Episode eight of Platinum Hit turned out to be a platinum bummer.
The five remaining songwriters were split into two teams and asked to write an empowerment song. As a twist, they had to include the lyrics “kiss the flame.” Which Jewel fans (count me among them) will recognize as the name of one of her songs.
A song called “Reign,” written by the team of Scotty Granger, Sonyae Elise and Nick Nittoli, was declared the winner.
The judges were so impressed by the chorus melody from Nick, that he’ll receive a special bonus, a feature in Spin magazine.
A song called “The Last Candle,” by Jes Hudak and Brian Judah, was the night’s loser.
And Brian, who wrote the winning hook the song was based on, was sent home.
Now, there’s a lot wrong with this picture.
“Reign” was a disjointed mess. Even Scotty, who wrote the hook the song was based on, thought he, Sonyae and Nick had failed to deliver the type of empowerment song he envisioned.
A second listen convinced me: This is a song I don’t want to hear more than once.
Hey, empowerment songs need to be catchy to empower anyone. This song would empower me to do one thing — change the radio station.
As for that chorus, it amounted to Sonyae wailing “Reign on Me” over and over. Wow, imaginative.
The only thing I liked about the song were the opening lines, which she wrote. So if the song was going to win, I would have given the Spin bonus to her not Nick.
I thought the song from Brian and Jes was much better. The fact that it was heartfelt — Jes writing about her experience with assault; Brian about the loss of his mother to breast cancer — helped.
The judges criticized the song for not being edgy enough to be empowering.
Fine, but I’d listen to it a second time.
And have. And am still convinced it was the better song.
The kicker came with Brian’s ouster.
Judges, what were you thinking?
The guy had contributed to a winning song four straight weeks.
And he gets the boot rather than Jes, who has now contributed to fewer winning songs (just two in eight weeks) than any remaining contestant?
Four contestants now remain. And I’m to the point where I’ll root for anyone but Nick to win this thing. He’s the biggest jerk I’ve seen on any of the music reality shows I’ve watched.
Next week, it looks like the songwriters will be working solo as they vie for a spot in the final three.
Editor’s Note: Platinum Hit now airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on Bravo. You can check out full versions of the songs here Thanks to xaipe
below for the tip that the show is no longer rebroadcast. Wow. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about a second season of Platinum Hit on Bravo.
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6 Comments
Actually, the show is no longer rebroadcast at all! It’s only available on Bravo at 8:00PM EDT (for those of us on the west coast, that means 5:00PM PDT). Furthermore, while I certainly agree that Jess’ whining is getting more than fingernails-on-a-chalkboard annoying & should be gone right now, the chorus of “Rain on me, on me, on me” was catchy & gets into your head. The fact that the team finished the writing process with only seconds to spare probably contributed to the disjointed feel of the presentation. However, I have to agree with the A&R/Jive rep that it’s not an empowering song. The track was the biggest problem, with it’s total lack of edge & punch (when I saw P!nk, she rocked hard & totally brought down the house, so if that’s what they were going for, they failed miserably). It’s hard to see the Judges’ reasoning sometimes, but when I think back on the episode, I still have the “on me, on me…” ringing through my head. I’ve completely forgotten the melody & most of the words (Jes’ fault mostly). I mean, if this is about empowerment & being P!nk-like, then why are they burying pictures in the basement instead of facing their fears, digging the pictures up & setting them on fire (kiss the flame). The song sounded good, I’ll give you that, but it wasn’t memorable) except for the epic failures, & it wasn’t as empowering as it was about dealing with pain & how it makes a person retreat within themselves. I just don’t know how that’s not obvious when you give it a little thought rather than reacting viscerally. Despite Sonyae singing flat the whole time & being out of time with her background by about a half a step, the song was powerful (no cliche broken fingers that can’t point at the truth), catchy, & had a good melody backed by a solid track. That’s what the judges saw & heard, & that’s what I got from it. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it. Maybe it will turn out better for you next week. Got to look on the bright side, right? Maybe when Nick is on his own he’ll fail & get kicked out. No one says that can’t happen, right? Or, we could always dream, to quote another grand cliche. Oh, good writing, by the way. I liked it, even though I disagreed with your premise. 🙂
Hey, thanks for the tip on the rebroadcast. Wow. I sometimes DVR this show and, earlier in the season, had to be careful of the setting, lest I wind up with several episodes by week’s end. I’d say we won’t have to worry about a second season of Platinum Hit on Bravo.
I disagree but my favorite music is pop; I’ve loved pop since I was 8 when Nsync came out. I don’t care about the depth of a song; what it means. I care about getting up, dancing, whether the song grabs at my emotions. Because I love songs that allow me to dance and perform, I prefer pop/r&b songs. So to me, this song was a hit! It could have been better but hey-.
And the other song wasn’t horrible, I just didn’t care for it.
Yeah, this whole show has become a joke. What’s more, I just saw a Marc Anthony/pitbull video where they were singing what? “Reign over me”….which is what the judges told Nic/Sonyea/Scotty their lyrics SHOULD’VE said. By the way, how can the judges hate the main lyric (basically the only lyric) and think that it should be changed, and it the song won? Furthermore, Brian’s chorus lyric, which won the hook challenge and he left unchanged, they now hated. Go figure. I don’t think THEY know what their doing !!
So wait….this lyric, “Reign over me.” Was it stolen?? I know Scotty has ties to the industry, close ties to J.Lo and Marc Anthony even.
All the best songwriters were taken off the show first…Blessing Offor, Melissa Rapp, Karen Waldrup, Amber Ojeda…they have great music online. I can’t believe they were sent home before some of the others. The show must be rigged!
It’s too bad it’s not getting a second season, but I guess that is what happens when you try so hard to sell-out and twist reality–you don’t make a good show!