Michael Giltz: American Idol Top 24: The Men

A strong start for the Top 24. And by strong I mean finding three or four men that look rock solid. Three or four really good guys and three or four really good girls will mean a strong Top 12. And even though we've winnowed it down from more than 100,000 auditions, it's still amazing how some really weak singers can make it past this stage. The judges had an off night -- too much bantering amongst them makes it feel like the show is about them instead of the singers. And to a person, they all spoke nonsense about how singers needed to make the songs -- it was Sixties night -- sound "current." Do they mean adding beat box elements a la Blake Lewis or a hip-hop arrangement. Paula even cautioned them from sinigng ballads and insisting you should alwasy speed up a ballad at some point so you don't sound stodgy. Ballads are passe? They're all wrong. You don't have to radically re-arrange a song or start slow and speed up a ballad. You just have to sing it well. David Hernandez -- He sang ... (link)