Sad day for Music as X-factor is Axed.

[scifisam]

Fears for future of music as X-Factor axed

THE greatest era of British music ever known is feared to have ended forever with the cancellation of The X-Factor.

www.thedailymash.co.uk

 

[Johnny Doe]

James Arthur (winner in 2012) seems to be the last winner to have managed to create a sustained career in pop music, but there's plenty before him. I think how pop music works has changed a lot in the last 10 years though, and this kind of format doesn't really work anymore.

Ella Henderson? Seemed like an alright kid too

 

[Johnny Doe]

P Diddy and Usher/Rick Astley

 

[killer b]

Ella Henderson? Seemed like an alright kid too

my research only extended to winners, and apparently she came 6th (also in 2012)

 

[Johnny Doe]

my research only extended to winners, and apparently she came 6th (also in 2012)

I've got a completely unevidenced opinion that the winners usually faired not quite as well as some of the others?

 

[killer b]

I've got a completely unevidenced opinion that the winners usually faired not quite as well as some of the others?

I think One Direction and Olly Murs cast a long shadow - other than them there's not a whole lot going on in the runners up (Stacy Solomon perhaps?)

 

[Johnny Doe]

I think One Direction and Olly Murs cast a long shadow - other than them there's not a whole lot going on in the runners up (Stacy Solomon perhaps?)

The two lads I posted are above are first and foremost in my memory

 

[Buddy Bradley]

American Idol is probably the most successful singing talent show for discovering talent that sticks - Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert and Jennifer Hudson all were/are massive stars.

 

[kalidarkone]

The same people who watch Love Island, no doubt.

I've tried to watch love Island and its so fucking gross......

 

[killer b]

Used to love the X Factor. It's role in winding up dreary music snobs who imagined that their chosen shit indie/metal/electronica/experimental/whatever taste proved that they were superior was glorious. It did go badly downhill to be fair and the last 5 or 6 series were just a pastiche of former glories with the panel becoming increasingly irritating, ego laden and just boring. From a sociological point of view I was fascinated, and repulsed, by how the contestant's 'journey' changed over time. Earlier shows emphasized their class background and there was a unifying appeal. Remember Andy? Latterly the journey became much more reflexive of the self and idiots dedicating their journey to their dead cat etc.

I enjoyed a few series of the X Factor - it was decent enough saturday night light entertainment, and winding up the conservatively minded 'real music' dudes was an added bonus. I think it's effect on pop music was pretty corrosive though - it's producers and audience had their own - just as conservative - view of what 'real music' was too, and that version of real music dominated the pop charts for too long while it was in it's pomp. I still wish they'd beaten Rage Against The Machine to christmas number one that year though.

 

[rubbershoes]

American Idol is probably the most successful singing talent show for discovering talent that sticks - Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert and Jennifer Hudson all were/are massive stars.

One direction, little mix, Olly Murs have all decent careers on the back of x factor.

And Rylan too, though I think he was BGT

 

[Sasaferrato]

One direction are possibly the biggest band in the world. You wont find better songwriters. Better than anything that came before them since music began.

Apart from:

The Beatles
The Stones
Bowie
Cohen
Diana Ross
Lionel Richie
James Taylor
Leonard Cohen

Und viel anderen.

To paraphrase Danny DeVito, I would sooner stick red hot needles in my ears than listen to One Direction.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

I enjoyed a few series of the X Factor - it was decent enough saturday night light entertainment, and winding up the conservatively minded 'real music' dudes was an added bonus. I think it's effect on pop music was pretty corrosive though - it's producers and audience had their own - just as conservative - view of what 'real music' was too, and that version of real music dominated the pop charts for too long while it was in it's pomp. I still wish they'd beaten Rage Against The Machine to christmas number one that year though.

Agreed totally on RATM, it bought out the worst of the 'our taste is superior' snobs with their gossamer thin 'radical' presumptions. Also agree that the X Factor increasingly barfed up an increasingly 'devoid of soul' version of pop music. Although, I'd argue it was merely reflective of and a facsimile of - rather than a creator of -wider trends in the industry.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I enjoyed a few series of the X Factor - it was decent enough saturday night light entertainment, and winding up the conservatively minded 'real music' dudes was an added bonus. I think it's effect on pop music was pretty corrosive though - it's producers and audience had their own - just as conservative - view of what 'real music' was too, and that version of real music dominated the pop charts for too long while it was in it's pomp. I still wish they'd beaten Rage Against The Machine to christmas number one that year though.

It ran for IIRC fourteen years, how many of the winners are still around making music?

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

I am actually worried now that people might think I was being serious about One Direction.

you need to advise the governement on how fast you can u-turn

 

[Sasaferrato]

I've got a completely unevidenced opinion that the winners usually faired not quite as well as some of the others?

Different show, but Susan Boyle did very well after coming second. I saw her coming out of ASDA the other day, she does her own shopping. ASDA have a staff member at a discreet distance, but no one bothers her.

 

[existentialist]

It ran for IIRC fourteen years, how many of the winners are still around making music?

Most of the winners were, at best, performing music made by others, TBF.

 

[killer b]

Agreed totally on RATM, it bought out the worst of the 'our taste is superior' snobs with their gossamer thin 'radical' presumptions. Also agree that the X Factor increasingly barfed up an increasingly 'devoid of soul' version of pop music. Although, I'd argue it was merely reflective of and a facsimile of - rather than a creator of -wider trends in the industry.

Sure it was reflective of wider trends in pop, but it's prominence in the saturday night light entertainment schedules reinforced those trends and helped them become more dominant IMO. Who knows what trends could have broken through in it's absence?

 

[MickiQ]

Apart from:

The Beatles
The Stones
Bowie
Cohen
Diana Ross
Lionel Richie
James Taylor
Leonard Cohen

Und viel anderen.

To paraphrase Danny DeVito, I would sooner stick red hot needles in my ears than listen to One Direction.

Youngest Q was into One Direction when she was about 10 or 11 (this seems to be a key age for the fans of boybands) and I have to admit amongst all the generally bland pap there was one song 'Story of My Life' which to my surprise I thought was quite good.
Far far worse than One Direction (or 1D as Youngest called them) was the Spice Girls. Mrs Q's eldest sister bought Middle Q (who was about 5 or 6 at the time) a copy of the Spice Girls movie and Middle Q watched it so often that the tape wore out and
man it is fucking awful. Middle Q used to wander around and every once in a while she would just shout "Girl Power" for no obvious reason.

 

[D'wards]

Come on now- are we really so cynical, sneery and misanthropic on these boards that we can't look for the positive? Always eventuate the negative? No? OK

Heres a great song from an x factor contestant

 

[Saul Goodman]

Come on now- are we really so cynical, sneery and misanthropic on these boards that we can't look for the positive?

Yes.

 

[discokermit]

Most of the winners were, at best, performing music made by others, TBF.

what does this even mean? you make music when the sound comes out. until then it isnt music.
weirdest sneer i have ever seen.

 

[strung out]

Leona Lewis had a platinum album in America, but is apparently bad at music.

Also, Wagner was excellent Saturday night entertainment, so for that I am grateful.

 

[killer b]

It ran for IIRC fourteen years, how many of the winners are still around making music?

Loads of them tbf. Quite a lot seem to have gone into musicals and suchlike, some are still rolling out albums from time to time. The more recent winners seem to have fared less well than the earlier winners though.

It's pop music though, longevity is hardly one of it's defining characteristics.

 

[xenon]

It was rubbish but then I've never been a fan of talent shows and it seemed that after x factor everything was now a competitions show from bakery to dancing to having a dinner party ('come dine with me' was the nadir imo, just the worst bollocks, more corrosive to the psyche than x factor). I try not to judge talent show enjoyers tho because who am I with my stargate sg1 and monkey dust re-runs.

Heh. Come Dine With Me is the only one I actually quite liked. Not enough to go out of my way to watch it but if it happened on a telly when I was in the room, I'd watch. People trying to show off with their foodie skills and fucking up or cheating. The snobbery, the misguided attempts at gourmet cuisine except sometimes it worked.

XFactor, Pop Idle et al I couldn't stand though. Glorified karioki plus some originals of the middle of the road pop kack genre.

 

[xenon]

Saturday night family entertainment.
urgh.

Fucking grim stuff all round.

Sneering?

Maybe, yeah, though at the creators, vibe, sense of deep melancholy it provokes, not the viewers.

 

[JuanTwoThree]

Alexandra Burke (2008 winner with a cover of Hallelujah) seems to have made a solid career of musical theatre on the strength of it. Nothing dramatic it has to be said.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Loads of them tbf. Quite a lot seem to have gone into musicals and suchlike, some are still rolling out albums from time to time. The more recent winners seem to have fared less well than the earlier winners though.

It's pop music though, longevity is hardly one of it's defining characteristics.

Unless you are Keith Richards.

 

[scifisam]

Loads of them tbf. Quite a lot seem to have gone into musicals and suchlike, some are still rolling out albums from time to time. The more recent winners seem to have fared less well than the earlier winners though.

It's pop music though, longevity is hardly one of it's defining characteristics.

Yeah, they've probably done better than if they hadn't gone on X-Factor. Most of them don't seem to be the type to have loads of contacts in the music industry or other ways to break in.

I'm not sure to what extent the shows have impacted on pop, because ISTM there's been a fair bit of good pop in the last couple of decades since these shows started up. I don't mean music by the winners, but pop in general.

 

[Elpenor]

Never watched any of them. Lived 5 doors down from a woman who had been on Pop Idol in 2003/2004, she was by that time working for BBC Berkshire as the breakfast show roving reporter.