I used to watch all the singing competitions on TV (American Idol, The Voice, even the short lived US X-Factor) but after a while those shows started getting stale because it was always the same songs sung by similar sounding voices resulting in generic sounding critiques. There's also not much variety in the types of songs that are performed as the voters tend to gravitate toward contestants who sing ballads, because it's a better showcase for their vocal abilities. I love a good ballad but it quickly gets redundant and doesn't really reflect the contemporary music industry; which is probably why so few of the winners actually ever achieve any post-show fame.
The great thing about Songland is that it celebrates original music written by (supposedly*) up-and-coming song writers that are trying to make a name for themselves. But it also retains that competitive aspect of other "singing competitions" as the featured Artist-of-the-Week must choose 1 of the 4 songs to cut. Thankfully, it doesn't drag out the results for weeks, rather a winner is, satisfyingly, crowned each episode and the winning song is ready to be enjoyed on your favorite music streaming platform the next day. In our instant-gratification culture, this is just another part of the show's appeal.
Finally, I've read a lot of critiques on here about the quality of the music and I just want to say that art is subjective, just because you don't like a particular genre of music or the way music has evolved doesn't invalidate it for the people who do enjoy that music. With that said, this is a pop music show. The artists who feature are all mainstream artists who sing pop music (pop-R&B, pop-country, etc). I'm not expecting Bob Dylan to show up any time soon and if you're offended by pop music than this isn't the show for you. But if you can come in with an open mind, I think you'll find some real originality in this karaoke world.
*Supposedly because some of these songs are so polished and all of the song-writers are good to great singers.
The great thing about Songland is that it celebrates original music written by (supposedly*) up-and-coming song writers that are trying to make a name for themselves. But it also retains that competitive aspect of other "singing competitions" as the featured Artist-of-the-Week must choose 1 of the 4 songs to cut. Thankfully, it doesn't drag out the results for weeks, rather a winner is, satisfyingly, crowned each episode and the winning song is ready to be enjoyed on your favorite music streaming platform the next day. In our instant-gratification culture, this is just another part of the show's appeal.
Finally, I've read a lot of critiques on here about the quality of the music and I just want to say that art is subjective, just because you don't like a particular genre of music or the way music has evolved doesn't invalidate it for the people who do enjoy that music. With that said, this is a pop music show. The artists who feature are all mainstream artists who sing pop music (pop-R&B, pop-country, etc). I'm not expecting Bob Dylan to show up any time soon and if you're offended by pop music than this isn't the show for you. But if you can come in with an open mind, I think you'll find some real originality in this karaoke world.
*Supposedly because some of these songs are so polished and all of the song-writers are good to great singers.