Power of Idol

Let me start by saying that I don't watch American Idol. I think the only time I did was to see William Hung, the "She Bangs" guy. My friend is one of those who likes to pick a person and cheer for them. Frankly, I would rather bang my head against the wall for an hour then watch it. But tonight I realized some of the power or influence of the show.

I was syncing my iPhone and decided to take a quick browse through the iTunes store. I noticed that the top downloaded song(at that time) was "Hallelujah"(link to itunes store) by Jeff Buckley. It is a great song, but 30 or so years old. I checked to see if I had it my iTunes, and I didn't, so I bought it. I remember hearing that for the first time on West Wing. That show had some of the best music a TV show ever had. I can't even begin to count the songs that I bought after hearing them on West Wing. Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms and Yo Yo Ma's take of Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major from Bach are a couple that come to mind. But why was a thirty year old song #1 on iTunes downloads?

I headed over to Google, as I often do when I need an answer, and googled Jeff Buckley to see if maybe today was his birthday or the anniversary of his death. Nope, turns out someone sang the song on American Idol. So even though I don't watch American Idol, they still had an influence on me. Had their fans not been downloading the song, I would have never seen it on the top 10 list and bought it. I just listened to it and it really is a great song.