Pop music went into cardiac arrest quite a few years ago. You can blame it on the evolution of recording technology that allowed producers to turn almost anyone into a Grammy winner, or you can even blame the recording industry's desire to sign moneymakers over true talent, but somewhere along the way Michael Jackson turned white, Ashlee Simpson went platinum and pop went to hell. Raw talent was traded in for an image""a product, and it's safe to say that music is no longer the love of many pop stars' lives, but an easy starting point for them to build their resumé.
Then there's American Idol."" ""American Idol"" is the defibrillator of pop music""dumbing singing abilities down to whether someone should have a shot at a recording contract or just go back to their desk job at Morgan Stanley. While at the end of the competition, America often votes based on image, the only way one can get to the end is if they actually have talent.
Hundreds of thousands of contestants have tried their luck, but very few floored America like Madison's own Denise Jackson on Jan. 16. With her rendition of Jennifer Holliday's ""And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going,"" the 16-year-old La Follette High School junior not only astonished the judges and made the hair on the back of 57.6 million Americans' necks stand on end, but she got a ticket to perform in the semifinals in Hollywood, Calif. But for Jackson, the road to Hollywood has never been a smooth one.
Unlike 99 percent of the people reading this, Denise has lived a painfully hard life. At a young age she had to come to grips with her mother's drug addiction, moving constantly between housing in the projects located on Chicago's South Side and, often times, she had to deal with being left alone in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the Midwest.
But to Jackson, there seemed to be something more out there than the life she was living, and at the tender age of four, she started singing.
""I've loved music since I was really young, and I used it as a release,"" said Jackson in an interview with The Daily Cardinal. ""I'd listen to it on my headphones, or on the radio or any way I could get it.""
At the age of nine, Denise then moved to Madison to live with her grandmother and continued singing through her local church and also took first place in the USA World Showcase talent competition in Las Vegas. When she finally reached the ""American Idol"" age minimum of 16, Jackson decided to take a shot at the audition and proceeded to be the first person selected to go to Hollywood during ""American Idol's"" sixth season.When asked if she was scared about what the outcome of the Hollywood semifinals would be, Jackson quickly shrugged off any fear. ""It's all about the publicity,"" she said. ""[Jennifer Hudson] got kicked off, and she's doing better than [Fantasia].""
Jackson will be performing tonight in the Great Hall in the Memorial Union. The show will feature mostly songs written by Jackson that she says deal with ""everyday teenage life.""
Jackson's aspirations are unlike any other teenagers that you would meet in the halls of La Follette High School. When asked how she felt she wanted to appear to the country on ""American Idol,"" Jackson firmly stated, ""I just want to be a good influence on people""period. Not just children""you know""an all-around role model.""
