So X-Factor 8 returns and we can all enjoy the nation's slickest, most entertaining and most manipulative talent show. There's no denying the programme's compulsive charms but given the attrition rate of its winners, how hollow is the prize of "A ONE-MILLION POUND RECORDING CONTRACT" going to sound this time round?
Obviously the reality is that £1 million quid buys you very little in the world of pop - recording an album and single, one video, artwork, adverts...but I don't suppose the contest's prize would seem as alluring if X-Factor's Shouty Man were to intone each week "THE CHANCE TO RECORD AN ALBUM AND ONE SINGLE AND IF IT SELLS ENOUGH YOU MIGHT GET SOME MORE RELEASES OR ELSE YOU'LL BE DROPPED LIKE A STONE!"
At least, in this series, we won't have Simon Cowell's repeated blame-shifting of telling contestants "This is your platform - it is your chance - it is what you make of it". What SiCo forgets to mention is that the contestants will get no say in how they represent themselves each week in the competition (and if they do insist on choosing their own song one week over their 'mentor's' choice, they'll be edited in the VT to look difficult and naive), they'll have their own choice of style replaced by someone else's tastes, they'll be given a cover song for their winners song whether they like it or not, and they'll be given very, very little input into their first album. So much for following your own dream...
Contestants would do well to consider the relative fates of the previous winners to see what might await them:
- Steve Brookstein - only released 'the winners song' single and one album (which went to #1) - was dropped after 8 months - allegedly because he didn't want to do more covers - he remains very bitter at the X-Factor
- Shayne Ward - 3 singles and 1st album went well, 4th single was delayed then messily changed into a double A-side, then a single and 2nd album (reached #2) - But then Simon Cowell refused to let him release any music for three years - when he returned with two more singles and a 3rd album album, the momentum was gone and he was dropped from record label. Soon to be appearing in a West End musical
- Leona Lewis - the golden goose of winners, huge success which merited continuing investment - hers is the dream career on which X-Factor hangs the hopes of contestants each year
- Leon Jackson - Winners single, then came back with an album which released two single then ominously a download-only single. Heard he had been dropped from a newspaper! Considers his X-Factor fame "a curse"
- Alexandra Burke - released 1 album with 4 singles and the winners song - has diversified into advertising deodorant - second album "due next year" and has implied that Simon Cowell won't have as much control over the tracklistings
- Joe McElderry - won X-Factor with the most votes ever in a final - winners song + two singles from a very disparaged album followed then dropped only 16 months after winning. Joe carved a second chance at success by winning Pop Star to Opera Star - says he wished he had more say in his album's direction but wasn't given the chance
- Matt Cardle - about to release an album
It isn't a glorious record of success is it? You could say that's showbiz, but one of the grumbles I have about X-Factor is this myth they peddle about 'mentoring' and 'developing' an act, when in fact, they simply straight-jacket the winners into a style they think they'll get as much money out of as quickly as they can. Was Leon given any performance training that could have helped him? Was Shayne helped by the three year absence imposed on him by which time his teen-idol looks had aged? Was Joe 'developed' by giving him an album of songs totally different from the style of songs he had been singing to win the show?
The show would argue that being exposed to an average of 14 million viewers each week is a powerful advertisement to any act. No question of it - you can't buy that level of publicity - but only if we get to see contestants doing what they want to do. Super loyal Katie Waissel has admitted she hated some of the looks she was given but in the eye of the storm, she didn't think she could complain or question how she was being presented.
I guess the contestants who are faring better are the ones who survive the contest, with who they are intact and who get picked up by non-Syco companies who see their possibilities. G4 released 3 platinum selling albums of their popera music, Diana Vickers got the lead in a West End show and won praise and awards for her acting, Jedward took their exposure on Saturday night telly and turned themselves into a continuingly successful brand. Musically JLS have become the big winners with 5 No.1 singles, two massively successful albums, and they have been developed as an act which has outgrown their X-Factor beginnings. The jury is still out on Olly Murs and Cher Lloyd but their initial success suggests they might have found a winning identity.
Could it be the best that contestants facing Gary, Tulisa, Kelly and Louis can hope for is that they are allowed to develop their own style within the show, they get support from their mentors in choosing songs they would like to represent the kind of act they hope to be, that the public likes what they say...and that they don't win so that SyCo can't screw up their chances as they move on to the following year's search and that another record label picks them up and tries to grow them?
As a viewer, I won't be buying into "the dream of winning" drama but I am looking forward to enjoying hearing some lovely new voices intent on entertaining us.
