With vastly more talented singers, a fresher format and coaches who actually have chemistry and enthusiasm, “The Voice” has unsurprisingly usurped “American Idol”‘s crown as television’s top music competition series.
The media’s long-time commitment to covering “Idol” has kept it competitive as far as buzz goes, but when it comes to ratings in the key adults 18-49 demographic, “The Voice” has begun to exhibit dominance.
NBC’s competition series has been successful from the get-go, but the season four debut of new coaches Shakira and Usher–in place of Cee-Lo and Christina Aguilera, who are on hiatus–has greatly improved the show’s reception. THe new coaches have been praised not only for their energy and charisma but also for better-complementing the personalities of Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, who have consistently represented two of the show’s best assets.
But much of what works on “The Voice” dates back to the show’s first season, and one particularly-beloved element of the show is the “Battle Round.”
Performed as dueling duets between two (typically similar-skewing) contestants on a given coach’s team, the Battle numbers provide not only a tangible sense of “competition” that is sometimes lacking from these feel-good shows but also produce some truly tremendous duets.
Consider Monday’s “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” performance by dueling contestants Judith Hill and Karina Iglesias. Even if one ignores the intense competitive context, he could not possibly deny that the performance was a stunning, must-see example of musical artistry. The “Battle Round” dynamic is readily capable of facilitating such brilliance.
But it is not without its flaws. Notably, the battles make no assurance that one of the two competitors will emerge as an independent star.
Compounding that issue is the fact that the coaches tend to adhere to their most political instincts when critiquing the performances. Whether because they do not want to make the deciding coach’s verdict predictable, because they do not want to provide him or her with advantageous insight or because they want to make both competitors feel good, the three “objective” judges will rarely crown a decisive winner. If a coach clearly favors one contestant, you can expect one or both of the remaining coaches to have very flattering feedback for the other performer.
As a result, it is quite likely that neither contestant will emerge as the clear winner–the deciding coach’s verdict is often reduced to a “gut” or “eeny meeny miny moe” selection, which isn’t necessarily a powerful, resounding endorsement. Unless both contestants are so good that the identity of the victor does not matter (as was the case with Hill and Iglesias), the battle rounds suffer by not guaranteeing the victorious contestants positioning as bona fide superstars.
Unless, of course, the “Steal” comes into play. A rule that enables the opposing coaches to claim two “losers” from another team’s battles, the “steal” is tailor-made for putting such contestants in the spotlight.
Contestant Caroline Glaser reaped the rewards of the “steal” Tuesday night.
Glaser, who bares a striking resemblance to Rachel Bilson and successfully leverages a unique, soulful inflection to score points as a vocalist, competed against fellow Team Blake member Danielle Bradbery on Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Put Your Records On.”
Though Glaser’s musical identity more greatly mirrors Bailey Rae’s, Bradbery dazzled with a smooth tone and an effortless, yet powerful vocal style. She is neither a groundbreaking nor unique performer, but as a likable teenager with a big and deceptively multi-layered voice, Bradbery comes across as someone even a mediocre talent manager could turn into a star.
Glaser definitely showed enough uniqueness and charm to stay tightly in the race, but if one were crowning a winner based on performance and promise, he would have a tough time arguing against Bradbery. Sure enough, Shelton selected Bradbery to advance to the next round.
But the selection process epitomized the flaw of the Battle Round. As the Shelton was deliberating, the other coaches showered praise on both contestants. Adam Levine actually focused the bulk of his attention on Glaser, noting his regret for not fighting for her in the Blind Audition round.
So even though Bradbery won, the selection process presented both as fairly even. Bradbery, though good enough to advance, was not portrayed as the undisputed “star” of the battle.
Once the jubilant Danielle Bradbery left the stage, Glaser suddenly found herself in an enviable position. Both Usher and Adam Levine entered the race to save her, which meant that both would get to make cases for her to join their respective teams.
And make cases they did. Levine and Usher channeled lawyers from series like “The Practice” in delivering impassioned speeches about why they were the right coach for someone of Glaser’s remarkable talent and potential. Their praise contained senses of urgency and amazement not afforded to the battle’s actual winner, and so even though Bradbery won the battle, Glaser exited the war as a singer-songwriter worthy of significant attention.
Their climactic battle highlighted a fairly low-key edition of “The Voice,” which aired only two other battles in “full.”
Those included Michael Austin vs. Warren Stone (Team Adam) and Josiah Hawley vs. Jeff Lewis (Team Usher).
The Austin-Stone battle, conducted over Jason Aldean’s “My Kinda Party,” made for a high-energy start to the show, but in facing some difficulty with the melody and not wowing in any specific section of the show, neither lived up to the standards set by their Blind Audition performances. Levine ultimately crowned Stone the winner; no one stole Austin.
Hawley and Lewis clicked with the crowd on “Roxanne,” but the distinct song swallowed the two vocalists. Both performers felt flat and overmatched, and as a result, neither emerged as a potential force in the competition. Hawley, who benefited from a better look and more poise on stage, advanced for Team Usher. No one stole Lewis.
Other results, shown in highlights, included Grace Askew beating Trevor Davis on Team Blake, Audrey Karrasch beating Jamila Thompson on Team Usher and Tawnya Reynolds beating Mark Andrew on Team Shakira.
