Has X Factor Killed The Music Industry ?: Once every year at the end of August a TV singingc...

2011-10-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

Has X Factor Killed The Music Industry ?: Once every year at the end of August a TV singingc...: Once every year at the end of August a TV singing contest comes around to be viewed to the public known as the X Factor . In 2009 one of...

2011-10-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

Once every year at the end of August a TV singing contest comes around to be viewed to the public known as the X Factor.

In 2009 one of biggest competitive battle in years took place for the Christmas number one. The two artists that were battling for Christmas number one where Joe Mc Elderry with the song The Climb who was the winner of X Factor 2009 and Rage against the Machine with one of their biggest tracks Killing in the Name. The whole event started when a couple Jon and Tracy Morter setup a Facebook campaign designed to prevent another X Factor number one. It ended up favouring Rage against the Machine who became Christmas number one for 2009 in the U.K beating Joe Mc Elderry by more than 50,000 downloads. Zack de la Rocha the lead singer of Rage against the Machine had said on a Radio 1 chart show "We are very, very ecstatic about being number one." He added it was an "incredible organic grassroots campaign". "It says more about the spontaneous action taken by young people throughout the UK to topple this very sterile pop monopoly". [1] The Christmas number ones has always been a big thing for people and if it ends up with the X Factor having the number one hit year after year it is going to attract some kind of public attention. So does it have an effect every year at Christmas since the birth of X-Factor well yes and no, if we are to look at all the wrong reasons this is definitely a bad time of the year for artists to release their song, and the race between artists is no longer there which was what the Christmas number 1 was all about but if you still believe that its killed the Christmas number ones, the world is most definitely a better place without Mr Blobby who had a Christmas number 1 in 1993, now for all the right reasons the same amount of singles are still being released at Christmas from artists even with the odds stacked against them, it also encourages people to buy music and artists use the show to boost their own careers are maybe clinch the Christmas number 1 slot [2]. There has always been speculation about the show killing Christmas number ones and destroying the music industry.
Back in 2004 Ozzy Osbourne was interviewed on a radio station Plant Rock and wasn’t afraid to speak his mind even though his wife was a judge on the talent show saying “it’s killing music and it traumatises its contestants” he also added "It's about killing music to make light entertainment. It should be about music and talent but it's not."[3] As well Charlotte Church has also spoke up and said that X Factor is killing music and has no interest in true craftsmanship or skill, she also quoted "its dreadful news for everyone else because there's no room on radio or TV for anything else." She also had a dig at Simon Cowell saying she would make a better judge and knew more about the technical side of singing than any of the judges on the show including him. The Who frontman Roger Daltrey and Sir Elton John has also voice their opinions as well by saying that it’s not right to fill the charts with overnight sensations [4] specially when knocking someone else of the charts who have spent most of their life dedicating themselves to music to get where they are. American Idol is another TV singing contest show that Simon Cowell was previously part of, which has also had huge media attention. Brent Hansen, president and chief executive of MTV has said the music industry has suffered even more by the release of manufactured pop stars from the talent show and if we where to recover from the slump the music industry is in then we need to take ourselves away from instant pop and take time to build on a talent instead [5]. I recently done a bit of my own research by creating a web page on Facebook and ask twenty of my friends to comment on “Is TV Singing Contests Killing the Music Industry”. The majority had said yes it was killing the music industry with comments like it’s the death of originality; Simon Cowell is a one man music industry, and how it’s hijacking the charts special at Christmas. I also did another research by asking 10 X-factor fans questions about the show and asked 10 music students’ questions about the singing contest, why I picked X- Factor it’s the one we are most familiar with. Starting with the X-factor fans I asked them what makes X-factor so good the majority said good Saturday night entertainment and a chance for new talent to be discovered. I also asked them about the voting system they said they liked it because the public get to pick the winner of the show but also said every year there is a bad act like Jedward or Wagner that the public or the judges keep in which sends the good acts home so it does have its bad points to. When it came to asking about the comments from the judges about the contestants majority said 70% of the time we would agree with their comments and love the banter between the judges but the main question I wanted to ask them was X Factor killing the music industry majority replied and said no its good for the music industry because it increases record sales, raises money for charities, and a chance for record companies to discover upcoming talent. Asking the music students questions about X-factor was somewhat different the first question I asked was what makes it so good the majority said it’s not good it’s too commercial, killing original material and destroying the music industry. When asking about the voting system the majority hated it because if one night a week wasn’t enough they gone and put it on two nights in the one week with the voting on Sunday they also followed by saying the judges are so bias and are more interested in winning the contest and the comments the judges give out can sway the public into voting for their act but the main question was X Factor killing the music industry and the majority said yes because it creates instant popstars which are drop instantly if they are unsuccessful which has to be damaging for the music industry. Believe it are not when I asked ten X-factor fans to name four contestants who has won the X-factor only two people could name four, hence the word Instant Popstars who are then forgotten about. My personal opinion is quite negative about the show for number of reasons, the destruction of originality, manufactured popstars, and public humiliation of failed contestants and so on but it does bring a positive side to the music industry that are chart music fans. Since the start of the show millions of people have followed the contest every year watching singers hopefully for fill their dreams but the problem with this is most of the contestants that go on the show are looking for money or fame and are not shy to admit this on TV. But that’s the society we live in today the obsession for money, fame and celebrity culture. Maybe the show is a reflection of society and if you want things to be more real and less dramatised and money-orientated then we need to look to change society first.

However has this affected the music industry? Is X-factor destined to promote artists who will end up becoming one hit wonders. Well if you remember two of the previous winners from the show probably not Steve Brookstein and Leon Jackson who had very short careers, but for artists who had long careers that have nothing to do with singing contests there is all lot to be said. If you take at look at artists like Joss Stone, and Arctic Monkeys who became big stars by the public through the global community on the internet and was brought to the attention of record companies this is definitely a positive outlook that any TV singing contest can’t control web or how we follow music but it can have an effect on records sales within the charts. In an article in the Telegraph newspaper Chris Wright founder and chairman of Chrysalis Records had said the music industry hates X-Factor with a passion because artists like Bob Dylan are any well known artist struggle to break into the charts because of the logjam from overnight pop sensations which put serious pressure on the recording industry. Chris Wright who is a fan of the show says the production and singing is impressive but the show is not encouraging real talent to shine instead the contestants are competing against themselves which doesn’t show the true potential of the singer.[6] In 2008 Alexandra Burke who won the contest that year had just hit the record books for U.Ks fastest selling download of all time with the song Hallelujah which was wrote and sung by Leonard Cohen and also covered by a number of other artists from Bob Dylan to Jeff Buckley which had nowhere near as much success as Alexandra Burke my personal opinion I think Buckley’s version is much better. When Take That got back together in the same year and released their first track Greatest Day which became number 1 in the U.K charts and sold 9,448 downloads in the first day on the release of the song, Alexandra Burke sold 105,000 in her first day a massive difference, even the main contenders have trouble trying to compete with this. It just goes to show that X-Factor has a huge effect on overnight record sales.[7] On the other hand Simon Cowell thinks he saved the music industry which he said in an NME interview. He believes the music industry was at an all time low and with shows like X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent it got people interested in music again and was sending more people into record shops. He also followed on by saying they hadn’t seen this type of uplift in years and even all the critics that talked bad about the show saying it brings the worst in the music industry and the artists who appear on the show have very short careers said this is not really true some of those who appeared on the show have gone on to sell millions of albums all over the world like Susan Boyle and Leona Lewis.[8] But what happens to the runners up of the show. If we go back to 2004 the winner that year was Steve Brookstein and the runners up were G4. Brookstein was dropped by his record company 12 weeks after the show, G4 went on to release 2 platinum selling albums, and 5 sell out tours and bestselling autobiography. In 2007 the winner was Leon Jackson and the runner up was Rhydian Roberts. Jackson was dumped by his recorded company 3 months after the show while Rhydian released two bestselling albums and done a UK tour in 2009. In 2009 Joe McElderry was crowned winner, runner up was Olly Murs and in sixth place was Jeward. For now McElderry career dosent look to bright as for Olly Murs and Jeward they seem to have a more promising future. What this really tells us, winning the X-Factor doesn’t really make a difference it’s all about what Simon and his record label Syco Music thinks and how they can sell an act winner or runner up.

Conclusion

To come up with some kind of conclusion can be hard so this is where I leave it up to you by commenting Thanks.

[1]Rage against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8423340.stm

[2] Ozzy: X Factor is Killing Music. http://showbiz.sky.com/Ozzy-X-Factor-Is-Killing-Music

[3]Cowells The X Factor is killing Music, http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/church-cowells-the-x-factor-is-killing-music_1194692

[4] Cadorette, G, TV Pop Talent Killing Music Biz, http://www.hollywood.com/news/TV_Pop_Talent_Killing_Music_Biz/1732587

[5] Andrews, A, The X Factor is damaging the music industry, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/8209625/The-X-Factor-is-damaging-the-music-industry-says-Chrysalis-founder-Chris-Wright.html,

[6] Sharp, R, The Big Question: Is the influence of 'The X Factor' devaluing the Christmas No 1?, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-big-question-is-the-influence-of-the-x-factor-devaluing-the-christmas-no-1-765056.html,

[7] Schmidt, V, X Factor's Alexandra Burke breaks Leona Lewis record, http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article5351941.ece,

[8] Gorgan, E, I Saved the Music Industry, Simon Cowell Says in NME Interview, http://news.softpedia.com/news/I-Saved-the-Music-Industry-Simon-Cowell-Says-in-NME-Interview-129944.shtml