“Like many ‘American Idol’ devotees, I have a love-hate relationship with the show, which is often inspiring and infuriating at the same time. In Wednesday’s blowout it was apparent how tight its co-dependent grip has become on an increasingly desperate record industry. What other phenomenon has minted so many instant pop superstars? Its commercial impact recalls Elvis’s teenage-idol phase, Beatlemania and the heyday of Motown.”