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Why David Cook could become Rock's Next Big Superstar

By Erika Blake

Entertainment Hotline Reporter

I've come to a conclusion that unless British men are gay they simply don't know how to identify when another man is sexy. First Simon Cowell spent most of this season in the dark over David Cook's charisma during season 7 of American Idol, but apparently Idol producer Nigel Lythogoe is in desperate need of someone shoving a flashlight into his hands in order for him to recognize what is obvious to the members of the feminine sex. OK!Magazine sat down with the American Idol producer who bluntly stated this head spinning ditty about Cook "He can certainly sing - and I'd like to see a bit more personality when he's singing," he said. "And that was the only thing that I think our finalists [Cook and Archuleta] lacked a little bit this year, was more charisma."

Yeah alright Nigel, whatever you say. He also further showed his utter lack of understanding what makes the female sex drive kick into high gear by suggesting that "the pair should use the American Idol Live tour this summer, which starts in Glendale Az. on July 1, to learn to put a unique sparkle into their performances."

Excuse me, I'm laughing my butt off over here. Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Now Nigel, slamming Archie is just in bad taste considering he's a kid and is just getting into the big leagues, but anyone who thinks that Cook doesn't exude personality when singing obviously doesn't have a pulse…well or at least a vagina. Need proof of it? Check out these 3 hysterically horny blog entries Post 1 Post 2 Post 3 from one of Cook's Cougar fans on how our mainstream rocker turned this poor woman into a simpering pile of goo throughout the season. (She also penned this OUTSTANDING write up of David's moving performance of "The World I Know" - that all of the judges slammed on the night he performed it, but was pure magic when watched on television; something that I'm sure contributed to Simon's apology after reviewing it later at home.)

David certainly started the season lacking much charisma in his performances. If you watch his Hollywoodaudition, the boy looked like he was ½ asleep and spent most of his version of Brian Adams' "Everything I do, I do for you" with his eyes shut. Then again, I personally loathe that song for its boring and bland lyrics - so maybe he was uninspired by the choice as well. Thank god Randy and Paula paid attention to his voice which still sounded pure and lovely and voted him through.

When he got to the top 24 and performed "Happy Together" David appeared to be actively trying to remember what camera to croon into and seemed a bit awkward with the whole way that the show was set up. (He recently stated that he's thrilled to no longer have to worry about which camera to stare into at what time.) To be fair, very few performers when they first arrive on the top 24 are comfortable that first week. David's hair was long, the song didn't really fit his personality, and he wore a light colored shirt w/ a vest that he later confessed to Kimberly Caldwell on "Idol Tonight" directly after his win that he was profusely sweating through and caused one of his more mortifying moments on the show where the costuming folks had to chase him down with a hairdryer to dry him off to prevent sweat stains from showing through.

It was after those first awkward weeks that David seemed to learn from his mistakes…he started wearing either black or white and opted quite often to wear jackets to hide any embarrassing sweat issues that he might have to worry about. He also altered his wardrobe choices so that he was more Joe average rocker than bar tender/singer and wore t-shirts and jeans for "All Right Now" and "Hello." Without the horrible clothes from top 24 week to distract the viewing audience, the David Cook who seduced his way into the hearts of women all over the country (and now the world) began to emerge.

David always exuded this powerful confidence when he sang that only comes from spending years performing in front of crowds…even if they were small. Even after Simon called him "smug" during his "Day Tripper" performance, David's confidence on stage never faltered. David proved that week that as a young male that he can be in touch with his emotions and still be masculine at the same time by sucking up occasional bad reviews/comments by the judges, moving on, and belting out a great performance the following week.

David's charisma shines through when he's on stage, in his zone, and pouring his heart and soul out into the camera and his microphone. David got to where he barely blinked when he was staring into his close-up shots and his longing gaze combined with half smirks and grins caused women all over the country to feel their hearts race and a plethora of other emotions that I won't mention. I'd dare say that the last singer who's ever been able to send women into frenzies with a simple sexy smirk was Elvis Presley. I'll admit that David and Elvis are NOT in the same league…mostly because Elvis's sexuality was always over the top and outwardly overt when he performed, David's subtle smoldering sexuality simply exudes from him as he performs when he becomes one with his music and judging by the way that he's befuddled by all of the female attention being showered over him now, he's utterly unconscious of what he's doing when he's on stage. Let's hope it stays that way because how things stand, his performance style is 100% natural, if he were to concentrate too much, I think he might over-think things which would seriously backfire on him in the long run.

He's also able to do something that only the best singers can do; David emotes with his voice. A large part of why his performances of "Hello" and "Billie Jean" remain as his most stand outs from his season on Idol are because of the delicate way he applied intonation and inflection at just the right moments into the songs he sang. At the end of "Hello" his voice quivers with an uncertain yearning and longing when he poses the question "is it me that you're looking for?" to the song's object of unrequited love. It seems almost ironic that that last lyrical query is what woke up the women in this country. David wasn't overly memorable in earlier weeks but after his "Hello" performance we could unanimously shout YES as a response to that question.

So now does it matter if men don't understand Cook's charisma? I don't think so. From all of the guys I've talked to who watched the show, they were all happy that Cook won. He's a normal looking guy with a good head on his shoulders. He pounds away on a guitar, does justice singing rock legends, and has a great voice that allows him to emit loud rock wails that would send birds scattering from trees if he sang outside. He's living every young male's fantasy of making it big. David's every bit as likable to men as he is to women.

David's already got an upward hill to climb thanks to finding himself now in bed with AI and their machine for creating music stars. In a new Rolling Stone online article they had this to say: "Though many have predicted that Cook could follow in the footsteps of Idol hitmaker Chris Daughtry, some industry insiders suggest he'll have a hard time demonstrating credibility as a rock artist. "He's more middle-of-the-road than Daughtry was," says Mike Tierney, program director at New York's K-Rock. "I think they'll go straight to Top 40 with his single, and once you go schmaltzy, you can never go back." The day after the competition wrapped, Cook's debut single, "The Time of My Life," was the top-selling track on iTunes, followed by three of his performances, which included a cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for."

Cook already cringes at the Daughtry/Cook comparisons since their musical styles greatly differ. I personally find it terribly ignorant of anyone who thinks that Cooks first single "Time of My Life" is the end all of showcasing his music style. When I first heard the song I wanted to groan since it clearly WASN'T David Cook's style. Thanks to the judges constantly heaping praise on Archie I think America just picked the sappiest song out of the batch because they figured the boy wonder could handle singing it if he won. Unfortunately Cook was saddled with the contest winning song - if you want to blame anyone for his first single being somewhat sappy, blame America, they voted for it…I know that I did not.

Cook already spent the long duration Idol demonstrating to everyone where his music styles fall with his song choices coming from Our Lady Peace, Switchfoot, Collective Soul, and has quoted everyone from Nine Inch Nails, Garth Brook, to U2 as sources for his inspirations in music. David has said that he expects his album to follow his personal style for writing music that he introduced to the lucky folks in Tulsa with his first solo album "Analog Heart" that it would be rock with more pop sounding choruses.

In his first introduction to the world on Idol before his audition David stated that he was vocally versatile but just wasn't sure if he was what the judges were looking for. Luckily for us they sensed the immeasurable talent that hid under that ill matched sweater vest and spiked red and brown hair that he arrived in and sent him through to Hollywood.

David's 11 hits crashing onto the top 100 when Idol ended was the eye opener to the music industry that this wasn't an idol to be readily dismissed. In the same Rolling Stone article from above, AI's creator Simon Fuller had this to say about the prospects of Cook's post-Idol career, "I wasn't surprised Cook won, but that's because I get to see all the results each week. I don't want to tempt fate, but I think David's name will enter the list of great talents discovered by Idol." The fact that David can hold his own on stage playing with ZZ Top speaks the truth in Simon's words.

With nearly 1 million downloads made from iTunes of David's 10 covers and one original song David has shown that he has broad appeal and so long as RCA gives him some room to allow him to create the songs that he wants to make, David Cook should be in for a long, long career.

In hindsight it now seems appropriate that this year they made such a big deal on Idol that the Beatles playbook became available for the contestants to pick and choose from. Who were The Beatles but this little band of young guys from Liverpool England who arrived in the US, performed on a TV show, and woke up the oppressed sexuality of teenagers during a time of social awakening during the height of the Cold War. The girls who fell in love the four unlikely sex symbols bought record after record from them and turned them into rock legends.

The Beatles are proof that so long the members of a pop group have real talent they can move beyond their frenzied introduction into pop music and move on to have long, meaningful careers. From the birth of rock music, women have always been responsible for anointing rockers to the status of rock legends.

David Cook seems a bit confused over his older fans and doesn't quite understand why they find him appealing. Wisely in a recent TV Guide video interview he smiled and said that so long as "cougars" bought his records, he loved them. Oh poor David, you don't quite understand this yet, but the "cougars" of today aren't exactly the same women from your Granddad's generation. Today's women who are anywhere from 70-late 50's were the women who crowned Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones as the first rock superstars. Their slightly younger sisters attended Woodstock and rocked out to Jimmy Hendrix, The Who, and the Doors. Today's 40 year olds lived during the sensitive & Discoized 70's with the Bee-Gees, Simon and Garfunkel, The Eagles, and Billy Joel. Those of us who are in our 30's to early 40's are the women who helped seal the fates of Bruce Springsteen, Duran Duran, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, and a little band named U2.

In the Rolling Stone article Cook is quoted as saying, "I'm looking forward to having as many resources at my disposal as I'll need," says Cook, who played and recorded in local bands pre-Idol. "I never necessarily saw this as my path, but sometimes these things have a weird way of working themselves out.""

Weird might be a good word for it…personally I think its fate. Someone somewhere knew that it was David's time to arrive in rock history. David isn't a hard core rocker, but he can rock out with the best of them. Cook has developed for himself not just a healthy following from women of all ages, but from girls his own age and younger as well. He has literally the unheard of potential to sell records & concert tickets to women of multiple generations in the same family when his solo album in released. Currently there isn't a single younger performer or band on the charts today who could be called the next U2 or Bon Jovi and certainly no one who has the appeal that Cook has to the aging Baby Boomers. David Cook has filled that void. A large step towards walking the path of becoming a rock legend is the ability of the artist to be a chameleon and be willing to change with the times. U2 has done this over and over again with the most notable shift being their 10 years of venturing away from Rock and embracing synthesized pop in the 90's when about the only rockers you could find on the charts were covered in grunge. The Beatles did this over their career as well, shifting from head bopping pop songs to writing lyrically challenging 60's socially conscious anthems. I believe that David Cook has the potential to do this as well, he will enter the charts with solid rock/pop lyrics and songs and as he gets older and wiser will be able to change into whatever style his fancy guides him.

Rock music in general is looking for its next big superstar. American women fell in love with David Cook over the course of the competition - we loved his confidence, his unabashed willingness to strip himself emotionally naked for all of us to see, his mature distinctive voice, and his vast depth of talent. Every week the judges and America felt disappointed at the end of his performances, not because they were bad, on the contrary it was because of Idol's format that made the contestants shrink their performances down to clean 2 minute or less segments, we found ourselves unfulfilled and yearning for full versions of his songs. Thank god for the full-length studio versions that Idol wisely sold online to fulfill our needs. Cook's imaginative "Billie Jean" was mesmerizing on TV but it was hair raisingly haunting when performed in the studio. Cook faltered on stage with "Innocent" but his studio version was so beautifully recorded had it been his own original song he could've had a number one single with it in the top 40 charts.

For people who are expecting another cookie cutter performer to emerge this year from Idol, they're in for a shock of their lives. Rather like David's first few appearances on Idol which weren't entirely memorable, his single "Time of My Life" will likely end up being forgotten once Cook is able to start working on his own distinct style of music of intelligently written catchy lyrics that blend together with his rich voice that combines raw emotion, rock, and pop.

Cook seems to understand what's marketable in music today but always manages to put his own twist on things so that at the end of the day he can be proud of what he's produced. With "Time of my Life" he was allowed to rework the arrangement on it and is satisfied with the end product. He has the full package to be a huge hit maker for a long time and has all of the right qualities to one day launch him into that elite realm of rock legends, he could start off very pop oriented but later in his career move towards harder rock - if he so desires. He's already hinted that he's open to putting together a band at some point. His willingness to shift and alter his focus is indicative of a man who simply loves what he does and wants to keep making music for a long time. The women who created all of the legends who came before David are fully in his camp and ready to point him towards that elusive throne; it's now a waiting matter of seeing what material he's able to work with and to see if RCA gives him the room to showcase his full range of creative chops to the world. We're waiting for our beloved Word Nerd to be allowed to shine and just do his own thing because remember what Paula Abdul said from the outset about David, "Smart is sexy."