'American Idol' Finale: The next stage: Advice from Those Who've Been There:
Hang On, It's Going to Be a Wild Ride;
Dear Diana: Second has its perks
Shane Harrison
The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution May 27, 2004 Thursday
Diana DeGarmo's runner-up finish might seem a major letdown to her fans, but
they just have to keep thinking Clay thoughts and banish those Justin
nightmares. . . .
And here's another stat to console the runners-up. As David Bloomberg, editor of
fan Web site www.foxesonidol.com, notes, "Every final four
contestant, except Nikki McKibbin, will have an album out when Josh Gracin's is
released in June."
Career longevity is another matter. "I think it ["Idol"] is an
interesting little way of creating --- I don't want to say stars --- but
creating people who can be within the record business at this time when nobody
is buying records," Rolling Stone contributing editor Toure told The
Associated Press. "But this is not the way of creating lasting stars."
Which brings us to the first season's No. 2, Justin Guarini.
Justin's self-titled debut moved only 140,000, and he was dropped by his
label. It probably didn't help that he starred in the execrable and almost
universally panned film "From Justin to Kelly." (Winner Kelly
Clarkson, however, emerged relatively unscathed from that venture.)
Bloomberg also points to poor promotion as a culprit in the failure of Guarini's
album.
"The PR machine, it seems, was focused on the big-screen debut," he
says. "Justin and Kelly were on ["The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"
], but they were just there to promote the movie," Bloomberg recalls.
"They didn't even mention his album."
Performers and producers both have learned how to work the system since that
first season, so don't expect those kind of rookie mistakes to happen again.
With the "Idol" tours, CDs, merchandise and endless hours of TV time,
promotion is certainly no longer a problem.