No, not swine flu..although maybe (fails not to mentions flying pigs). I mean the slight obsession that Britain has with reality television talent shows, which I am sure other countries have too. I for one have never really watched Britain Got Talent or X factor or whatever others are there lurking in the shadows of cable and satellite television but I hear about them. A lot. This isn't me ranting at those people who do watch them or enter them or make them its just me trying to make sense of it all. I have been thinking a bit about it this over the last week or so, partially down to what seems like the worlds obsession with Susan Boyle and partially down to my friend (HI RACHEL) going for an X Factor audition and I'm not sure I get it.
For starters lets just address the issue that is Susan Boyle, who seems to switch between being the nations sweetheart and one of the most annoyingly over publicised person in the country. I saw her audition thingy on the internet but only after being bombarded with facts about her in the news and on everything else I read, surely I didn't need to know the debate over whether she had been kissed or not and how badly she dresses. I wonder had she been a really pretty young woman would she have got as much press attention as she has had? I think we all know the answer to this is likely to be no. She probably would have gone through a few rounds, maybe making the semi-final, released a single, an album that your grandma would like and dissapeared into obscuirty until she went off the rails and ended up on more reality tv. Susan Boyle though seems to be destined to be the nations favourite to win this competition but surely after that she will just dissapear forever. Will the nation still love her if she get popular? I'm going to go out and a limb and say no. At the moment she is an example, she has been put up on a pedastle as the ordinary women turned into a star. I feel sorry for her in a way, its very clear that the only reason she getting so much press is because she isnt the most attractive woman. I just went on her wikipedia page and initially I was horrified to find so much information about a woman who apppeared on out tv screens for a few minutes to sing a song on reality television. Back to my rant, so her popularity is based on being patronised, firstly by the judges, then by the public. Do we pity her because although she is only 48 I have seen pensioners who look younger and trendier than her? To be honest I was horrified the most by the apparent news that she had been critised for getting a makeover, the woman is in the public eye now and if thats what she wanted to do then so be it. I applaud her for doing so, its a vain industry and to be honest I think if she really wanted it enough before this well that makeover is well over due.
The next point that i wanted to make was the calibre of stars that come out of talent television programmes. It seems that year after year they produce artists who are disposible and quikly forgotten as soon as they have had their first number one single. There are really only two people/bands that I feel have broken this mould, Will Young and Girls aloud. I am happy to accept that there may be other but they are the first that came to mind. But it seems that every other contestant has faded in obscurity. So then I am lead to ask why on earth do people who claim that 'it is there dream to be a pop star' bother going on these programmes. Everyone knows thatby even appearing on them you smash all you hopes of being credible within the music industry and in the public eye and it seems that those bands and people who have gone beyond that have had to work hard to get there. But why not just get there by working hard in the first place? Is it just a need to be instantly famous and known. It would seem to me that all of the best artists would probably have never gotten through the first round of the xfactor auditions. True pioneers of music arent meant to be instantly understood in a 2 minute long acapella audition, I bet people like David Bowie would have been laughed out of the room. The programmes only provide a facility in which to create a repeatition of things we have already heard and is that what people really want?
I dont.
Music and Television,
t xx
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