EllieTay wrote:

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May 28 2008 8:00 AM EDT

David Cook Is A Rock-And-Roll Red State, In Bigger Than The Sound

'American Idol' winner is embodiment of the overwhelming majority of people in this country, who I will never understand.

By James Montgomery

On The Record: David Cook As Sociopolitical Barometer. With An Awesome Comb-Over

I am going out on a limb here. I am going to predict that there is precisely a 50 percent chance that "American Idol" winner David Cook will be very successful. I am relatively sure about this. Sort of.

Of course, I am also going to predict that he will not amount to much of anything. I am also relatively sure about this, though only about as sure as I am that he might be very successful. Do you follow? Yeah, me neither.

This ambivalence has less to do with my feelings about Cook the person or Cook the performer as it does with my lack of feelings about either. This is probably because I have no idea what is going on in the majority of this country, though it could also be attributed to the fact that A) I am a music journalist living in New York, B) I never listen to rock radio, C) I am sort of an elitist jerk, or D) all of the above.

To put it in much clearer terms: I do not understand the phenomenon of David Cook because David Cook is pretty much everything I am not. He is a former frat guy turned bartender, the kind of guy who willingly chooses to perform songs by Switchfoot and Collective Soul and proudly proclaims his undying affection for Our Lady Peace. He sings in an earnest, gruff, decidedly weathered voice, not unlike the kind you hear all over rock radio or in a Chevy Truck commercial. If you squint funny, he looks a whole lot like Chris Daughtry, only with more hair. He has probably never cared what a blog has to say (if he's ever read one), and he likely still has an AOL e-mail address. He is a Kansas City Royals fan.

He is a Rock-and-Roll Red State. He is Rolling Thunder across the Fruited Plains. He is SUVs and flag-waving and the American Dream. He is basically the living, breathing embodiment of the overwhelming majority of people in this country, who I do not, cannot and - let's face it - will not understand. Not ever. He makes me realize just how detached I am with reality and how unimportant I am. And that makes me sort of hate myself. And this country. Sort of.

Let me point out - if it weren't already obvious - that when I talk about David Cook in the context of this column, I mean the concept of him, not the actual man. Cook seems nice enough. He has cool facial hair, and he did a killer job on Lionel Richie's "Hello." But it's what he means as a whole - the ideals and social forces he represents - that frustrate and, well, sort of terrify me.

David Cook is the reason someone like Josiah Leming - a performer who was infinitely more talented in decidedly subtler, less-than-mainstream ways - will never win "American Idol." People don't like subtle or weird, they like familiar. David Cook is the reason Nickelback sell 7 million records here in the States. David Cook is the reason the meek are picked on and terrified. David Cook is the reason we are divided, obese and ignorant. David Cook is why the reason the rest of the world hates us.

And there are underlying consequences here that I don't want to think about. Like, what does David Cook winning "American Idol" mean for Barack Obama's chances in November? Or for ever withdrawing from Iraq? Or ending our dependency on foreign oil? I worry about these things because David Cook makes me worry.

I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. Then again, maybe I am. After all, last week Cook crushed presumed "Idol" favorite David Archuleta by more than 12 million votes to be named the champion of the show's seventh season. That could just be due to the overwhelming number of cougars who turned out in support of him (never underestimate a horny recent divorcée with speed dial).

Maybe I should just chill out and realize that "American Idol" is nothing more than - as Leming himself put it - "glorified karaoke," a puffed-up and inconsequential popularity contest that has no bearing on the world at large. Then again, maybe that's what David Cook wants me to think ...

MTV

what?