American Idol

This is a subject that not many of you probably expect to see on this blog, but those of you that know me know that I have a deep interest in Rock and Roll and Pop Culture.

On American Idol last week, host Ryan Seacrest claimed that the 63.4 million votes in the contest were "more than any president in this country has ever received." This little factoid was spread over the Internet faster than a Britney Spears wedding! (oh, that's bad!)

So let's take a look at what some of us like to call "the truth."

63.4 million votes is quite a lot of votes! In 2004, George W. Bush recieved 62,040,610 votes. John Kerry, 59,028,111. (Source: Wikipedia). By my musician math, that's a total of 121,068,721 votes. Catch my point? That's right - Ryan Seacrest was (gasp!) wrong!!!!

In fact, according to Wikipedia, you'd have to go back to 1956 to have fewer than 63 million votes for President. (disclaimer - Wikipedia's 1960 result don't cite the number of votes).

For a far more interesting read, check this out, from the Guardian (UK): Idol speculation by Philip Cowley.

Another Pop entry coming up tomorrow (drone metal - yeah!)