Are TV Talent Shows Killing Pop Music?

[Pip Madeley]

An interesting view from MSN.com's Tom Townshend...

At the time of writing there sits - at number one in the charts and at number one in our hearts - Leona Lewis, winner of last year's X Factor and set to be a very big international star over the coming year. And while there's normally no shortage of detractors decrying those whose fleeting fame was decided by phone ballot, no one seems to mind Leona. Despite coming from the critically frowned upon reality TV show format, people who'd cross the road to spit in Journey South's chiselled faces are wishing her well. Because, to quote the received wisdom, "she's got real talent." Even over at the Spice Girls fan forum, they're happy to concede that she deserves to be higher in the charts than their returning heroines, again because "she's got talent." The public have decided and they have decided this is her moment.

And it's shows like X Factor, its predecessor Pop Idol and the not-on-anymore Fame Academy that have defined this very notion of talent so that almost all music we listen to, subconsciously or not, now passes through our own internal judging panel. There's a little Louis Walsh in all of us. This is a terrible state of affairs since it is essentially leading to the death of pop in all but name. Where once the class loner/show off/freak could take their aspirations and turn them into big shiny musical dreams, uninhibited by classical concepts of ability and therefore free to dazzle, challenge and shock. Now, one has to perform Olympian feats of vocal prowess, all the while being followed by cameras to capture your mad granny's every shriek of gum-bearing delight as you graduate to the next stage of the competition (thanks to the previous contestant being outed as a violent 47-year-old drug mule).

And the result has been, for the most part, a bland, homogenised product with a heartlessly short shelf life (where art Danny from Hear'say now?). And while exception-that-proves-the-rule, Girls Aloud, are left to carry the flickering torch for what we remember as pop, the rest of the music industry, in reaction to the transparency of the reality TV process, delivers us a host of uninspired, identikit, but most definitely 'real' groups, playing in what's become paradoxically known as the 'indie' style, elevated to a status above and beyond anything their dismal output deserves, merely for what they represent.

The concept of 'alternative' music is literally back with a vengeance. And the ugly carnage of the war is Fearne Cotton waxing lyrical on Radio One over 'new music' because, to her, a crappy band from MySpace is worth a million Michelle McManuses (that is unless she's presenting the ITV2 coverage, of course). Add to that the unstoppable proliferation of singer songwriters following in the drippy footsteps of James Blunt and Katie Melua who, when compared to Ray Quinn (and his junior swing) take on Dylanesque like importance in a musical world perceived, wrongly, by the general public to be dominated by talent show wannabes, manipulated by a sneering, comedy trouser-wearing svengali.

And the mentors themselves aren't immune to the whiff of authenticity. Remember Sharon Osbourne fawning over the raw rock power of Tabby? Or that buffoon Peter Brame, flidding about the Fame Academy stage like Thom Yorke trying to scratch an unreachable itch? Vocal coach Carrie Grant could barely contain her joy at his bringing such tangible credibility to their television programme. These people will soil every musical concept you hold dear. It can only be a matter of time before an X Factor boy band performs an a cappella reading of 'Up The Bracket' and an entire generation of indie kids commit hara-kiri in despair. But even to the purest of musical souls, these shows are addictive. Perhaps we only tune in to howl with derision at the self-deluded, semi-autistic, tone-deaf auditionees. Maybe we only watch for the dry-as-dust Cowell put-downs and find ourselves inadvertently hooked by the soap opera of it all.

Full article here. So do you agree? Are TV talent shows ruining pop music as we know it? If these shows were around in the past, would we have voted for singers like Bob Dylan, Jarvis Cocker, David Bowie, Liam Gallagher, Johnny Rotten & John Lennon? I think they'd all have been out in boot camp.

[Milky Tears]

Fuller & Cowell have raped almost the entire UK/US entertainment industry. Shooting's too good for them!

[Si Hunt]

And the result has been, for the most part, a bland, homogenised product with a heartlessly short shelf life (where art Danny from Hear'say now?).

Er... but where art Myleene from Hear'say and Kym Marsh from Hear'say now? One of the most employed and popular TV presenters and a genuinely important star of the countrys top Soap Opera respectively.

They picked a bad example - half of Hear'say have gone on to very promising careers.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

Notably neither of which are predominantly musical. They had to adapt to survive.

[WhiteCrow]

Lets face it with the recent scandals over phone voting, it's highly likely that the "Contestant Picked By The Nation" is nothing of the sort, so just an absolute sham and a mockery.

Okay this kind of reality TV is cheap telly, but c'mon the same dross has been repeated now for 7/8 years and it's getting extremely tired now. The judges "drama" in this season has been frankly just a joke, kind of reminiscent of how wrestlers pad out a program by posturing and badmouthing each other.