Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Voice -- Not Exactly Discovering New Talent

The days of a complete unknown stumbling on our TV and wowing us with heretofore undiscovered talent is over.  Thanks to YouTube, a simple search of the contestants on the new reality TV talent show The Voice shows that these people have been singing for a very long time, toiling on the fringes while never quite hitting it big.  But what we lose in the "newness" factor we gain in having a veritable treasure trove of past performances to evaluate.

My favorite from last night was Javier Colon.  Javier has performed with Darius Rucker (formerly of Hootie and the Blowfish, now esconced in Nashville as a newly minted country performer).


Javier has sung the National Anthem on Monday Night Football

And he has toured with Joss Stone:

Javier has his own YouTube channel, so you can check out more of his videos:  http://www.youtube.com/user/JaviersUtube

While Javier has been rubbing elbows with mainstream artists and recording professionally, Rebecca Loebe has been doing the acoustic indie girl singer routine. Grab your guitar and go from one coffee shop to another singing your original folk-infused songs.  Talk a lot between songs and reference NPR and caffeine. 

Rebecca (whose last name is pronounced Low-Bee) has videos dating back about four years, too many with annoying chatter in the background.  So here are a couple where you can actually hear her.



You can read up more about Rebecca on her website:  http://rebeccaloebe.com/

Unlike Javier and Rebecca, country singer Jeff Jenkins was a little less sure about what to do to get heard.  He did not have the vision to sell his music on his own, going by the limited number, and poor quality of his videos.  He definitely needs the packaging help the show can offer, but his voice is undeniably great.



Especially if you're into that country sound:

2 comments:

  1. absolutely love this show,maybe idol will go away now,or maybe change the voting.i'd settle for that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love looking up old videos of "new" music stars. I have downloaded bunches of them, especially of Casey James (easy to find) and Crystal Bowersox (hard to find).

    ReplyDelete