Fandom Overview: American Idol Season Eight

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

From left: Kradison (Kris Allen, Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert), Allison, Lil Rounds, Matt Giraud, Adam, Kris

Hey y'all. I'm Alice, and I will be your crack dealer for anything related to the fine, upstanding young men and women who made the Top 10 of this past season of American Idol, which ran on Fox from January to May of this year. And also some of their friends and family! Season 8 idols know how to share the, uh, love.

For those for whom competitive reality television is not a strong interest point, fear not: I didn't watch a single damn episode of this season. And yet look at me now, flush with both interesting facts about the participants of the show and a ream of excellent fic for you to read over this month! You really, really don't need to be a fan of the show to appreciate the Idols and enjoy the fic, trust me.


You just need to be aware it's an immensely popular show that brings aspiring, often long-struggling singers and musicians together to compete for recording contract and a chance at true stardom. All of the performances on the show are covers. Viewers vote by phone for their favorite contestant after each round of performances.

The 10 Ten contestants perform a whirlwind tour across the United States each summer after the completion of a season. The winner of each season is always managed by 19 Entertainment, the music management company owned by the executive producer of the show. They are also at work on their first record during the tour. 19 also tends to sign one or two of the other top Idols as well, though this varies with each year.

Former contestants who have since reached major mainstream success include Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, David Cook, Chris Daughtry, Jennifer Hudson and Jordin Sparks.


This Year's TOP Ten


Kris Allen (Twitter) Piano and guitar-based singer-songwriter. Won this season's American Idol. Signed by Jive and managed by 19. From Jacksonville, Arkansas, though he moved to Conway to attend the University of Central Arkansas. He is preciously tiny (but built!) and born in 1985. Trust me, all that is relevant. Great Loves include Chick-Fil-a, his wife Katy, tweeting pictures of Sky Mall gadgets, cheese dip, God, the Razorbacks, and being outdoors, though not necessarily in that order. He has absolutely no sense of personal space. His friends like to use this as an excuse to manhandle him. We like to use this as excuse to write porn. Roomed with Adam for most of filming. Most often paired with Adam or Katy, though he's a bit of a fandom bicycle.




Adam Lambert (Twitter) Pop and glam rock vocals. 2nd place finisher. Signed by RCA and managed by 19. Is actually light-haired, but he's kept his hair dark for several years. Originally from San Diego, CA. Was a late bloomer by his own admission, and didn't lose his virginity until he was 21. Openly gay. Bicurious to the point where he enjoys making out with ladies when drunk. Likes guys that are tiny, southern, and born in 1985. Also, see above. Has lived in Los Angeles for seven years and has a large circle of friends in the entertainment industry. Largely theater-based performer before Idol. Decided to audition after an LSD trip during Burning Man. Very sweet. Occasionally aggressively sexual. Currently Single. Paired with pretty much everyone, but mostly Kris.




Allison Iraheta (Twitter) Pop Rock, with some fucking phenomenal pipes. Finished in 4th place. Signed by Jive and managed by 19. 17 years old. Won a Telemundo competition called Quinceañera prior to auditioning for Idol. Is totally insane on Twitter. Became very close to Kris, Adam, and Megan during filming and the tour. Occasionally paired with Megan. There's also a fair amount of fic with her and Adam, but I like to pretend it doesn't exist.





Matt Giraud (Twitter) Piano-based rock, R&B and soul musician. 5th place finisher. Originally from Southern Michigan. Won the "Judge's Save", which allowed him to stay when he received the lowest number of votes after the Top 7 round. Currently unsigned, which is something of a major irritant within most Idol circles (#signmattgiraud). Roomed with Kris for the beginning of the idol season, before Kris and Adam became roommates. Closest with Kris and Anoop during the show and tour. Usually paired with Kris, Adam and Anoop.




Danny Gokey (Twitter) Performed a largely-panned cover of Aerosmith's Dream On, dubbed Scream On by pretty much everyone, during Top 4 week. Allison was still voted off, depriving the world a Kradison Top 3. The most overtly religious of all of the idols. His wife Sophia died four weeks before he auditioned for the show. His constant references to this during the taping of the show struck many as ghoulish and a ploy for sympathy votes. I personally believe that he was (once again) simply being awkward. Currently signed to a RCA's country label. Usually a side-character, but occasionally paired with Sarver or Adam.



Anoop Desai (Twitter) R&B and Soul-tinged vocal performer. 6th place finisher. Most overtly political of the Idols. From North Carolina. Currently unsigned. Megan and Anoop may be dating in real life. They are certainly very cute. Paired mostly with Megan or Matt and occasionally Kris.




Megan Joy (Twitter) Pop and jazz vocals. 9th place finisher. From Sandy, Utah. Single mom to 2 year-old son Ryder. Particularly close to Adam, Kris, Allison, and Anoop. Has an awesome tattoo sleeve on her right arm. Currently unsigned. Possibly dating Anoop. Paired mostly with Anoop and occasionally Allison.




Michael Sarver (Twitter) Country and soul. Plays a variety of instruments. 10th place finisher. Fandom opinion of Sarver has probably changed the most since the beginning of the season. By his own admission he was sheltered and unsophisticated about a plenty of things, but especially GLBT issues, before Idol. Worked on an oil rig in Texas prior to auditioning. Has a wife and two kids who remained in Texas during the season and tour. His generally pretty protective of everyone and seems to be a big sweetheart. Pairings are slim, but occasionally paired with Gokey and Adam, though the latter tends to be pretty genish.




Scott MacIntyre (Twitter) Pop Rock vocals and piano. 8th place finisher. Currently unsigned. Loves tweeting about food. Visually impaired. Not really paired with any of the Idols.




Lil Rounds (Twitter) R&B and soul vocals. 7th place finisher. Currently signed to Bungalo Records/Universal. Married with three kids. Not usually paired with any of the Idols.




Oh, look, have some some gratuitous Kradam pictures.


Non-Idols



Brad "Cheeks" Bell (Twitter) The guy to the left. Adam's most significant ex-boyfriend. Minor internet celebrity. Makes pretty hilarious video blogs and fairly terrible music. Tiny, born in 1985, and is originally from Texas. Obviously. Paired with Adam, Kris and Cassidy.

Cassidy Haley (Twitter) The guy to the right. Co-founder of Skingraft, a clothing company that made many of Adam's outfits on the show and tour. Bisexual. Tends to wear very little clothing when going out to clubs. Makes better music than Cheeks (sorry Cheeks). Paired with Adam, Kris, and Brad.




Cale Mills (Twitter) One of Kris's best friends from college and guitarist for his back-up band. Cosmo's Arkansas Bachelor of the year. Has a super cute girlfriend. Tends to have awesome facial hair. Paired with Kris.




Jim Cantiello (Twitter) Television producer, known for this Idol in 60 Seconds and Tweet Beat shows on MTV.com. Has a huge, mostly platonic, crush on Kris, which he makes no attempt to hide. Has a hilarious troll on twitter, Glambert696969. Good at getting the Idols to loosen up and be silly during interviews. Straight(ish) and married. Sometimes paired with Kris, because Krim is real, yo.



Michael Slezak (Twitter) Writer for Entertainment Weekly and producer of Idolotry for EW.com. Tends to produce excellent, thought-provoking interviews with the Idols. Doesn't fail to tell his audience to #signmattgiraud at every opportunity. Openly gay and married. I think there are a couple Krezak fics floating around out there.

Drake LaBry (Twitter) Interior designer and painter. Tiny, from Louisiana and born in 1985. Adam and Drake were friends for years before they began to date sometime during the season. They dated for about six months and broke up late fall of this year. Paired almost exclusively with Adam.

Tommy Ratliff (Twitter) Very little is known about Tommy at this point. He is tiny and of indeterminate age and provenance. Burst on to fandom about two weeks ago when Adam made out with Tommy during his AMA performance. Adam has said during several interviews that Tommy is straight and single. Mostly paired with Adam.

Fandom Resources

General
aific - Idol fic community, all pairings welcome. Posting access granted through an application process.
idolmeta - A place to talk about fic, plotbunnies, canon and fanon.

Primers
We Just Felt Each Other's Energy, and It was Nice – The EPIC Kradam Bromance Guide for Idiots by buffyx - Basically, their friendship makes me want to compose sonnets, or take a puppy for a walk, or share an ice cream sundae with a small child. I don't know, it's just really beautiful. Anyway, walk, don't run to this primer. But maybe wait until you have a steady internet connection. The gifs, they are plentiful.
Primer for People Who Want to Read Adam Lambert Fanfiction but Don't Want to Watch American Idol by bexless - I can't tell you how many times I laughed while reading this. And also clapped like a seal. It's also incredibly thorough. A definite must-read for people who want to know more about Adam and his circle of friends/family. (Note: Pictures will be down until around Christmas.)
Kris Allen, Fandom Bicycle by realholiday - There's a joke around fandom that when looking for a new ship all you need to do is slap a Kr- in front if it, and you're done. This is because Kris Allen is both a ginormous flirt and a huge tease. You should read this primer to bone (heh) up on the myriad of people one can pair with Kris.
Kris Allen: The Primer, also by realholiday - AAAAAAAAAHHHH. Important information up in herre.
Kraty Primer by joannacullen JFC Kris and Katy are so frigging adorable.
Lambiff (Adam/Tommy) primer by kate_meradoam

Picspams
Mostly Adam and Cheeks Pre-Idol Club Antics by phaballa Pretty much one-right-click-save-stop shopping for awesome pictures of Adam Lambert and Friends being fierce as hale.

Comments

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

I am in support of this post, yes.

And the best thing is, it's still going on-we're still grabbing characters and making new fic and Season Nine won't put a stop to it. I mean damn, I just posted a huge Adam/Tommy Ratliff story. That pairing barely existed two weeks ago.

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

Haha yeah. It's so much fun to see new pairings spring up from nowhere! Also I'm going to add Tommy in there tomorrow. I just needed to get this sucker posted so I could start reccing. :)

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

I love rps fandoms when they run fast and crazy, and this one definately is. We should have at least one Drake LeBray Memorial Adam's Ex-Boyfriend Rec. Just as fandom was starting to warm up to him, man...

[oatmeal-cookie.livejournal.com]

OMG I love this. You're awesome. \o/

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

Awww thanks bb. I had a lot of fun writing this!

[citibyrd.livejournal.com]

\o/ I am excited for recs!

[kiezh.livejournal.com]

Um, realholiday's post is locked. :( *wants to read about Kris as the fandom bicycle*

Awesome that you wrote this up! I look forward to the recs.

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

Oh shoot! I totally didn't notice that. :( I'm going to take it away for a second while I try to find something equally awesome.

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

Holiday unlocked the post! :)

[blueburndown.livejournal.com]

AHAHA! I'm so excited for this!

He has absolutely no sense of personal space. His friends like to use this as an excuse to manhandle him. We like to use this as excuse to write porn. Lol.

[clairful.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Have a picspam http://phaballa.livejournal.com/563925.html

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

Hahahah excellent, added.

[allyndra.livejournal.com]

Awesome post! I look forward to the recs.

I don't know if you want to make a note of it, but the pics on Bex's primer won't be visible until around Christmas. It's still fun, even without them. :D

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Kris is the (loveable, handsy) AI tour slut and yeah, his friends sure do manhandle him. Shipping rules go: Slap a Kr on it and you're done! lol

Megan is awesomely quirky and is particularly close to Adam, Kris, Allison, and Anoop. Very under-rated on the show and tour, because she didn't get to do what she wanted; but now she's branching out.

I'm going to check out the primers-I've read the first one, but the others are new to me. :D

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info one who she's close to. I added it to the primer. :)

[krisherdown.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is going to be a fun month.

[twigged.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[miss-lurker.livejournal.com]

Great primer!
I think Drake should be in there somewhere though. He's was featured in plenty of fics post-breakup. And it looks like Tommy Joe's on the rise, so you should probably mention him too.

[jamafanta.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're doing Idol! I never watched any of it, but I'll read anything by Astolat and now I'm craving Kradam and just WAAYYY too intimidated to jump right in. Perfect timing!

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

Haha I've got a batch of Kradam recs that are going up tonight. I hope you enjoy! :)

[amayse.livejournal.com]

\o/! I'm excited to see the Tommy section go up soon!

Here's a current Lambliff primer! (http://kate-meradoam.livejournal.com/648.html#comments) \o/

[guinevere79.livejournal.com]

Hm, is there a Kris primer out there? I vaguely recall reading somewhere that someone was in the process of doing one.

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

There isn't a Kris primer (though it is in the making), but there is Kris Allen: Fandom Bicycle (http://realholiday.livejournal.com/8998.html).

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

There is now an official Kris primer: Kris Allen: The Primer (http://realholiday.livejournal.com/15735.html)!!!

[aholiday.livejournal.com]

I made this Kris pairing primer: Kris Allen: Fandom Bicycle (http://realholiday.livejournal.com/8998.html)

And I'm working on a Kris primer like the Adam one, slowly but surely. I'll link you when it's done.

( btw, this is amazing. <3 )

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

Yayyayay (hands flailing the air)

(Thanks ♥ ♥ ♥)

[aholiday.livejournal.com]

I finished the Kris primer.

Kris Allen, The Primer (http://realholiday.livejournal.com/15735.html)

\o/

[onthehillside.livejournal.com]

Eeeee I fianlly got around to adding this to the overview now that the Xmas craziness is over. ♥ ♥ ♥

[kiki-eng.livejournal.com]

:) This is awesome! Thank you!