Aerosmith is the best-selling American hard rock band of all time, having sold one hundred and fifty million cds all over the world, including sixty six and a half million discsin the United States alone. They also posess the score for the most gold an…

To me, it wouldn’t make a difference who was doing the critiquing, be it Merle or George or — and I know Todd you’ll cringe, but — Kellie Pickler. A great singer is a great singer, no matter who does the judging on these talent shows, and a non-distinctive singer will have a hit or two and then fade from the limelight. It’s not a knock against them at all; after all, I do think Buddy Jewell and Erika Jo worked hard, but in the end each of them didn’t have what was needed to make them lasting successes.

My recommendation is to avoid most of these talent shows. Too much focus on the backstage activities, mean-spirited and inane comments that have little to nothing to do with the performer or his/her talents and merits, and way too much focus on particiularly bad performers rather than the “outstanding” ones. At least “Star Search” didn’t air clips of bad singers’ auditions (although there were probably quite a few bad performances for varied reasons that did make it to air).

As for picking John Cena and Larry the Cable Guy — entertaining, but not music critics — to judge, my only guess is that they give real-world, listener insight into whether fans may like a singer. Which is fine, except that these are just “one man’s opinion.”