American Idol
| Name(s): | American Idol |
| Scope/Focus: | reality television |
| Date(s): | 2002-present |
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American Idol is a televised reality competition in which amateur singers compete to win a recording contract. Part of the Idol franchise, it was created by Simon Fuller as a spin-off from the British show Pop Idol. The show has since become one of the most popular in the history of American television.
The American Idol fandom has spawned large quantities of graphic art, fan vids, and RPF. The majority of fanworks produced for American Idol are based on the contestants. Because each season introduces and features new contestants, American Idol fandom tends to be divided into smaller sub-fandoms based on individual seasons. "Crossovers" between seasons are not uncommon.
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History
The mailing list AmericanIdolFanFic was created on August 16, 2002, during the show's first season. Early stories included slash, femslash, and het involving many of the first season contestants as well as the judges and hosts. The list was fairly busy until 2004, after which activity declined. The last new story was posted in April 2005.
The LiveJournal community idolslash was created on April 12, 2003[1], during the show's second season, and remains active today.
Fandom interest in American Idol has grown steadily since the show's debut in 2002, with surges of activity during and/or immediately after each season, as new contestants are introduced and develop followings. The popularity of a season 7 pairing, Cookleta, and of a season 8 pairing, Kradam (see below), has established American Idol as a major fandom with a high level of fan activity.
Season 8: Kradam
One of the finalists of season 8 was a very flamboyant glamrocker named Adam Lambert (who came out publicly just as soon as season 8 was over). The contrast between Lambert and the other final candidates practically wrote its own story line -- especially when Idol made Lambert and the eventual winner, Kris Allen, into roommates in the Idol Mansion for the last weeks of the competition, and then proceeded to film them hugging over and over and over.
Amazement at the friendship between the Arkansas worship leader and the Weho glambert started while Idol was still on the air; the smushname Kradam came from mundane fans of American Idol.
Probably led by astolat, but joined by many other writers, season 8 (usually written as ai8) has become a solid fandom with over a thousand stories tagged on delicious.
Recruitment was aided by buffyx' charming fandom primer (called either "The Epic KRADAM Bromance Guide For Idiots" or WE JUST FELT EACH OTHER'S ENERGY, AND IT WAS NICE) and yeats' wonderfully maintained rec page: Adam Lambert fic that doesn't suck.
AI8 qualified for Yuletide 2009 as a new fandom. Many of the top ten stories for 2009 were Adam/Kris-or-someone.
Notable writers: astolat, bexless, buffyx, butterfly, cjmarlowe, linzeestyle, phaballa and many more.
Main Season 8 "characters"
- Adam Lambert -- runner-up for American Idol season 9, tall, Jewish, flamboyant, out, controversial, seen as a party boy, seen as "toppy"
- Kris Allen -- winner for American Idol season 9, short (occasionally called "pocket Idol), muscular, laid-back, quiet, married to childhood sweetheart
- Allison Iraheta -- in the final 4; 16-17 during Idol; bright red hair; both Adam and Kris called her 'our little sister'; awesome rock voice for a young singer
- Danny Gokey -- in the final 3; generally written as a dick. His wife died during the year he was involved in Idol, and some people felt he used that to get into the finals; some people felt he was a bit self righteous, religiously.
- Michael Sarver -- made the final 10. Originally seen as having a problem with Adam, and written as a religious dick by the fandom, but as he and Adam seemed to become closer during the tour, his fictional persona became less dickish.
- Matt Giraud -- top 5
- Anoop Desai -- Top 7
- Lil Rounds -- Top 7
- Scott MacIntyre -- Top 8
- Megan Joy -- top 9
Other Season 8 pairings:
- Adam/Brad (Adam's first love and only major boyfriend pre-Idol)
- Adam/Tommy (Adam's straight keyboard player -- kissed by Adam on the American Music Awards in front of a million people)
- Kris/other Idol finalists, especially Matt and Anoop
Season 7: Cookleta
The finalists for season 7 were two men: David Cook and David Archuleta. Though they had little in common musically, and David Archuleta was v. young, a Mormon, and apparently a virgin, a small fandom (probably a couple of hundred stories) did spring up around the pairing, probably because astolat became intrigued by them and wrote several well received stories.
The other idol finalists, especially Carly Smithson, Michael Johns and Jason Castro, became reoccurring characters in the stories.
Once the next series of idol started, the season 7 finalists started showing up in season 8 stories as well; and as season 8 fandom took off, some of those new fans (completists of a sort?) read back into season 7 as well, setting off a 2009 mini-boomlet of season 7 interest.
Notable writers: settisma, celli, Natalie/ficillusion
Season 6
Season 5
Season 4
Season 3
Season 2
Season 1
Judges and Hosts
There exists a small but active fandom based on the judges, particularly Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul (seasons 1-8), and host, Ryan Seacrest.
Resources
- AI8 primer
- AI8 rec page
- MJ's American Idol blog
- Television Without Pity AI Forums
- ontd_ai Livejournal community is the amazingly high-traffic American Idol spinoff of the popular ohnotheydidnt Livejournal community
