I’m a Matt Fan – Whose Fault is That?

I have to make a confession. I am a Matt Rogers fan. That said, I don’t know if it has anything to do with his singing. That’s a problem.

Matt Rogers, who I described as a big loveable lug, is exactly that. He’s funny guy, great sense of humor, wants to have a good time, but he gets the gravity of situation. He’s like the class clown who gets A’s. How can you resist a burly guy who admits to being a shopaholic, will not drink alcohol, is a champion collegiate football player who believes in male grooming, listens to Pavarotti as much as he listens to R&B, and wears a pin honoring his mother – a cancer survivor? He’s a fascinating guy.

The real question is: why do we know this much about Matt Rogers while we know nothing about, say Kara Master or LaToya London? The editing is the answer. Now, American Idol is only a hour show, tops. You can’t do a full documentary on each of the Top 32 contestants. American Idol is a television show, and the art of television says there has to be some narrative element to the Hollywood auditions or it would be a pastiche of images amounting to nothing. It could be hard be hard to comprehend what you are watching done that way. That would be bad television. The problem is the fact that there is a need to “tell a story” as a director would say, and that does benefit some contestants who have shown themselves to be compelling or interesting enough to follow through the process.

Scooter Girl, Nicole Tieri was one. Matt Rogers is another. Tieri didn’t make it, Rogers did. There are plenty of conspiracists out there willing to convict Fox for trying to influence the vote, and they have something of an argument. Matt would hard-pressed to find many folks who loved his performance. When I predicted who would advance, I clearly said it was more because of his popularity than his singing. And sure enough, in a week of weak performances overall, Matt’s popularity came very close to making him the highest vote-getter for the week. He pulled a full 27% of the votes.

However, being featured is a double-edged sword. While Matt has proven to be gregarious and fun-loving usually, we’ve also seen him somewhat dark with the fire in his eyes when Simon accused him of not working very hard, and later, jokingly wanting to make Simon’s “head bleed.” (Matt had better watch that. Josh Gracin did similar things last season, and the love for America’s favorite Marine turned to loathing on a dime!)

Last season, Kimberly Caldwell was not shown in the best light, appearing to blow-off narrative-ingénue Julia DeMato during their group rehearsals and not showing a scintilla of remorse about it. Julia was overwhelmingly voted through to the Top 12 and Kimberly advanced as Randy Jackson’s wildcard entrant. When the smoke cleared, Julia was gone within a month. Despite the sympathy garnered for Julia, she couldn’t back it up with the performances. Kimberly had some nice performances during her campaign, but there was a large percentage of the audience who remained predisposed to hate her. And America does not vote for who they don’t like, no matter how talented they are. We’ve seen that time and time again.

What folks love to talk about with Kelly Clarkson and Ruben Studdard is how they have managed to have serious chart success, and that the public does “buy them” as legitimate mainstream artists and not just reality television personalities. That is true. But, what is not discussed is the innate likeability of both of them. Kelly was the girl next door who always looked surprised that people liked her singing. Ruben was the quiet, dimpled, velvet teddy bear with the jerseys whose smile lights up a room. Matt Rogers falls into this paradigm quite nicely.

Matt Rogers could very well be the next American Idol, and it could be the audition shows that do it for him. And wouldn’t that be a shame? But, whose fault would that be?

Sting7 has been a respected published writer for 16 years, as a music editor, entertainment critic, columnist, and interviewer. He also has a curious love for pro-wrestling! You can email Stinger at stingseven@yahoo.com.

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