Fox's The Four
So I had the "pleasure" of watching a new singing competition on Fox tonight. The show is called "The Four". It is hosted by such musical "luminaries" as Puff Daddy, Megan Trainor, DJ Khaled, and some producer guy that nobody knows. The concept behind the show is this: They did a try out beforehand to find a group of "really talented" people that would be known as "The Four". This ringers sit on the sidelines while some "upstarts" come in and perform in an attempt to oust one of the four of their choice from their spot and take a spot as one of the four. The whole thing comes off as a really contrived effort to create surface level drama on an adolescent level akin to a school yard street fight.
In addition to this, there is a very blatant effort to pander to a "hip-hop" crowd. The crowd in the first episode could very easily be described as predominantly "urban", despite the fact that they claim to be looking for someone who can "fill stadiums". I feel like NBC's "The Voice" already struck the perfect balance between style and popularity, but this show wants to fill that niche in a "hip-hop", or more "inclusive" setting. I'm sorry, but hip-hop verses don't really lend very well to discerning who is the more talented artist. "The Four" can perform in a variety of different genre's, but it is very obvious that a country singer won't be challenging a rapper to a battle, so you are only left with one inevitable choice to watch battle it out if someone makes it to the challenge stage.
Just a disclaimer... I am a fan of hip hop. Hip hop is hip hop because it doesn't participate in these kinds of spectacles. Hip hop doesn't care if a million people show up to watch or 2. Hip hop will be hip hop even if nobody gave a damn.
IF a contestant makes it to the battle stage, there is a long period of smack talking among the challenger and The Four, as well as the judges, who egg the whole process on. It comes off as, "I'm so much better than you, I could out sing you with my legs tied behind my back", with intermittent "Oh you didn't!?"'s and "Oh I can't believe she just said that", with obligatory surprised reactions from the audience. The contestant looks thoughtfully for a while at who they will pick... TICK TOCK TICK TOCK... and thennnnn COMMERCIAL. Wow. Nice use of suspense the lead everyone on to the next segment of the show. I know you need viewers... but could you at least try a novel approach to getting everyone to keep watching that hasn't been done a million times before? Back to the smack talking... Come on... Are you serious? Who would have expected P Diddy to smack talk other people in an effort to get views?? I never would have guessed. DJ Khaled, rap's Snooky, play's the street wise guru, adding in his own snide remarks of urban music producer "realness"... Meghan Trainor plays the too nice to say anything bad, sweet girl... The music producer guy plays Simon Cowell. The show is hosted by the beautiful, if not aesthetically "outdated", Fergie, who inexplicably switches between ebonics and a UN translator's pitch perfect continental English, worthy of a International Airport announcer's. Who coached these people on how to act? There is nothing natural about the whole thing. It really feels like an amalgamation of focus group research sloppy patched together in a quilt of urban slop.
That is not to say that there aren't good things about the show... Some of the artists are actually talented! 16 year old Zhavia had a unique musical and visual style that was truly worth watching. I honestly can say, though, that it is a show that I cannot justify wasting my time on.