The X Factor Finals: Gone and Almost Forgotten

Ah, Mondays.  Do you remember those halcyon days when Mondays were set aside for X Factor blogging?  Me too.  It was only last week.

Anyway, I thought that after writing so much about the bloody programme I should take time to look back over the series as a whole.  Like last year, however, I can’t be bothered doing it properly.  For conciseness, I’ll use bullet points.

• I’m completely finished with the auditions process and wish they could do away with it.   Bullying is not funny.
• The format changes sucked (auditions in front of a live audience and the live shows split over two nights), but the viewing figures were stronger than ever.
• This year’s finalists weren’t even close to being as good as last year’s.  If I hadn’t committed myself to blogging about it then I think I would have given up.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this year’s competition is what has happened after it finished – the Rage Against The Machine V.  Joe  chart battle.  The campaign itself seemed like a harmless bit of fun, but I was still pretty ambivalent about the whole thing.  I didn’t hate the campaign, like I did last year’s ‘our cover version is better than your cover version’ debacle,  but lurking somewhere beneath the surface is a deep misunderstanding of what the X Factor is.

It’s no coincidence that the song was chosen for the lyrics: ‘Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me’, and a whole bunch of people believe that the mainstream single buying audience literally do whatever Simon Cowell tells them.

Guess what?  They don’t.

Sure, he manipulates and promotes his own artists.  That’s his job.  But, other than the Christmas number one, which, until this year, was sewn up by the X Factor winner, what impact does it all really have on the music industry?  If you look back at how many people have gone on to have successful careers post-X Factor, then you’ll clearly see how little difference it actually makes.  Those that have had a modicum of success, like Will Young, Girls Aloud, Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke, would clearly have had successful careers regardless of their origins, whether you like them or not.

This missing link seems to be this: The X Factor really hasn’t got a great deal to do with the music industry.  It’s a talent show mixed with a soap opera\pantomime that’s designed to be big, family friendly, Saturday night entertainment.  I watch it so that I can have a moan about who is good, who is bad and who is indifferent.  I wanted Joe to win the final, but I’d never buy one of his records in a million years and I don’t think he’ll make a good pop star.  It’s all about the competition.  If they sell a few records on the back of it, then that’s a bonus (for them).

Yes, it was nice to break the monopoly and see something different get to number one – but don’t celebrate because you think you’ve saved something sacred from being tarnished.  This is the pop singles chart!  Stop and think about it for a minute.  The concept of ‘Christmas number one’ is itself is an A&R man’s trick to flog more records.  And have you actually looked at some of the songs that have been Christmas number one in the last 20 years?  They include The Spice Girls (three times), Westlife and Bob the Builder?  They’re not exactly striking a hammer blow for the cause of ‘real’ music.

You don’t have to like the X Factor, but at least don’t like it because you don’t like it, and not for some spurious ‘moral’ reasons.

Anyway, rant over.  Time is ticking on and I want to go and watch telly.  I should really tidy this up a bit more and try and make my arguments a little more cogent, but I can’t be arsed.