Music Blogs

OK, regular Reality Rocks readers know I was totally Team Cook when it came to the season 7 finale of American Idol. I just never understood David Archuleta's appeal, or why 19 and Fox so blatantly pegged him as the Golden Boy from pretty much the instant he auditioned. And I was never shy about expressing my anti-Archie opinions in this blog space, which resulted in an influx of hatemail from irate Archie fans ("ArchAngels," or whatever they call themselves). I'll still trying to read it all...so be patient, haters.

Anyway, my biggest (and I think most valid) complaint when it came Archie was he never seemed relevant to me, in terms of what's going on in the pop marketplace today. But I saw some potential for him--a place for Lil' David amid all the Lil' Waynes and Lil' Mamas and lil' tween stars--when he performed "Apologize" with OneRepublic on the AmIdol season 7 finale. Suddenly he seemed less like a stage-parented, theater-schooled kiddie robot, and more like an actual contemporary pop star. Finally I could imagine him getting played on the radio...and, if not MTV, at least VH1:

Well, now Archie's finally made his first video for his debut single "Crush," and it traffics in similar OneRepublic-ish, lite-radio swooniness. This tactic means the video/song ought to appeal to the over-30 set as well as to younger diehards (who, let's face it, would probably be delighted if David released a video of grass growing in his frontyard or paint drying on his bedroom wall).

"Crush" is still not really my cup of tea, personally...but it's hip by Archuleta standards, and I could actually fathom it being a big hit:

And hey, I give Archie credit in one other regard: He surprisingly got a video out there before David Cook did.

David Cook, it's your turn now--or you're going to get crushed by the competition here.