was slightly louder. This voice said, “There is nothing, nothing, good about that tragic excuse for entertainment. There is a good case to be made that American Idol glamorizes and showcases everything that is wrong with music today. It encourages the banal, it promotes the generic, and it successfully attempts to fool the American public into believing that music completely devoid of emotion, integrity and honesty is filled with those very things. How many times can we watch the judges nod their heads in approval at a rendition of some Mariah Carey monstrosity, seemingly moved to near-tears?”

So there is the dilemma. Hunt is a talented young singer. She has performed at the Downtown Hoedown (see a clip here) and held her own with the nationals and the outlaw locals. She’s one of us and we want her to do well. Instinctively, we hear that she’s entered into a competition, and we want her to win.

But this is American Idol, the source of all (or at least much) evil. Has an artist ever won, or even reached the final, and then gone on to be taken seriously? Sure, a few of them have sold a shit-load of records, but we all know that it’s a fashion thing, a fad.

So here’s our wish. We want Hunt to go as far as she can without turning into a reality TV star. City Slang wants Hunt to prove herself in front of a big audience, and then leave the show, play the bars around the country, and go on to have a long, successful career with all of that experience informing her song writing.

Good luck, Molly. Aim for seventh.