Against_all_Auds · @Audsidol
29th Jul 2014 from TwitLonger
"Voting"
I feel the need to speak my mind about voting in music industry polls. I have been a voter in the past. I voted when Adam was pitted against other American Idol contestants and big league artists alike. I voted for Adam to get a single spin on the radio exponentially more times than the DJs actually played his music. I voted to get Adam’s videos to make the top 20 countdown on VH1. I voted for Adam as the hottest, the most photogenic, the most fashionable, the most influential, the most worthy Grammy nominee, and flavor of the month . . . well not really, but I would have. The truth is I’d do it again if Adam asked me to, maybe even if one of his management team verified a poll’s importance. Unfortunately, the polls about which artist has the best fans are always ugly. There is something about allowing anyone or anything to get the upper hand that sticks in the craw of practically every person I know in every age group, background, or affiliation. We will compete, as website sponsors know all too well. The amount of hits when you create an us-against-them battle must be astounding. I do remember the poll that got us dubbed “hackin’ ass hos” and I doubt Tokio Hotel or Green Day fans have ever gotten over it. Nevertheless, there was a certain amount of team work, dare I say “fellowship” that made it fun to put Adam Lambert on top (oblig – where he belongs / where he likes it . . . really people /o\), but I have to wonder why we’re still at it. What is it that perpetuates our angst? I think that sense of anxiety was perhaps born out of a single event that inevitably shook us to our very core even before many of us ever had a username. When it was time for the biggest vote of all – jump back to May 2009 . . . we lost. Now, we have discussed this. Maybe it was foul play. Maybe it was discrimination. Maybe it doesn’t matter. There are viable arguments nullifying the significance of such a loss given that Adam has come out quite successful without the title. I speculate that we “Glamberts” (Adam’s name for us from his very own lips – like it or lump it) would not have been so passionate if we weren’t determined to get justice. I know what I am about to admit is crazy, but I own it. To this day, I cannot watch footage of the Season 8 finale the moment Ryan Seacrest makes the announcement. I’m a grown ass woman, but it hurts me too much to go there. Shell shocked as I was, I logged on to my laptop and started to read clippings, blogs, comments. I found myself a bit later on AO where there were several threads asking WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK JUST HAPPENED!? And I joined in. I have never looked back. There are so many reasons why I want Adam Lambert to succeed, to be THE winner in all things. One reason is his voice is unequalled in our time. Another reason is his courage inspires the creativity that I feel is necessary for pop culture to push forward. But perhaps the greatest reason of all, the motive behind the drive to see Adam thrive is that he fucking earned it. Like any fan, I want my guy at the top, no matter what mountain we have to climb to get him there, but I think it is time for us to redefine what being at the top really means. Adam has headlined two sold-out tours. His first album beyond Idol’s shadow debuted at #1 and made history. He bought a house. He fell in love again and moved on again. Adam is growing, learning, loving, laughing, dreaming, choosing, and doing what he wants to do which includes fronting perhaps the greatest arena band of all time. And, even though Adam has been working his ass off for over a decade, we fans are only five years into it! It’s time we catch up and stop dwelling in 2009. In my opinion, a poll about fan armies degrades the aspect of our power when verification comes by the clicking of a button. We have done so much more to help Adam’s career than that, and the proof is in every photo of Adam’s smile, every drop-dead note of the QAL tour. You see, it isn’t a matter of #Glamberts being stronger or weaker than another fanbase. It is a matter of us being a whole hell of a lot less desperate, and I will take that over bragging rights any day of the week.