Saturday, October 09, 2010

Why the (bleep) should we care about these people?

I refer, of course, to arguably the world's most overrated TV talent show: The X Factor. There are now many international versions of this show, which might actually be ok: I just want to clarify that my criticism relates solely to the British version.

In these times of austerity, cuts and the government from hell, what's on the cover of the newspapers? The X Factor. Perhaps that sums up why our country is in such a mess. It dominates press, magazines, even the TV news. Why? What's so special? It's only a third rate, past its sell-by date TV talent show, which quite frankly has got far too big for its boots. Believe it or not, I used to watch it once, back in the early days, (although admittedly I resented it from the beginning because my beloved "Pop Idol" was axed after two seasons in favour of this manipulative piece of s**t).

I couldn't care less about who's in/who's out/who should have been picked/who shouldn't have been picked. What I do care about is the amount of time wasted on it by our media, and the ruthless manipulation of the great British public, not to mention its dominance of the British charts over the years. There may be some good acts who have come out of this contest, but their careers are then destroyed by the same machine which created them.

There is clearly an appetite for prime time music shows on TV, so why will no-one take the chance on broadcasting a decent one on a Saturday night? Maybe then I wouldn't need to reach for the off switch.

5 comments:

Raquelita said...

"What I do care about is the amount of time wasted on it by our media, and the ruthless manipulation of the great British public"- Exactly what my dad says,although this year he has gone a bit mad over the whole Gamu thing.I guess as Eurovision fans,we see "musical injustices" every year so we're used to it :) Anyway he's refusing to watch it now because of the fakery of it all and the judges talking (bleep) all the time- "this could be her toughest week,and if she doesn't deliver..." blah blah blah.

I however still watch it just because I like the singing and it's one of the only music programmes on telly these days.If only they cut out all the talky bits it would be fine.I'm not (and I doubt anyone else is) interested in the life stories of all the contestants and that they have 2 young kids/a blind mother/a very small house.It just makes me dislike them if anything when they whinge on every week.

There's only 2 singers this year that I like,and one of those is Nicolo.I don't know if you've seen him at all but his dry sense of humour and laid-back attitude are quite refreshing in a British talent show.He knows he's good and isn't afraid to say it,and I don't think he could care less what the judges say.Of course the media have jumped on that and edited him to look like a "typical arrogant Italian" stereotype,but what can you really expect from this country these days?

Laura (EuropeCrazy) said...

Ah yes, the whole Gamu thing - believe it or not, this was the main story on the Scottish TV news during the week! And the more coverage it all gets, you can just imagine Cowell twirling his imaginary comedy moustache with glee. Of course being Eurovision and European music fans we're just drowning in musical injustices, you know I'm always going on about European music not being given the chance to make it over here. So on the one hand I was quite happy to hear that Joe McElderry was covering "Ambitions" but on the other hand I was pretty annoyed that the original, superior version by Norwegian band Donkeyboy was overlooked in this country.

I did watch X Factor for the first 4 years but stopped watching because of the tears (should be sponsored by flippin' Kleenex), the judges being more important than the contestants, and indeed the fakery.

Suppose the best thing to do would be to watch the clips on YouTube, to keep in the loop with my workmates and avoid all the aforementioned c**p - 'I'm doing this for my dead dog, he barked his dying wish on his deathbed that owwwww owwww, you should do X Factor, woof woof' or 'I'm a single parent with 17 children and I was in and out of jail and please, please, please this is my last chance or my life is over' etc etc.

I did check out Nicolo though - he seems pretty entertaining, which is a nice change. Although I do agree that they'll resort to predictable racist stereotypes and probably boot him out when he's outlived his usefulness.

Claire said...

I feel exactly the same, I hate the way the X Factor dominates our media for months on end every year, but I usually end up watching it as it is a music programme (of sorts!)and I'm still interested in seeing if anyone vaguely talented comes out of it.

I've been saying I wouldn't watch it this year and managed to avoid the auditions and most of 'Gamu-gate' this week, but I did end up watching it last night. I thought it was a bit better than recent years, it had more of a contemporary feel to it rather than the usual teenage boys singing 60s songs, but I still hate how manipulative it is and how it's always all about the judges. As usual some contestants have been completely overhyped, but I was impressed by Nicolo too- his attitude is very refreshing, and he's a really interesting performer- although I have a feeling he may well be on his way out this evening.

It's annoying how the British public so readily buys into all this every year, but I suppose I can't really complain when I get sucked in too! It would be briliant if someone could come up with a decent music show on British TV, that isn't all about hype and money, but I'm not holding my breath!

Raquelita said...

He's gone! So angry.It's Salem vs Anna Thingy all over again.

Admittedly he wasn't that great last night but I can't help but think it's because he's not a "funny foreigner" such as the likes of Chico and the Cheeky Girls that people voted him out.Only Brits and Americans can be genuinely talented after all!

Claire said...

Oh dear, poor Nicolo :( You're right Rachel, they have Wagner to play the role of "crazy novelty foreigner" this year, while Nicolo was branded as arrogant for actually seeming to believe in himself a bit, and was given a "diva" type song that didn't really suit him. Very annoying! Although as a fellow Eurovision fan, I've seen far worse musical injustices over the years :)