Up your high-waisted arse, Simon Cowell!After weeks of speculation Rage Against the Machine's Killing In The Name has finally been announced as this year's Christmas number one.
This has been the first time when, thanks to a campaign launched on Facebook, some life was put back into the charts after half a decade of X-Factor death lock. A spontaneous group called 'Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No.1' was set up "as a protest to the X-Factor monotony" and "Simon Cowell's latest karaoke act being Christmas No.1", urging people to buy the band's 1992 song Killing In the Name.
Multi-millionaire media mogul Simon Cowell had lashed out at the campaign calling it "stupid", "cynical" and "dismissive". Conversely, stars such as Shirley Bassey and Sting recently criticised the enormous impact programmes such as the X-Factor are having on music, not least the fact that the contestants are not allowed to sing their own songs and are "aping pre-existing stereotypes of what singers should do".
Rage Against the Machine announced they planned to donate some of the proceedings to charity. In the last few days guitarist Tom Morello had expressed satisfaction at the campaign saying "There are a lot of people who don't feel represented by [the X-Factor] and this Christmas in the UK they're having their say" and that "[the X-Factor] puts forward a particular type of music which represents a particular kind of listener".
Their victory represents a vindication for the millions of Brits who are fed up with being told that they're 'cynical' and 'boring' for resenting a programme that is allegedly "just a bit of harmless fun".It's five years now since the X-Factor was steamrolled into the country's living rooms and maintained remarkable ubiquity on both TV and radio as well as in the press.
Far from simply expressing 'what the public wants', Simon Cowell's media circus has bullied the country's music tastes into submission by ramming the safest and most pre-packed brand of schmaltzy pop ever known to man down everybody's throat. The scale of the X-Factor cannot be compared to anything that happened before to British music.
Not to mention the noxious effect on a whole new generation brainwashed into thinking that the X-Factor's corporate might is the be all and end all of music.
Tonight news however indicate that the tide, at last, may be turning.
26 comments:
I own the rare white vinyl 12 inch of this awesome track.
FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!!!
Absolutely amazing result.
So Cowell was pissed off by the outcome? Double result!!!
Cheryl Cole's comments are the ones that pissed me off the most. This 'song' or 'campaign' sold more than Joe did so it's no. 1 and Joe is no. 2.
I'm gonna put this is full caps just so there's no misunderstanding me.
JOE FUCKING MCELDERRY IS NOT ENTITLED TO A NO. 1 RECORD JUST BECAUSE HE WON X FACTOR AND YOU THOUGHT HE WORKED HARD.
She's gutted for the charts.......if she's gutted then we're all doing something right. Cheryl........try writing your own songs with a band. We'll see how well your song....sorry campaign does. You intellectually vacuous airhead.
Best 29p I ever spent.
Cheryl's whining has made me lol too. She did a tweet saying "don't worry, Joe, you'll be no 1 next week, and you'll have your Christmas dream." *GAG!* And I still don't understand why she's wheeled out as a musical expert when she's been in the music biz all of 5 minutes.
Most lolzy of all was some celebrity news thing on ITV 3 last night which popped up during the Sherlock Holmes fest - some tiresome, vacuous celebrity news thing which had the following stories: someone one Strictly Come Dancing, some people have been confirmed for Dancing on Ice and some girl band are "proud of each other, especially Cheryl". Not one mention of their hard arsekicking received by the British public.
Hearing Joe's fans is also pretty lolzy - "He's worked so hard!" Yes, I can hear that autotuner on his voice, and I think that worked harder. "He's so cute!" Erm??? "He deserves no. 1!" You deserve no 1 by selling the most copies and downloads. It's not a birthright. Oh, and here's a big UP YOURS from everyone who's fed up with your lame shite!
What a victory for people power. If a grassroots online campaign can beat the X Factor machine, who's to say what we could achieve with even bigger issues?
My take on it: http://bit.ly/mytakeonrage
I love that so many internet smartarses have missed the point with such whines as "but they're signed to Sony so Cowell profits from it!" which is bullshit because Cowell does not own Sony - they own him, and "the song says Fuck you I wont do what you tell me but you did what the campaign told you to do" which is doubly bullshit because it didnt tell me to do anything, I joined of my own free will.
MOTHER FUCKERS!!!
I find posts like the above totally annoying to read.
All RATM's victory represents is a victory for musical snobbery. The same boring argument about shows like X Factor preventing so called 'proper' artists from developing.
Here's a thought.
Only a couple of years ago you couldn't watch a music programme or listen to the radio without being bombarded with yet another indie guitar band.
Bands like Artic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, and Libertines to name but a few were everywhere.
Was X Factor preventing them from achieving commercial success? Of course not!
I for one was finding that all very boring. But nobody is allowed to say that when it's 'proper' bands involved.
I'm not some huge Simon Cowell fan, but I find it a bit pathetic this idea that the music buying public is being force fed this X Factor diet. Total rubbish! It isn't.
So called 'proper' music fans are some of the most intolerant music fans around! Constantly moaning and complaining.
X Factor isn't holding anyone back, so stop moaning and just enjoy your own music.
Rodney D:
I think you're reading a wee bit too much into the event in the first place.
I also think that if we wanted a victory for music snobbery, we could've back Radiohead to Number 1, with their fan base they would've crushed the X Factor puppet into the dirt and could've done it with something bizarre like 'Packt Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box'
For me, it is about the monopoly that X Factor exhibits, the dross it turns out (don't confuse snobbery with criticism of poor music) and the slow death is enacts from being temporarily halted in its tracks.
And to be clear, X Factor is not about music is it, or talent, it is pure entertainment, nothing wrong with that but in this case, Killing In The Name Of was more entertaining.
Cool.
As for this indie band guitar bombardment, not sure when that was considering that the UK has a proud and long history of indie guitar music beginning in the 50s and carrying on, just, till about now. Such music has long been a crucial part of our culture, not some new fangled addition, like the X-Factor is.
As for you finding it boring, cool, you don't like UK guitar based music, that's fine but just as you cry snobbery, the same thing could be shouted at you; music is a subjective business.
As for the UK not being forced fed the X-Factor pap, maybe it is, maybe it is not but you can't deny that the X-Factor leviathan is just that, with massive financial and marketing resources to call upon. Crucially, it is not about the art of music but about money first and entertainment second.
That can't be good.
Your argument reminds me of the one religious types make against atheists re: being closed-minded when in reality, the openness of the music fans mind means that X-Factor can only be repellent. Great songs being shouted by mediocre singers is offensive to anyone that loves music.
Music fans hate X-Factor I think because they care so much about music, I know I do and my tastes span trad jazz and jump blues to grime, dub step and ska with everything in between including heavy metal, soul and industrial noise.
And as someone who works in show business, the greatest crime of shows like X-Factor is the idea it gives people about the music business and being famous.
But that's another thread.
As Rage Against the Machine said Rodney:
Anger is a gift and if you're such a big fan of X-Factor, you should just say so.
"Bands like Artic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, and Libertines to name but a few were everywhere".
You're not seriously suggesting they were everywhere like the X-Factor has been for 5 years solid, are you?
The bands you mentioned were certainly popular, but I don't recall any of them taking 2 to 5 pages of every single tabloid
EVERY SINGLE BLEEDIN DAY for months and being shown on telly EVERY SINGLE WEEK at prime time.
So, Rodney,rong comparison, I'm afraid.
Also, like someone commented above, what's grating is Cowell and Cole's sheer arrogance - presuming that the no.1 spot belongs to them and their karaoke singers as some kind of God-given right.
Hear Hear, Daniel H! Couldn't have put it better myself.
RodneyD,
To say that the X-Factor isn't being force fed to the public is a bit silly.
The X-Factor is in everyones face all the time. Prime time telly, in the tabloids, everyone talks about it (even my 77 year old nan, though thankfully she detests it) so, you're wrong there.
It's a gigantic, powerful money making machine which has nothing to do with music. The performers aren't allowed to perform their own songs, they are simply kareoke puppets. It's a braindead light entertainment show. That's all.
I think Rodney makes a good point, the X-factor isn't being force fed to anyone - surely you have an off switch on your television? Where were all those people who said they were going boycott the show after Lucie got booted off? Somewhere in the 20 million viewing figures I suspect. Yes it may be somewhere around the karaoke level, but the fact is that performing is a talent and success requires hard work.
Trying to make this some a victory for self determination is a bit specious to say the least. I've lived through 2 Unlimited, The Shamen, Boyzone, Westlife, The Spice Girls, Bob the Builder, Whigfield, and numerous Eurocrap dance acts - wondering why other people's tastes weren't as discerning as mine. Then one day I was at Symphony Hall when Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin managed to get the audience to sing the chorus from a Backstreet Boys song, observing that "ear candy will get you every time". So I realised that I was a singer/songwriter facist - now I'll happily buy Leona Lewis records because although she does a lot of cover versions, she's has the rare talent of more often than not improving on the original (in my opinion).
If you like the music then buy it, no one is holding a gun to your head. I bought Alex's song from last year because I liked it. I didn't buy Joe's song (even though I think they guy sings well) because I don't like the song. Does this mean I had an epiphany of taste? No, it means I didn't like the f***ing song.
The fact that SyCo makes a packet either way does actually matter in all this. He would not have shifted that many units of Joe's song anyway, so sales are beyond projections. His swift dumping of previous winners when they proved commercially unsuccessful proves that Mr Cowell doesn't give a flying monkeys as long as he makes a profit, which he has. So while we all struggle to pay our mortgages he continues to make more per hour than most of us make in a year.
But at least a bunch of people who think this makes up for their political impotence and apathy can feel good about themselves. As Green Day would have it: "Nice guys finish last".
"the X-factor isn't being force fed to anyone - surely you have an off switch on your television?".
Surely people are still free to say that they don't like a TV programme, right? And Simon Cowell hasn't bought the exclusive to no.1 in the charts just yet? Or has he?
Because the "force-fed/switch off button" thing is just an old tired strawman. It's nothing to do with the off switch. It's in the news too on TV. And every single paper is talking about it. BenE, you speak as if the expression "megasuperaggressive marketing" didn't exist.
If you place a McDonalds at every corner and steadily replace all bakeries and greasy spoons, you'll find that the rate of people eating MaccieD's shoots right up. Does it mean that they truly like it? Or is it because if something is shoved in your face as the (almost) sole thing on offer all the time, in the end you become comfortable with it?
Or it's like saying "you don't have to vote Labour or the Tories, there are plenty of smaller parties around". But if they're not given air time how on earth are you going to find out they even exist?
I was abroad (the biggest switchoff button of all) while last year's X-Factor was on and even so somehow I knew what the contestants were called and who'd won!
I've lived through 2 Unlimited, The Shamen, Boyzone, Westlife, The Spice Girls, Bob the Builder, Whigfield, and numerous Eurocrap dance acts - wondering why other people's tastes weren't as discerning as mine.
So have I. Heavily marketed pre-packaged products have always existed, no-one denies it and also there's nothing wrong with cheap entertainment.
Just never in such a ubiquitous/force-fed/bullish way.
"So I realised that I was a singer/songwriter facist"
Speak for yourself. The other thing that irks me is that if you dont like Simon Cowell's circus you're guilty of "musical snobbery".
For the record I'm not at all a RATM fan. In fact I don't even like their music and their faux-aggression. It's just (mildly) liberating to see a real band or something a little different in the charts for once.
Amongst my CDS there is so much stuff a music snob would probably frown upon, but that's not the point. For the umpteenth time, the point is that the X Factor is NOT ABOUT MUSIC AT ALL, it's HOW THE THING IS PRESENTED, and how they perpetrate the fairy tale that "it's a lot of hard work".
Hi all
I'm back again. Here to say I stand by every single one of my comments.
Firstly I really do think people take the X Factor far too seriously.
It's essentially a combination of family light entertainment and a singing contest.
Most of the singing is Karaoke, but there are one of two people with talent that do emerge. Leona Lewis can sing, and from last year I think JLS and Alexandra Burke are proving very successful.
I fail to understand why people would seriously expect the equivalents of Radiohead, Blur or a new David Bowie to emerge from an X Factor type show!
Those types of artists will still emerge regardless of whether X Factor exists or not and this is essentially my point. X Factor isn't stopping or holding anyone back!
There are too many people who always feel the need to complain in order to demonstrate their own supposed musical superiority. This attitude has been perfectly illustrated for years by magazines like the NME who always need something to define themselves agianst.
In respone to Daniel H G point about me being a snob, I disagree. X Factor doesn't bother me. Having grown up listening to the charts during the 80s and 90s they've now become irrelevant to me. I've just moved on. I have a wide and varied taste in music some of it commercial some of it more obscure. I don't care whether what I listen to is in the Top 10 or not.
Here's a few other points people should consider.
Growing up in the 80's many of the charts were dominated by the production trio Stock Aitken and Waterman. A certian 'national treasure called Kylie Minogue emerged from this stable. So called real music fans complained -didn't stop the Stone Roses emerging, Happy Mondays, the Madchester scene etc!
In the 90s Dance music was big, which suited me as I've always had a passion for electronic music. People still complained about too many 'faceless' dance acts dominating the charts preventing 'proper' bands getting anyhere.
Then in the mid 90s we had Brit Pop! Of course Brit Pop! Suddenly 'proper bands' were in fashion. Rememember the Blur/Oasis battle for No 1 or have people forgotton? I suppose the charts were great then!
Finally since the late 80s this music festival called 'Glastonbury' has become one of the biggest cultural events in the country. Has X Factor or crap chart music prevented it's success? Of course not.
But some people soon began crying when god forbid of rap artist like Jay Z headlined the other year! A very real example of musical snobbery!
Again there always has to be something to moan and complain against!
Like I said X Factor is simply Family entertainment, it's not being force fed down anyone's throats, it's not preventing the success of real artists!
People should just relax and learn to appreciate their own music and musical styles and stop worrying about what the 'masses' are or aren't listening to.
Claude:
Excellent unpicking of Ben E's bollocks and making your point crystal clear, something that Rodder's is still missing.
But glad he's still standing by every single one of his comments, even the ones that have been unpicked or pointed out to be not connected to the subject matter at hand.
*sigh*
"Firstly I really do think people take the X Factor far too seriously."
Including you for a start off and you confuse taking seriously with discussing in an open forum.
"It's essentially a combination of family light entertainment and a singing contest."
Indeed it is but with a monstrous and far reaching range and impact upon music and the music industry, never mind the viewing millions and the of twisting of attitudes towards show business.
"I fail to understand why people would seriously expect the equivalents of Radiohead, Blur or a new David Bowie to emerge from an X Factor type show!"
We don't, you keep missing the point horribly in the effort to extend the debate further, you are building strawmen.
And then you go and repeat an argument already dispatched with, either because you've not read the comments here or you are just sticking to your guns based on a deep set fear of being wrong.
And for someone who isn't bothered by X-Factor, you certainly are engaging a great deal in a debate on it, you protest too much.
"Here's a few other points people should consider."
I think you are confusing us with some awestruck audience that actually care what you think. Some points for you to consider...
SA & W music factory is a long way off the X-Factor leviathan.
The rise of electronica in the 80s and 90s is a whole different discussion to one about the X-Faxtor, you point is a stretched one at best that I'm not sure why you're making it.
Same goes for your Britopop rant, which is so disparate from the X-Factor discussion here, I'd swear you're using this bog as a venue for you to vent, rather than discuss.
Hate to break it to you but Glastonbury has always been one of the biggest cultural events in the country. It runs parallel in an alternate stream to X-Factor but is nowhere near as successful.
Again, your point is unclear, clouded and not at all related to the discussion at hand.
As for the Jay-Z nonsense, again, you're attacking people that aren't here and seem to be drawing that line of argument to us, in other words, building a strawman the size of Jesus.
Stop it. Post this shit on your own blog, not a comments thread.
"Again there always has to be something to moan and complain against!"
Indeed, you're doing a good job of whinging quite a bit.
Seriously, bugger off, you've missed the point and instead of ceding that and moving on you have to come back and in a very verbose fashion vomit more of the same guff.
Daniel
I don't think I'm missing the point at all and I'm sorry if you feel that.
I've read all the comments on hear and based my responses on what I've already read.
I'm quite enjoying the discussion, but it's a shame that you have to start getting slightly aggressive towards me.
You make the point below where you say:
"Indeed it is but with a monstrous and far reaching range and impact upon music and the music industry, never mind the viewing millions and the of twisting of attitudes towards show business."
What evidence do you have to say that it has a monstrous and far reaching impact on British music?
The live British music scene is huge and many artists now make the most of their money from performing live. Sorry if it upsets people but I don't believe that X Factor has this huge 'monstrous' effect.
Other comments you made include people objecting to:
"Great songs being shouted by mediocre singers is offensive to anyone that loves music."
I have a huge passion for music, and I don't find it offensive. why should I? And there are many so called mediocre singers who made careers shouting! Look at Jonny Rotten!
Another quote you made said;
"For me, it is about the monopoly that X Factor exhibits, the dross it turns out (don't confuse snobbery with criticism of poor music) and the slow death is enacts from being temporarily halted in its tracks."
There is no monopoloy at all from X Factor. Look back at the previous winners. In the first series there was I think Steve Brookstien. He's totally disappeared! I think there was another winner called Shane Ward. Again he's nowhere these days. There was another winner called Leon, who's no longer around.
I can only think of Leona Lewis, and then from last year Alexandra and JLS. So that's 3 artists! hardly dominating the music industry.
This year's winner is more suited to musicals and I doubt will have that amount of longevity.
With this comment below:
"Hate to break it to you but Glastonbury has always been one of the biggest cultural events in the country."
I disagree and here's why. Up until 20 years ago, festivals like Glastonbury where seen as 'alternative' There is nothing alternative or counter culture about Glastonbury anymore, its incredibly mainstream.
The point I'm making is why has Glastonbury become so big in recent years? Why has it become mainstream? Yet people say that X Factor is having a detrimental affect on British music?
I feel that's a very valid point which people don't want to discuss or highlight.
The British music scene is in great health. That's the point I'm making X Factor isn't killing it.
Again I'm a bit disappointed you have to get a little abusive towards the end. Don't worry I'm not taking it personally!
Rodney
Hello Rodney.
My frustration stems from two main things, you don't seem to be reading the comments and taking the ideas on board and you are building a lot of strawmen and then opining about these fake battles you're fighting with imaginary foes.
But apologies for any offence caused or harshness in tone I have displayed.
For example, on many key points you don't pick up the thread at all but rather progress with your own agenda.
You request evidence and the evidence is that I work in the creative industries and also with young people, so I see the false aspirations, unrealistic goals and target setting and drive towards fame at all costs that the X-Factor has unleashed.
Drama School applications (in a time of recession and with huge fees to pay) are at an all time high, where you might have had some 4000 apply for 30 places you are now getting 6-8000.
The fame game is not the sole responsibility of the X-Factor but it plays a critical part.
With regards to music, as I've said elsewhere here, the X-Factoes scale of success is huge, this impacts massively upon music by the very fact that here we have what are frankly a series of poor singers and crooners; not artists in the creative sense, churning out other people's numbers. Not a new phenomenon but never before on such a huge and popular scale.
To pretend that this will have no impact upon music is to be naive.
You are free to believe what you want of course but to ignore the scale of X-factor is to deny that is has any impact at all, when it does and that impact, upon not only the creative industries but also music is a negative one.
"The live British music scene is huge and many artists now make the most of their money from performing live."
Venues are closing and from purely anecdotal evidence, although I could research ticket prices, venue numbers and whatnot but quite frankly I can't be arsed today, live music is on the decrease, not dying but the number of gig-goees, venues and bands being able to afford to play in the large scale pay to play environment no of gigging makes it far harder. This is not the X-Factors fault but the idea of grafting to the top is rapidly going out of fashion.
As for finding great songs ruined, you are free t not find it offensive, just as I am free to find it offensive. Seems pretty simple.
"Look at Jonny Rotten!"
I presume that's a joke and you've never heard any PiL?
"For me, it is about the monopoly that X Factor exhibits, the dross it turns out (don't confuse snobbery with criticism of poor music) and the slow death is enacts from being temporarily halted in its tracks."
"There is no monopoloy at all from X Factor."
Yes there is and the point I was making was in relation to the Xmas number one which, do not forget, is what this blog post is about.
You then go on to build a strawman based on your mis-interpretation that I'll not waste time with.
You can disagree all you want with regards to Glastonbury but by going back 20 years you seem to once again have missed the point, with regards to it being a major cultural event in the UK, it has always been that way whether alternative or not.
Also, your maths is very bad here, your equation basically equals:
More people go to Glastonbury=X-Factor cannot be damaging to the music business.
That doesn't hold water as an equation.
"The British music scene is in great health. That's the point I'm making X Factor isn't killing it."
That's a moot point and as long as we don't confuse our personal opinions with fact the discussion should end here.
Hi Daniel
Well I promise this will be my last post on the topic! and I except your apologies.
Believe it all not I've actually enjoyed the discussion, people don't have to agree with what I've said, but I don't see anything wrong in challenging some people's assumptions on this matter.
If I've been guilty of anything, it is by expanding the argument. I've read loads of comments on this subject, and although you might say I've missed the point of this discussion board, I've still raised points related to the whole ocncept of an X Factor style programme and its affects on music in general. Apologies for not sticking to the script.
Call me cynical, but I'm sure this same type of debate will be taking place in 20 years time when X Factor is long gone and replaced by something else.
One point I totally agree with you though is this:
"I see the false aspirations, unrealistic goals and target setting and drive towards fame at all costs that the X-Factor has unleashed."
That's a cultural thing related to the rise of celebrity culture, which X Factor is a part of. But hey that's another discussion for another day!
Anyway no hard feelings to you or anyone else on here.
Rodney
Rodders:
Well, I'm glad you've enjoyed the discussion and challenging is all well and good as long as it is not for challenging's sake. The final key to willingness to challenge others is an openness yourself I suppose.
"Call me cynical, but I'm sure this same type of debate will be taking place in 20 years time when X Factor is long gone and replaced by something else."
Maybe it will, that is not cynical of you but it is the scale of the X-Factor beast that makes it so unique at present I feel.
Excellent points from Daniel.
Rodney D said:
"There is no monopoly at all from X Factor. Look back at the previous winners. In the first series there was I think Steve Brookstien. He's totally disappeared!"
This is it, Rodney. The point is staring at you right in the face. You just cracked it. The X Factor has a monopoly as the "X-Factor". Not in terms of the poor sods it churns out and throws away like bin bags year in year out.
Those people disappear, which is why we're talking about the "X-Factor monopoly" and not, say, Shayne Ward's monopoly.
This is the first time in history that a thing, an entity, is referred to in such a scale when talking about music as opposed to artists.
Even at the height of Kylie-mania, people referred to Kylie, not SA&W and you didnt have dedicated pull-out sections in the dailies or entire TV programmes about it.
SA&W's scale, and you know it, is nowhere near the same as the X-Factor. The charts and industrial-scale media coverage both speak for themselves.
But the worst bit is:
"What evidence do you have to say that it has a monstrous and far reaching impact on British music?
Rodney mate, look at the venues that are closing down one by one across the country. You get corporate things taking over like sponsored venues i.e.Barfly, or Carling but in Birmingham alone in the last 5-6 years the number of independent venues closing down has been staggering (XLs, The Foundry, Jug of Ale, Old Railway, Eddies no.8 to mention a few).
I lost count of news reports saying that labels are increasingly reluctant to invest in "less safe" acts.
They still exist, NOBODY is saying that non-X Factor-related music will literally die.
However, with the music scene changing and less CDs shifted, labels are increasing the share of money invested in stuff already seen on telly (courtesy of the already-received mass-scale promotion) as opposed to some band starting from scratch.
For clarity, I repeat it one more time. So-called indie, electro or rock or however you wanna call them bands (non X-Factor-related) will STILL EXIST but they'll get pushed to the side even more.
"I don't care whether what I listen to is in the Top 10 or not.
Me neither, and that's great. There's nothing sadder or more pathetic than adults arguing over music tastes Year7-like "my-music-is-better-than-yours".
What matters, however, about the X-Factor, is that its repercussions go beyond the Top 10. I dont give a fuck about the Top 10.
Apart from what Daniel HG already wrote (and the points I'm trying to make), I dont know if you remember the huge X-Factor and Sun-sponsored "Heroes" campaign last year, an unprecedented massive piece of sanistised pro-war political propaganda.
Again, this is not harmless entertainment, that was pure politics and a dubious one too.
The one thing you got right though, Rodney, is your criticism of the NME. It really is shite.
Apparently St Simon of Cowell is on the cover of the current issue of NME.
*self-immolates*
I thought I could just have aired my opinion and have it left at that to be disagreed with. But to have it described by Daniel as "bollocks" as if it were meretricious compared to some of the earlier Oedipal, profane, and grammatically impoverished comments is just a tad unfair. I wouldn't mind so much if I hadn't made coherent points, but to dismiss someone you disagree with so aggressively smacks of (undeserved) hubris. Fair enough Claude, we disagree on the definition of agressive marketing - I maintain that in matters such as this, the individual with full control of their faculties has a choice. I would consider the greatest exponents of overly agressive marketing to be loan sharks. There is at least a case for suggesting that due to the desperate situations that their victims/customers find themselves in, the loan sharks are able to force a sale by limiting the choices on offer. But it doesn't change the fact that your "off" switch still works. Incidentally, last year I was abroad for half of November and didn't hear a sausage about the X-factor for 10 days - perhaps I was lucky. Sure, it's an insidious little drug - I never watched it before last year despite the fact that my wife regularly did, but once I started I didn't want to stop. But if I wanted to, then I could have. In the same way that you don't like being spoon-fed music choices, I don't like being "protected" from dross - I either choose to listen/watch etc, or not.
As to the definition of "hard work", well this is a subjective can of worms. I've held over 30 jobs since leaving college 16 years ago (although I have spent half that time as a freelancer) ranging from fast food worker to enterprise solutions architect. I have first-hand experience of the broad church of "hard work" and yet couldn't define it absolutely. So the question must be: do you consider making an 18 year old work a 60 hour week, including high-pressure public performances at weekends while only having as much guarantee of success as any new business, to be hard work? If not, then clearly we're all a bunch of lazy fuckers.
Back to the music - I'm a fan of the Indigo Girls who, despite achieving cult status, have not enjoyed the commercial success of many of their contemporaries (e.g. REM). Is this a great injustice? Not really. As many contributors have pointed out, nobody is "entitled" to success. Like acting, it's never been a meritocratic business, based as it is on the taste of the public (Adam Sandler anyone?). The same public who voted for the Tories 4 times in a row during my lifetime despite them screwing just about everybody for 18 years. The same public who voted for Labour in 1997 without questioning how they would pay for things without raising taxes (the answer was of course PFI, which has destroyed our public sector in the same way that several people here have accused Cowell of destroying the music industry). The same public who voted for Blair after he took us to war and will probably vote for the Tories again in 2010, despite the fact that they've got just as little chance of getting us out of this mess as Labour have. But that's real self-determination - we have the freedom to make shit choices.
Cowell is not "The Master", brainwashing us. He is simply a very successful businessman who understands how to achieve what Harvard Business School describes as a "Blue Ocean strategy", with as little risk to himself as possible. He may be the Nestle of the music world, but we continue to pay the piper (although the piper has probably been replaced by a backing track).
It's verbiage in epic form from Ben E King.
Took umbrage at the use of bollocks? Well it was, don't confuse your opinion with some kind of ultimate fact. One man's coherent points is another man's bollocks and understanding that will save you some serious time on the Internets.
The cut of your gib comes across like an advertising exec, naive but malicious in that you discount the impact of large scale marketing that the X-Factor flexes and calls upon wide reaching devices to spread its goods thick and fast.
Good grief man, if advertising didn't work...I don't need to finish that do I?
Of course we have freedom but the sheer wall of X-Factor based publicity gives it saturation awareness for its target demographic.
So you can make an obtuse and irrelevant riff on loan sharks but like others here, you stroll rest past the point in all the verbiage.
This isn't about you.
And speaking of hard work, you rise an issue that we've not yet touched on as to way X-Factor is terrible: the 'talent' is free and free talent is never good, it undercuts those that are professional, trained and have invested huge amounts in their career; main issue with stuff like this and others is the cheapening of talent by the paradoxical act of making appear more achievable.
And then you go off piste again with the non-point about the Indigo Girls, who by the way are not as successful as REM because they aren't as good, as much as I like both artists and saw the Indigo Girls live once in Nottingham.
And then you go off on a long one that bears little connection to the point at hand, by pulling so far away from the topic here it just looks like clutching at straws.
Not sure why the X-Factor diss draws so much heat but some people are protesting too much...
I'm a bit late in coming to this thread but,
Daniel said:
"...way X-Factor is terrible: the 'talent' is free and free talent is never good, it undercuts those that are professional, trained and have invested huge amounts in their career;..."
I seem to think you're speaking as an actor, not a musician. The thing is though, I'm not interested in musicians for their career, but for their art. Elvis Presley was once only paid for driving a truck, yet he already had talent. By the end of his "career" he had been turned into a joke known as "plastic Elvis" by his domineering manager, "Tom Parker".
And it's not as if, say, U2 are billions of times more talented than every bluesman who died penniless. So as far as I can see "professionalism" is not the same thing as talent at all, not where music's concerned. Maybe the two tend to go together in the acting profession, I don't know.
A bit late Tom?
I made it clear in my other comments that part of my problem with the X-Factor is its negative influence on other creative arts.
And the thing is about working creatively is that it is business as well as art, career as well as art, a job as well as art.
Romanticisation is nearly as bad as what the X-Factor does, which is the corporatisation of an art.
Fuck the music "industry". About the only thing I can see positive about the X Factor is that it looks like the death throes of management-based entertainment being pushed at the public. They don't know any other way, but we don't need them.
I don't romanticise the "music biz", I wouldn't have anything to do with it. I recall the lyrics of Bobby Womack's song Superstar:
"You know I always believed as a kid
When stars fell from the sky
When they hit the ground they turn into a rock
...
What's the use of being a superstar
If you can't play in your own back yard?"
You do know that we don't like the X-Factor either don't you?
And I'm a firm believer in art as business also I'm afraid.
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