OK. First off, I don't like the way the contestants sing, or the songs they choose. So it would be painful to watch even if I could stand the format of the show--and I worry that one of the contestants is going to be injured by all the sunshine that gets blown up their arses by the "judges". But the endemic insta-celeb of these shows is my biggest problem. Some of my favorite artists, and some of the biggest cultural and artistic influences were not cut from some commercial mold that creates pop-bots, which sing as they are told, so the big media can flood the market with the homogenized crap that is about as original as the piles of mass-produced flip-flops down at the Wal-Mart. Real artists developed a craft, and worked hard. If it resonated with people, it grew. They, and their audience had something to say, and it was many times a primal scream.
Would Woody Guthrie, Pete Seger, or Neil Young survive the first Idol cut? No. Go read about how any truly original artist got their big break. Many times it was getting discovered at a small venue, got airplay by a bold DJ (before media conglomeration replaced them with play lists), or got picked up by an indie label.
The model for commercial celebrity is nothing new. It started as soon as there was money in records and airplay. But this is ridiculous because it's hard to escape the parade of new "great performers" flooding our culture like iGadgets. In the current system, there are very few DJs with a metro-area market that can help the new REM, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Social Distortion, The Clash, The Replacements, or Pearl Jam along. The internet will help keep some semblance of counter-culture going, but there always seems to be less and less that has yet to be homogenized by our corporate plutocracy, and why I can't stand anything about "Idol".
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