I watched The Voice for the first time the other day. It's essentially another American Idol knockoff--one of seemingly hundreds--with the quest to find the next great pop star.

The twist in this show is kind of endearing, however. The judges have their chairs turned to face away from the contestants so they can only hear contestants' voices. If any one of the judges is enthralled by a contestant's voice, she will press her button to turn around and try to claim that singer. If more than one judge presses his or her button, the contestant then has to choose which judge they want as a vocal coach. The four judges--Christina Aguilera, Cee-lo Green, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine--then go head-to-head each week with their contestants, until only one voice is left standing.

I like the show's premise better than other reality shows of this ilk. The idea that physical appearance does not matter when choosing a singing celebrity is great in theory, but not in practice. Singing celebrities will eventually have marketing packages, like "the gay one," "the fat guy" or "the gospel singer." More likely than not, contestants who fit into these categories were chosen in the pre-screening city auditions for the blind auditions.

The other strange part about the show is the similar jargon that contestants employ when speaking about their fortuitous luck in making it to the blind auditions. Almost all of them conjure up the idea of being "meant to do something" and that this audition was "meant to be." They also yodel something similar to "if you work hard, anything is possible" nonsense.

I don't think I'm too cynical, but this "American Dream" bullshit gets everybody in this country in a lot of trouble. First, nobody is meant to do anything. Just because you wake up with a nice voice box in your throat doesn't dictate that some higher power put you down on earth, pulled your chord and sent you down some heavenly path to singer superstardom. This kind of thinking is punishing for people who pursue music professionally, but never achieve celebrity, as well as confusing for those who use their musical talents recreationally.

Plus, if we haven't learned it yet, hard work doesn't make everything possible. Sure, there's hard work, but there's also some judge's bad day, their hatred of that Martin Gaye song, a bad samosa when they were passing through your hometown of Amarillo, TX that makes them think badly of you before you ever open your mouth. Hard work? Please.  

What do you think of competitions like The Voice?