I seem to have written an essay about the X Factor.
I like The Voice. Yeah, I said it! Booyah!
I don't know if anyone else's been watching it? I was sceptical at the start and purposefully missed the first episode, thinking it was going to be another X Factor. But after a couple of weeks watching it properly, I'm oddly impressed. There are many, MANY reasons why I detest the X Factor with every core of my being, but The Voice seems to have taken each of those reasons and either tamed them down or found ways around them.
The X Factor's based SO much on humiliation and embarrassment. The first few auditions are always more about poking fun at the poor members of the public who want to live out their dreams than actually finding and nurturing a talent. And yes, usually they are terrible singers and they are deluded when they think they can become the next Whitney Houston... But they don't deserve to be ridiculed by rich, pompous celebrities for having a dream.... Right? This is always one of the things that pisses me off about Cowell-produced shows. Britain's Got Talent is exactly the same. But! The Voice seems to have managed to do away with that whole element, which I'm extremely pleased about. They don't broadcast the bad acts on purpose to get a few laughs at their expense. They only show the good acts - the ones that can actually sing. There are no embarrassing insults, either. How many times have you heard Cowell say "You are by far the worst act I've ever seen in my life" to some poor woman who took a chance? I've not heard one statement like that so far on the BBC's alternative. They give constructive criticism instead. So, points for you there, BBC!
Another thing that pisses me off about the X Factor is the way they introduce and show the judges. Like they've been dropped from heaven on their little angel wings - they're not just people who've done well in the music business - they're superhuman beings that you and I have to beg and grovel to if we ever want even a sliver of a chance at becoming successful. They hold all the power. Even though yes, in the X Factor the audience/viewers do vote (something we have yet to see in The Voice UK), the judges are still treated as though they're mini gods - like Roman emperors sat watching entertainment at the expense of others. The cameras follow them into the dressing room and we hear them bitch about each other and other performers... We see them getting out of their stretch limos to the sound of thousands of people screaming like Jesus just came back... The lucky contestants that make it through the ridiculing get sent to the judges' multi-million pound mansions/castles for a glimpse of what they're being tempted with, but will never achieve...It makes me furious XD. Whereas in The Voice (so far at least), it's all been rather understated. We're not reintroduced to the judges every ten minutes, we don't see them behaving like children throwing glasses of water over each other, they're not shown to be in ridiculously overblown positions of power. And one other thing I like about this is that they actually give some of the power back to the performer. On the X Factor singers get put with one of the judges and they have no say in it. But on The Voice, as long as more than one judge turns around and expresses interest, it's then up to the judge to show the performer what they can do for him/her. The performer is able to choose the mentor that they feel would be most beneficial to them. It turns this whole power thing on its head, making the judges the ones who're hoping the contestant will pick them instead of the other way around - the artist is able to make informed choices, and I like that.
Thirdly, one problem I have with the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent is the way that so much of it is based on physical appearance. Last night on Britain's Got Talent, Amanda Holden said 'yes' to one act before they'd even performed because all the men had their shirts off. Acts that have actually probably taken a lot of time to put together (even if they're not of the best quality) get buzzed off the stage mid-performance, while some woman can get on the stage and strip all her clothes off and nobody'll buzz - because it's sexy and it looks good. Not because it requires the same amount of talent as, say... training a dog to perform a complex routine, or learning to juggle fire and knives. And in the case of Susan Boyle, yes - okay, she was initially harshly pre-judged and she did become succesful afterwards, but not before becoming the butt of thousands of hurtful jokes that are still made today in plenty of comedy shows. She may be a star now, but that did come at a heavy price. And the only reason for these jokes are her looks. On the X Factor, Simon regularly tells people that they look awful or that their image isn't right for the industry. Guess what, Simon - not everybody needs to look slick and plastic to sound good. On The Voice, all the auditions are blind. The judges have to make their choice on whether to commit to the artist based purely on song choice and their sound. They don't have the chance to be influenced by someone for being 'too short' or 'too fat' or 'not pretty enough'. Once they press their button and turn around, they've committed to giving that person a chance no matter what they physically look like. Now, of course I'm aware that there must've been some pre-show auditions too during which some performers were weedled out, so I can't say how much looks-discrimination happens during those... But when you consider that before even the first set of auditions shown on the X Factor happen, there's ALREADY been auditions beforehand to pick the people that get to be seen on TV, you realise - Any 'bad' or 'image-incorrect' contestants that appear on the broadcast have been selected purely so they can be told on national TV that they don't have a chance - not in private as they probably deserve.
Also, the airing time. Christmas number one - who remembers when it used to be exciting waiting to see what would win that particular competition? I do, just barely. Before X Factor came along and swamped the chart every christmas time with over-melodramatic covers of songs we've all heard a million times - with music videos set in black and white with footage of Simon swaggering around in his mansion, intercut with footage of the winner sobbing in a heap on the floor being drowned by confetti. And even worse nowadays - the covers that the X Factor singers are being made to release are songs that were even released that SAME YEAR. Songs that were originally recorded with live instruments, violins, real drums, actual guitars.... These are now being released with cheap computerised GarageBand-sounding backing tracks, where every drumbeat sounds identical and the violins are replaced with depthless synthesized drones. That's what the X Factor's done to the Christmas number one. At least The Voice, if it's taking place now, won't interfere with this. We still have to see what happens when a winner's announced - it could be a case of badly arranged GarageBand covers again, but with Will.I.Am and Jessie J in charge, I doubt that'll happen somehow.
The Voice does have its own problems though, I'll give it that. The judges can only choose ten acts each, which means that if you perform during the start of the audition process you have a much higher chance of being selected, regardless of your talent level. Whereas towards the end when judges have only two or three spaces left each, they're much more likely to hold back on pressing the button. That is a problem, but I don't know how they'd resolve that, really. But so far I've been very impressed with the way the The Voice has taken (whether on purpose or not) the majority of the X Factor's failings and improved upon them. I know that The Voice was in America before it was in the UK, so this may not have been an intentionally direct response to the X Factor... But the fact remains that the BBC adapted it for the UK, despite knowing how successful the embarrassment and ego-driven Cowell alternative was, and not being afraid to try and rival it with something a little less degrading and humiliating for everyone involved.
So yes! That's my two cents on that particular subject. And I can't believe what started as a mini rant actually turned into almost 1,500 words of X Factor essay XD
I don't know if anyone else's been watching it? I was sceptical at the start and purposefully missed the first episode, thinking it was going to be another X Factor. But after a couple of weeks watching it properly, I'm oddly impressed. There are many, MANY reasons why I detest the X Factor with every core of my being, but The Voice seems to have taken each of those reasons and either tamed them down or found ways around them.
The X Factor's based SO much on humiliation and embarrassment. The first few auditions are always more about poking fun at the poor members of the public who want to live out their dreams than actually finding and nurturing a talent. And yes, usually they are terrible singers and they are deluded when they think they can become the next Whitney Houston... But they don't deserve to be ridiculed by rich, pompous celebrities for having a dream.... Right? This is always one of the things that pisses me off about Cowell-produced shows. Britain's Got Talent is exactly the same. But! The Voice seems to have managed to do away with that whole element, which I'm extremely pleased about. They don't broadcast the bad acts on purpose to get a few laughs at their expense. They only show the good acts - the ones that can actually sing. There are no embarrassing insults, either. How many times have you heard Cowell say "You are by far the worst act I've ever seen in my life" to some poor woman who took a chance? I've not heard one statement like that so far on the BBC's alternative. They give constructive criticism instead. So, points for you there, BBC!
Another thing that pisses me off about the X Factor is the way they introduce and show the judges. Like they've been dropped from heaven on their little angel wings - they're not just people who've done well in the music business - they're superhuman beings that you and I have to beg and grovel to if we ever want even a sliver of a chance at becoming successful. They hold all the power. Even though yes, in the X Factor the audience/viewers do vote (something we have yet to see in The Voice UK), the judges are still treated as though they're mini gods - like Roman emperors sat watching entertainment at the expense of others. The cameras follow them into the dressing room and we hear them bitch about each other and other performers... We see them getting out of their stretch limos to the sound of thousands of people screaming like Jesus just came back... The lucky contestants that make it through the ridiculing get sent to the judges' multi-million pound mansions/castles for a glimpse of what they're being tempted with, but will never achieve...It makes me furious XD. Whereas in The Voice (so far at least), it's all been rather understated. We're not reintroduced to the judges every ten minutes, we don't see them behaving like children throwing glasses of water over each other, they're not shown to be in ridiculously overblown positions of power. And one other thing I like about this is that they actually give some of the power back to the performer. On the X Factor singers get put with one of the judges and they have no say in it. But on The Voice, as long as more than one judge turns around and expresses interest, it's then up to the judge to show the performer what they can do for him/her. The performer is able to choose the mentor that they feel would be most beneficial to them. It turns this whole power thing on its head, making the judges the ones who're hoping the contestant will pick them instead of the other way around - the artist is able to make informed choices, and I like that.
Thirdly, one problem I have with the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent is the way that so much of it is based on physical appearance. Last night on Britain's Got Talent, Amanda Holden said 'yes' to one act before they'd even performed because all the men had their shirts off. Acts that have actually probably taken a lot of time to put together (even if they're not of the best quality) get buzzed off the stage mid-performance, while some woman can get on the stage and strip all her clothes off and nobody'll buzz - because it's sexy and it looks good. Not because it requires the same amount of talent as, say... training a dog to perform a complex routine, or learning to juggle fire and knives. And in the case of Susan Boyle, yes - okay, she was initially harshly pre-judged and she did become succesful afterwards, but not before becoming the butt of thousands of hurtful jokes that are still made today in plenty of comedy shows. She may be a star now, but that did come at a heavy price. And the only reason for these jokes are her looks. On the X Factor, Simon regularly tells people that they look awful or that their image isn't right for the industry. Guess what, Simon - not everybody needs to look slick and plastic to sound good. On The Voice, all the auditions are blind. The judges have to make their choice on whether to commit to the artist based purely on song choice and their sound. They don't have the chance to be influenced by someone for being 'too short' or 'too fat' or 'not pretty enough'. Once they press their button and turn around, they've committed to giving that person a chance no matter what they physically look like. Now, of course I'm aware that there must've been some pre-show auditions too during which some performers were weedled out, so I can't say how much looks-discrimination happens during those... But when you consider that before even the first set of auditions shown on the X Factor happen, there's ALREADY been auditions beforehand to pick the people that get to be seen on TV, you realise - Any 'bad' or 'image-incorrect' contestants that appear on the broadcast have been selected purely so they can be told on national TV that they don't have a chance - not in private as they probably deserve.
Also, the airing time. Christmas number one - who remembers when it used to be exciting waiting to see what would win that particular competition? I do, just barely. Before X Factor came along and swamped the chart every christmas time with over-melodramatic covers of songs we've all heard a million times - with music videos set in black and white with footage of Simon swaggering around in his mansion, intercut with footage of the winner sobbing in a heap on the floor being drowned by confetti. And even worse nowadays - the covers that the X Factor singers are being made to release are songs that were even released that SAME YEAR. Songs that were originally recorded with live instruments, violins, real drums, actual guitars.... These are now being released with cheap computerised GarageBand-sounding backing tracks, where every drumbeat sounds identical and the violins are replaced with depthless synthesized drones. That's what the X Factor's done to the Christmas number one. At least The Voice, if it's taking place now, won't interfere with this. We still have to see what happens when a winner's announced - it could be a case of badly arranged GarageBand covers again, but with Will.I.Am and Jessie J in charge, I doubt that'll happen somehow.
The Voice does have its own problems though, I'll give it that. The judges can only choose ten acts each, which means that if you perform during the start of the audition process you have a much higher chance of being selected, regardless of your talent level. Whereas towards the end when judges have only two or three spaces left each, they're much more likely to hold back on pressing the button. That is a problem, but I don't know how they'd resolve that, really. But so far I've been very impressed with the way the The Voice has taken (whether on purpose or not) the majority of the X Factor's failings and improved upon them. I know that The Voice was in America before it was in the UK, so this may not have been an intentionally direct response to the X Factor... But the fact remains that the BBC adapted it for the UK, despite knowing how successful the embarrassment and ego-driven Cowell alternative was, and not being afraid to try and rival it with something a little less degrading and humiliating for everyone involved.
So yes! That's my two cents on that particular subject. And I can't believe what started as a mini rant actually turned into almost 1,500 words of X Factor essay XD