Musician Michael Tinker is pleasantly surprised with Building the Band - not only does it provide some interesting discussion starters for young people, the music and format are quite good too!
As a professional singer I have a love/hate relationship with reality singing shows. Actually, it’s more like a like/hate relationship. I’ve never found one I LOVE, but I have found some I hate. X-Factor would come into the latter category. Why? Because the producers choose some terrible singers who seem to only be there to fail. We are meant to laugh at them and I think that’s cruel. But thankfully there seems to be a move away from this cruelty-as-entertainment. First we had The Voice where contestants do ‘blind auditions’. The judges cannot see the singers and so are judging on voice alone. Of course, as soon as the judges chairs turn around and they see the singers for the first time, we’re back into the land of visuals being almost as important (or even as important?) as the voice itself.
The big question is - do we need another one?
In steps ‘Building the Band’ (Netflix), the latest in this string of musical ‘reality’ TV shows. Hosted by AJ McClean from the Back Street Boys (yeah - I didn’t know his name either… he’s the short one), the premise is fairly simple. It’s like ‘The Voice’ but with a twist - rather than having a panel of professionals doing the judging, it’s the other contestants. There are 50 in all, sitting in soundproof booths in a large warehouse reminiscent of something out of an 80’s dystopian sci-fi movie. They each have 10 ‘likes’ they can give away and if any performer gets less than 5 they are out of the game. As the other artists listen on headphones, up steps a sometimes nervous, sometimes sassy singer to give the performance of their life.
Of course, this show is about building a band, so the participants are not only judging the voice but also how the voices they are hearing will gel with their own, whether or not they can see themselves in a band with this person. And the singers are really good. The quality is very high and that’s so great to see. It’s a really unforgiving situation in which to sing live. As a singer I know I can get away with a lot when singing to a room of people. Because of the atmosphere, the moment, the emotion, little tuning issues are often unnoticed in a live show. But try listening to a live recording (and I mean a proper live recording, not the edited-actually-sung-in-a-studio-and-tuned ‘live’ albums a lot of worship bands put out) and you’ll start to notice all these missteps. All they have is the audio and so each tiny mistake can be heard. It’s unforgiving, so hats off to them for still maintaining incredible performances and winning over the other singers.
although the participants aren’t choosing each other on looks, I’ve no doubt that looks played a part when the producers were choosing the contestants
Since this is ‘reality’ TV, expect a lot of careful editing to heighten the tension (I don’t believe that the contestants didn’t know the rules of the game before the first singer stepped up, but that’s how it’s portrayed in episode 1). We get the usual backstories, young families, difficulties being overcome and so on. One of the most interesting in episode 1 is that of Donzell, a young afro-american. He describes how his father wasn’t around when he was a kid, and he grew up thinking his life would be a ‘failure’ and he’d end up in prison like his dad, so why not get into trouble? That was until he went to church and felt God saying ‘go and love people’, which he did and his life turned around.
What is striking is that all the participants are young and, to quote Zoolander (and show that I’m not young), they are all ‘really, really good looking’, even those who feel that if it wasn’t a blind audition they would be rejected on their looks. It’s also very teen-america, with multiple ‘DUDEs’ and ‘slay…’ and getting far more enthusiastic than us Brits might be comfortable with.
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Despite this being another ‘blind audition’ set up, the visuals are incredibly important. As I said, they’re all really really good-looking, and although the participants aren’t choosing each other on looks, I’ve no doubt that looks played a part when the producers were choosing the contestants. It’s also intriguing how a lot of the singers are ‘hearing visually’. There are a lot of comments like ‘this guy sounds hot/cute’. This is drawn out by the production team when there is a male contestant, but who has a high voice and most of them mistake him for a woman. We can’t help but make pictures, and dare I say, judge people, in our minds based on what others sound like.
This gets me thinking - I wonder what the voice of Jesus sounds like. God’s voice is forefront throughout the Bible. He speaks the world into being. If you heard that voice, what would you think God was like? Authoritative… playful… creative… joyful…
what impressions do we form when we hear Jesus speak? And how do we respond?
And then the voice of God becomes incarnate. A voice from physical vocal chords. What did that voice sound like when he challenged people in the temple courts? Or when he rebuked the wind and the waves? Or when he spoke to the little girl and said ‘Talitha Koum’? If we just heard that voice, what impression of Jesus would we form? It’s interesting that the Bible never gives us a physical description of Jesus (beyond the prophecy of Isaiah 53). We are meant to listen to his voice and come to a conclusion. A voice of authority and power. A voice of rebuke and challenge. A voice of comfort and care. That voice is enough to transform lives.
I think this series raises some interesting discussion points you can raise with your young people as you watch this as a family. Here are a few to get started:
- Judging people. There’s a lot of judging going on! Some neutral - they want to form a band and need to find people who will work well with them. Other judging is based on looks, though imagined through how people sound. Families can discuss how we judge others, what we are looking at/listening to in order to form opinions of others. We can chat about we treat people once we have formed a judgement and then lead on to how God judges us.
- Confidence is a big theme so far in this series. Some exude confidence whilst others are very open about their lack of confidence. Where do we draw confidence from? Is it the clothes we wear, our looks, whether others will hit the button and ‘like’ us or our talents? What happens when we don’t get many ‘likes’?
- And here’s the big one for me - what impressions do we form when we hear Jesus speak? And how do we respond?
All in all, I found the first episode engaging, mostly family friendly and raising interesting questions about who we are as humans. And it’s great to listen to incredible singers. I hope they do more of that!
Notes: In terms of language I only heard one ‘H-ll’ and apparently there is also a ‘A-s’. Parents should also note that it must be pretty hot in those booths because some of the contestants almost look dressed for the beach! Although not noted in the first episode, the contestants also represent a diversity of lifestyles.
