On this season of American Idol, one of the early front-runners is a rock-loving 16-year-old girl named Casey Bishop who belted out a beautiful rendition of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” on last night’s episode (April 11.)
Bishop’s performance can be seen below. All three judges – country star Luke Bryan, pop star Katy Perry and music legend Lionel Richie – were blown away by Bishop’s performance and rightfully so. She took a very popular song sung Chris Cornell, one of the best vocalists of all time, and not just crushed it but made it her own.
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However, Bryan’s comments after her performance, while complimentary, still rubbed me the wrong way. Following Bishop’s rendition of “Black Hole Sun,” he said, “Why you chose rock, I’ll never know. But it’s your thing and you can sing no matter what you sing.”
For starters, people don’t choose rock; it chooses them. More importantly, musicians whose most memorable vocal performance came via the truly Dylan-esque “Country Girl (Shake It or Me)” (note: sarcasm) perhaps shouldn’t judge the genre choice of a teenage girl who sings better than they ever have or will.
American Idol airs on Sunday and Monday nights at 8 PM on ABC.