Well, it’s official: I’m addicted to Glee. I fought it for a long time (let’s just say I’m not a High School Musical fan!), but once I finally succumbed, I fell in love (its dark humor sets Glee apart from most dramas of its ilk). I hadn’t dared hope it would win Best Comedy at the Golden Globes (30 Rock is generally a shoo-in for every comedy category), but as soon as Tina Fey announced on the red carpet that she hoped for a Glee win, I knew it was in the cards — and Fey’s wish, it turned out, was granted.
The interesting thing about Glee is the music — or, more specifically, that people buy the music. In recent years the record industry has bemoaned the death of the singles chart. With pirating rife, sales are falling precipitously, and for a while, I think, widespread excitement over singles dissipated — and for many the most exciting source of music was the inescapable American Idol and its foreign counterparts. So what did Simon Cowell do? Something pretty genius, actually: After each Idol show, the contestants’ performances were made available for download. Glee is now taking advantage of that idea — after each episode, featured songs are available online, and it’s staggering how well they’ve done. Thus far, Glee has had 25 singles make the U.S. Hot 100; “Don’t Stop Believing” (a brilliant Journey cover) peaked at No. 4 here in the U.S and No. 5 in the U.K. The most astonishing thing is that Glee still has yet to finish its first season. I can’t wait to see what comes next!
