Later this week, millions of Americans will lose a few hours of their life forever. I wish I could stop it, but they don’t know any better. They will watch “American Idol.”

I honestly don’t understand why this phenomenon has continued so long. What tragedy has forced us to resort to a karaoke contest to find entertainers?
People can defend the show as much as they want, but that’s all it is – karaoke. People get up on stage and sing someone else’s song. That’s karaoke.

Except on TV there’s not as much unintentional comedy. And not as much beer. Plus, if someone like that Simon dude showed up in a bar on karaoke night telling people what he thought of them, he’d get beat up in a matter of minutes. Idon’t even want to talk about what would happen to Ryan Secrest in that situation.

Maybe if they added those element to “American Idol,” I could be persuaded to watch. But I just can’t get jazzed about people who can’t play an instrument and don’t write their own music or lyrics when there are real entertainers out there killing themselves to get a sliver of the publicity “American Idol” contestants get.

Why have we had to suffer through, what, three or four years of this show? If people would wise up and stop watching, we would not have to suffer the Clay Aiken and William Hungs of the world. Plus, how many American Idols can we have?

The whole thing should have ended after season one. Why can’t the American Idol be like a Supreme Court justice of the Pope. They should reign until they die.

That would guarantee that there would be no more record contracts for people who finish second. You don’t win, you go back to waiting tables. These people haven’t made it a career in music to this point, so why give a second chance to those not able or not willing to do what it takes to win? Why trust what the general public think? They think Larry the Cable Guy is funny.

Americans have horrible taste in music. Poor decisions in this genre go way back. I lived through the tragedy of Milli Vanilli. That should have scared people straight. I know that was a long time ago, but the likes of Ashlee Simpson reminded us not to value style over substance?

Now I’m not saying that the people on “American Idol” lip synch. The ones I have heard on the radio or whatever definitely have wonderful singing voices, but just because someone can elegantly read something doesn’t mean they are a good writer. And good music is about more than singing.

I think a better contest would be to see who can live on the road in a beat-up van with a bunch of other people performing in bars and clubs where half the audience doesn’t care about the people on stage.

That’s how real bands do it. They worry about cutting their teeth instead of cutting their hair.

Clay Aiken wouldn’t have lasted a week.