Scott Borchetta Selectively Forgets “American Idol” Sentiments
As first reported on Tuesday (12-3) and then confirmed Wednesday afternoon, President and CEO of the Big Machine Label Group Scott Borchetta has partnered with American Idol to become the show’s new “mentor”—a position that was held for years by producer Jimmy Iovine, and then last year by Randy Jackson who moved into the position from a judge spot on the show. Jackson announced earlier in the year he was leaving the show after being a part of all 13 seasons.
Today we get confirmation of the Scott Borchetta addition, but even more intriguing is what the partnership will entail. Borchetta will not only be American Idol‘s mentor, he will also sign the eventual winner of the show to Big Machine Records—the home of Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line, Brantley Gilbert, Rascal Flatts, The Band Perry, Tim McGraw, and many others. This extra layer of commitment between Borchetta and American Idol could have big implications for both parties. And as arguably the most influential label in country music currently, it could have a big impact on country music at large with American Idol potentially becoming a proving ground for Nashville-based talent moving forward. Borchetta has already participated in the show’s “Hollywood Week” portion by watching performances of contestants he will be advising moving forward.
All of this news comes in stark contrast to how Scott Borchetta felt about the show in 2010 in the aftermath of Taylor Swift’s now legendary off-key performance at the Grammy Awards. Facing fierce criticism for the performance, Borchetta defended his burgeoning starlet by calling her the “voice of a generation” who was above the criticism of her not technically perfect singing. “This is not ‘American Idol,'” Borchetta said. “This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. This is about a true artist and writer and communicator. It’s not about that technically perfect performance.”
American Idol Season One winner Kelly Clarkson took exception to Scott Borchetta’s comments and fired back.
“I understand defending your artist obviously because I have done the same in the past for artists I like, including Taylor, so you might see why it’s upsetting to read you attacking ‘American Idol’ for producing simply vocalists that hit ‘the high notes.’ Thank you for that ‘Captain Obvious’ sense of humor, because you know what? We not only hit the high notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the ‘right’ notes as well. Every artist has a bad performance or two and that is understandable, but throwing blame will not make the situation at hand any better.
“I have been criticized left and right for having shaky performances before (and they were shaky), and what my manager or label executives say to me and the public is ‘I’ll kick butt next time’ or ‘Every performance isn’t going to be perfect.’ I bring this up because you should take a lesson from these people and instead of lashing out at other artists (that in your ‘humble’ opinion lack true artistry), you should simply take a breath and realize that sometimes things won’t go according to plan or work out and that’s okay.”
Whether it’s selective amnesia, a change of heart, or simply a savvy business move, Scott Borchetta has officially decided to step out of the shadows of country music label ownership to become a public pop cultural figure, and one who could have a big stake in making sure the next American Idol winner or winners do something that many recent winners have failed to pull off: actually becoming “Idol’s” instead of names forgotten a week after the finale.
December 3, 2014 @ 7:31 pm
Good one.
I can’t remember any of the previous winners. Whether he’ll make a lick of difference remains to be seen. Simon didn’t make them more memorable, either.
We remember Simon but not the winners.
December 3, 2014 @ 7:55 pm
Well, Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, of course! 😉
But I get your general point. Their batting average as far as producing commercially sustainable acts is well below .500. Granted it’s superior to the .000 average of “The Voice” to date, but even semi-successful acts like Adam Lambert and Fantasia are hanging by a thread. Even Daughtry, which produced a quintuple-platinum debut album and dominated the airwaves from 2006 through 2008, has become all but forgotten now
December 4, 2014 @ 7:29 am
Scotty McCreery is another Idol winner who’s had post-Idol success.
December 4, 2014 @ 3:22 pm
I can’t name most of the winners but one doesn’t have to win Idol, Nashville Star, The Voice etc. to be great and better than most winners, for example Miranda Lambert finished around 4th on Star. Tough Simon and all 3 judges were very impressed with and picked Kellie Pickler at her audition. Later in the season Simon named her to finish in the top 2-3 and she landed 6th due to various reasons including issues with/abuse/flooding of the unlimited voting system by a couple of rabid fan bases etc. and competing with much older and more experienced singers, some of who were more singers or “acts” than true artists. Who cares because now she’s one of the best and most critically acclaimed country music vocalists/ARTISTS and few Saving Country Music Album of the Year WINNERS. Miranda, Kellie, Carrie and others got even better after those shows. The TV shows are just a start or launching pad and way to get noticed/discovered and signed, like when Dolly sang on The Porter Wagoner Show.
The biggest problem in country music is country radio not playing Pickler, Musgraves, and other top solo female talents turning out the best country music. What do Scott Borchetta and Taylor Swift have to say about that bs?
One thing I don’t like about Idol is we don’t see the country judge Keith Urban supporting country alums as much as Blake supports The Voice alums by always tweeting and telling millions of people to buy their new music and singing with them. Blake recorded a duet with Gwen Sebastian and radio doesn’t even play her, so where’s Keith Urban’s duet with top critically acclaimed artist Kellie Pickler and tweets about buying her music?
December 3, 2014 @ 7:37 pm
Is Big Machine exclusively “country?” Because this sounds like he’s gonna sign the winner regardless of whether they sing what passes for country or straight up pop or rock. If so, this would make Big Machine an intergenre label, hence hastening the mono-genre, and making the country music Anti-Christ the supreme king of all label owners. I may have no clue what I’m talking about though, I just find this disconcerting.
December 3, 2014 @ 8:14 pm
Nope. Motley Crüe is also with them. I guess that’s how that terrible duet with Justin Moore came around.
December 3, 2014 @ 9:14 pm
Motley Crue is not signed with Big Machine. Big Machine released a tribute album to Motley Crue featuring country artists, including many from Big Machine, but they haven’t released any new music and are set to disband after their farewell tour nobody’s paying attention to.
December 3, 2014 @ 8:26 pm
Big Machine announced that Dot Record was not going to be exclusively country so I would assume that is where they would go.
December 3, 2014 @ 9:16 pm
And Taylor Swift is no longer country (& questionable if she ever was) so…
December 4, 2014 @ 8:43 am
The biggest pop artist in the world is on Big Machine…
December 4, 2014 @ 2:44 pm
oh taylor.
taylor still cant sing
December 3, 2014 @ 8:51 pm
Pretty soon there will be no distinctions between music at all. It doesn’t matter that many people don’t like other genres intruding on their music, because the ones like me who hate this pop country crap are more reserved, and the ones who love it are very vocal about it. Trust me, I’m a 19 year old Ole Miss student and I despise Bro-Country and whatever EDM/ rap crap they’re doing now with all my heart and soul, but my demographic is one that you think of as the Bro-Country type, and I’m sadly a rare exception to that. To most people my age that’s all they know. A lot of people who don’t like country feel that way because they think it’s all rock music about beers, trucks, and tailgates. There’s more I would say, it’s just so hard to express my frustration. This is kinda off topic for this one though… Rant over…
December 3, 2014 @ 9:16 pm
It’s hard to tell for sure whether he’s doing it for the money, the cash, or the dollars.
December 3, 2014 @ 9:25 pm
Did my second comment, the semi-rant, go through? Sorry, this is my second time ever commenting. I don’t know how all the moderation stuff goes. Just ignore this one if the other one pops up…
December 3, 2014 @ 9:40 pm
Just approved it.
December 3, 2014 @ 9:44 pm
Ok, now I’m confused… I guess if these things can come out of order, that means I need to be patient to avoid an OCD spaz attack if I ever feel compelled to write again.
December 3, 2014 @ 10:13 pm
Sadly, while I think Borchetta’s comment about singing are stupid. Most young people I know don’t really care about vocals at all. And get quite peeved when you mention them or attack them as an argument for the poor quality of an artists music.
Or sometimes they blindly assume somebody (i.e. Ariana Grande) is the best singer ever even when you point how pitchy she is live and lead them to better singers like Patti LaBelle or Annie Lennox or Tammy Wynette. They just get pissy and because they if they haven’t heard of them in all there young years of musical ignorance they call them all has beens. I’m telling you it is near IMPOSSIBLE to engage most young people in serious musical discussions. They are WAY TOO defensive about their musical tastes.
I’m sure Borchetta knows this and so he doesn’t really care about who wins because in the end he’ll make them a star somehow.
December 4, 2014 @ 8:52 am
A bit of a ridiculous rant. He’s not “selectively forgetting” anything.
– A) You’re not stupid. You know very well it’s business. He said what he felt he needed to say to defend his artist THEN (which was best for business at the time). He’s doing what he thinks is best for business NOW.
– B) If you really want to hold him to his words/behavior, what he’s doing isn’t necessarily inconsistent. Perhaps he feels he, as someone who has launched big artists, can help American Idol transition from “singing show” to “star discovery show” by focusing more on artistry, song choice, identity, etc.
December 4, 2014 @ 8:53 am
***Sorry – this wasn’t meant as a reply to you – not sure why it got posted like that.
December 4, 2014 @ 8:59 am
How on earth is this a rant?
December 4, 2014 @ 8:40 am
Makes me think of a quote I read about about Dick Cheney, who while Secretary of Defense under Bush #1 explained what a mistake it would be to go on to Baghdad after kicking the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait but then was was all for toppling Saddam when vice president under Bush #2.
He’s for his team.
December 4, 2014 @ 5:41 pm
As far as I know, Cheney actually urged Bush Sr. to go all the way to Baghdad, but Bush refused.
December 4, 2014 @ 6:18 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I
December 4, 2014 @ 4:24 pm
I love the fact that he’s very accurately listed in the Urban Dictionary: ‘A douche who makes up excuses for the obviously untalented.”
Everyone go thumbs up that Urban Dictionary entry.
December 4, 2014 @ 7:01 pm
I believe it’s all business!! Ka-ching!!! $$$$..since Taylor transitioned to pop..seems Borchetta is heading that way .
seems he is brokering a lot of deals..Reba/Brooks/Dunn to Vegas..Nash icon with Cumulus.. I just think that it’s a conflict of interest as mentor and label head…steering results to who he wants to win..
December 5, 2014 @ 2:43 am
Is he going to be on camera or behind the scenes he is a little bit of a loose cannon who can put his foot in his mouth should be interesting!
December 5, 2014 @ 4:18 pm
As much as I hate to defend Scott Borschetta (or Taylor Swift), I more or less agree with his American Idol comment. People were attacking Taylor Swift for a bad live vocals, but I think he was trying to say that being able to sing like an ‘American Idol’ contestant shouldn’t make someone a more worthwhile artist than someone who can’t. A singer/songwriter with a unique singing voice (whether Taylor Swift or anyone) shouldn’t be compared to someone with the natural ability to sing the way Kelly Clarkson does. There are many amazing talents in music, country or otherwise, who’ve missed notes or had a weak performance. If there is that much focus on whether someone gives a technically perfect performance, you’re missing the point. I think that was the point he was trying to make.
December 6, 2014 @ 7:51 am
Since this is labeled under random notes I have a random question.
How would y’all feel if someone released a song labeled as Country Rap Metal, that was complete with screaming and everything?
December 11, 2014 @ 3:51 pm
Wow, if Scott Borchetta finds an American Idol winner, then he thinks he wants to sell Big Machine Records to Universal Music Group and have UMG buy BMR before turning BMR into a Nashville pop label replacing the record label’s country with a Nashville pop record. All Scott Borchetta can do now is to have an American Idol winner and then sell off Big Machine Records to Universal Music Group so Big Machine Records can get rid of all country stars except Taylor Swift and a future American Idol winner and add pop stars like Christina Aguilera into the label. Keep Taylor Swift and a future American Idol winner, but get rid of country stars like Rascal Flatts. Big Machine Records must remove country music and replace by pop music. Big Machine Records needs to be a Nashville pop label, not an independent country label. It needs to happen.