Copious Notes

The Jonas Brothers take the stage at Rupp Arena Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009. Photos by Jason Sankovitch.

I got a lot of sympathy yesterday.

It was all in good fun, as I posted on my Facebook page and Twitter that I was reviewing the Jonas Brothers show at Rupp Arena last night.

“Ummm…sorry?” one local musician wrote, and my sister concurred.

Another friend wrote, “Some people will do ANYTHING for a buck…..hahaha ;-}”

Oh, when it comes to doing things for a buck, I have to say this is a pretty good gig. And if you have this gig, being the critic covering the biggest concert of the summer is where you want to be, so you will never hear me complain about having to go to see the Jonas Brothers or any other act.

The Jonas Brothers fans were thrilled to see the dreamy trio on stage.

Of course, it is usually Walter Tunis covering the big Rupp concerts with a sharp critical eye and years of experience. This one happened to fall to me because I have a daughter who just passed out of the the Jonas generation, so the Disney Channel tween culture is very familiar to me. I’ve watched the Jonas Brothers grow from guests on Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus’ show and tour to a marquee act in their own right, and was even vaguely familiar with their initial foray into Christian rock.

As a critic part of your job is to step back and see and appreciate things for what they are. The Jonas Brothers are the latest teen heartthrobs, backed by the entertainment empire of Disney, and they brought a show that pulled out all of the stops. I sat next to a 43-year-old musician and dad from Louisville and our jaws were dropped a few times by what the JoBros — or, to be acurate, their technical directors and designers — put on stage. I would have liked some more spontaneity and soul. There was little room here for the surprises or improvisations I have treasured in concerts by some of my favorite artists. But no doubt, many a teen and pre-teen girl walked out of Rupp last night thinking they had seen the greatest thing ever.

And there is the point here where the critic needs to remind cynical adults that every generation has its teen idols, and some of them were even the Chairman of the Board, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Fab Four. Am I saying the Jonas Brothers are going to be the next Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley or Beatles? Hardly. The jury is still very early in deliberations on that, and in the long run, the fraternal trio will do well to be as enduring as The Monkees or Duran Duran. Time and the Jonas Brothers talent and public taste will tell the tale of how far they go. I do think they have musical and songwriting talent, and fairly winning stage presences. But the stigma of being someone’s favorite when they were 10 can be a tough thing to overcome. The daughter who familiarized me with the Jonas Brothers world has already moved on, had no interest in last night’s show, but really wants tickets to the Kings of Leon in October.

This is why any artist that makes most of his or her cash off the delirious excitement of girls who are too young to drive would be well advised to invest that money wisely, because the trip from arena stages to the where-are-they now category can be as quick as fashions change and those shoes become so five minutes ago.

And adults will always look at the flavor of the moment with some disdain. As one friend wrote, “If you can’t poke a little fun at teenage millionaires, who can you pick on…? : )”

With two weeks left in the American Idol competition, Entertainment Weekly came out with a bit of a bold cover story for its current issue: “Loving Adam Lambert: The Most Exciting American Idol Contestant in Years.”

Sorry Danny Gokey and Kris Allen, but one of the leading entertainment magazines in America is brushing right past you and presuming the man with the sky-scraping vocals should be anointed the newest American Idol. Bold, but OK, EW does pride itself on being a taste-making magazine — and this blog is on record as supporting the astonishingly-talented Lambert.

Here’s what was funny in EW’s headline and story. There was an asterisk on the  headline, “*And Not Just Because He Might Be Gay.”

Initial thought: Being gay, alone, would make someone exciting? The bigger issue is that when you get to the story, the sexuality question is hardly an asterisk. After an opening that talks about how Lambert has defied an Idol history of humility and blandness with a bold, individual approach, writer Mark Harris zeroes in on the sexuality question and stays there.

The presumption seems to be that it would be groundbreaking for Idol to annoint an openly gay winner. For the record, Lambert has not directly addressed his sexuality in interviews with the craftiness of a politician not wanting to tick anyone off as the election draws near.

OK, Idol has not crowned an openly gay winner, yet. But in the world of pop music and pop culture in general, this ship sailed a long, long time ago. Regardless of what opinion polls have said, music fans have turned many artists who are openly gay or have ambiguous sexual preferences into big stars: Elton John, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, Queen’s Freddie Mercury, and Melissa Etheridge, just to name a few. Ellen DeGeneres has become an afternoon television star, and got a standing O from her audience when she returned from a summer break and talked about her wedding, in which she married Portia di Rossi.

We may have expected EW to spend a paragraph or two on the  gay buzz about Lambert. But what makes EW such a strong magazine is that it usually concentrates on the art, the product, and leaves the gossip rag stuff to magazines like In Touch Weekly and People. And there are interesting questions about Adam Lambert the artist I was frankly looking for EW to explore:

• Did his bottom three finish two weeks ago indicate he’s more of a critics/judges’ darling than fan favorite?
• He’s been in L.A. trying to break through for a while. Is Idol just the break he needs, or is his past an indication he’d be more of a Taylor Hicks than Kelly Clarkson if he won?
• Lambert is bringing a style — glam — to the Idol stage we have not seen in years, well over a decade. Could one American Idol winner bring a genre back?

After all, one of the reasons people started picking up on a gay vibe was Lambert’s penchant for theatrics and makeup. But back in the ’70s and ’80s, those things were de rigeur for many male pop stars, gay and straight. I remember jokes about whether Duran Duran bassist John Taylor and his supermodel girlfriend got their makeup mixed up. Lambert would have looked like a Marlboro Man on the L.A. hair metal scene.

So, Lambert’s run is fascinating, and Entertainment Weekly had a chance to make a bold statement with its cover story. Instead, they asked a pretty weak question and failed to talk about what makes him exciting.