This year’s American Idol has offered new twists, a few surprises and a change of pace from previous seasons. But if you thought all this newness would stop at Hollywood Week, you’re in for some shock during Tuesday night’s first actual performance round.

For the first time, contestants (the men perform Tuesday, women Wednesday) will sing themed songs, choosing from a list given to them beforehand. Wait…that sounds exactly like previous setups. But here’s how it’s been done in the past: contestants are given a CD chock-full of hundreds of songs which fit the night’s theme. If a song the contestant digs fits the theme but isn’t on the CD, that’s okay too.

Not this week. Twenty-four contestants will be given fifty songs. And they’ve got to pick one of them. For the first week, its 1960’s. Producers of the show say this is to avoid bad song selections (you wish) and to speed up the song selection process.

It’s really about making them sing highly recognizable songs that appeal to the wide demographic Idol pulls down. Though last year’s contestant Blake Lewis wowed audiences with his originality, he chose a 311 song none of the judges recognized (they being obviously highly musically-challenged and somehow without FM radios). And we can’t have a number one show that features obscure songs…right?

(You can find all the American Idol 7 posts here.)