LATimes has written a very good article about David Cook as the first rocker winner of American Idol. The article says that the show was historically dominated by pop balladeers and David Cook brought a new meaning to American Idol.

This perhaps is the reason why the number of voters reached a smashing 97 million votes. They came and supported David Cook who didn't get the better of the nods from the judges.

In an excerpt from LATimes: The 25-year-old became the first performer in the rock music mold to win, amassing 56% of 96 million votes, to 44% for 17 year old prodigy David Archuleta, who sings in the pop balladeer style that had previously dominated "Idol."

The articles also discusses the diversity of the musical genre of the contestants: Season Seven's young contestants also reflected the new, multi-ethnic face of America: Three of the four finalists - Jason Castro, Syesha Mercado and Archuleta -- had at least partly Latino origins, yet the huge differences in their styles (laidback hippie crooning for Castro, cerebral jazz for Mercado and soulful ballads for Archuleta) also revealed the great diversity within this demographic.

image from LATimes article found here.