X Factor thoughts!
So, I am determined to simply enjoy the X Factor this year. It seems to me that they are paying only lip service to the very idea that it is a "talent show" for "real people" - perhaps it once was, but it hasn't been for a while. It's an entertainment show, meant to be good TV, using little-known professionals and stage school kids, that makes large amounts of money from phone votes. (The people who start FB groups saying "vote for X, not Y, to piss Simon off!!!!!!!!" crack me up; do they really think he cares who wins, as long as the phone votes come rolling in?)
It's also never about real people - because untrained people generally can't perform very well. Instead it's gigging pub/club singers with a day job, or stage school kids. I read an article with last year's winner Joe McNobodycaresnow and it mentioned in pasing that he "had been portrayed as a normal lad from South Shields but was actually a student at Y stageschool" - this time last year that would have made headlines, but no-one cares any more. This year, things like Katie the Goblin having a recording contract, and Mary "I work in Tesco and have no confidence honest...oh, apart from that singing contest I won on Irish TV a couple of years ago" do irk me because they smack of dishonesty, and a fix - the "real" people are there to be mocked in the auditions, and that's about it. Still, they choose to be there...
So! This year I am viewing it as a show that is about entertainment first and foremost. The acts are mostly gimmicks - and why not. Last year was DULL. After Jamie Afro left, Garry and I (who are scarily good barometers for the Mood of the Nation) got a bit bored, as there was no-one interesting left. The Girls choices this year were really non-controversial if you look at it from the viewpoint of entertainment and making money - the girls with big voices didn't make it because we've seen it all before. Talented yes, interesting, no. But will people pick up the phone in their thousands to "get rid of Katie", and possibly Diva Fever? Yes, yes they will. Ka-ching, go the Producers, as they make the judges keep them in another week because they "deserve another chance" or "had the wrong song".
The judging is funny too. The judges tell the public who to vote for, and mind-bogglingly, it works. Last week, Belle Amie were truly, shockingly awful. They were out of tune and didn't know what they were doing; some of them even forgot the words on camera. Yet because the judges didn't say that, people appear not to have noticed, and voted for them because they were "so promising", while the one really good group of those who got through, got voted out. This baffles me.
A real bugbear of mine however is their refusal to use the word "gay". Many of the acts are obviously and openly gay - Diva Fever, Aiden, probably Nicolo at least - yet the word is never used on the show. The staging is camp beyond belief; I have never seen such a Fabulous show as last week's (it was great!) but still they do not use the word "gay". Ever. This suggests to me something like "don't ask, don't tell", as though it's something to be ashamed of and kept hidden. I'm sure advocates would say things like "you can't say 'gay' on a family show" - but that implies being gay is all about sex acts, which is just mind-bogglingly ignorant. Bottom line, if you can show a boy's girlfriend, you can show his boyfriend without referring to him as a "housemate"(who you live with, with your Jack Russell....). The producers probably think they are being progressive by putting acts like Diva Fever through to the live shows, but all they're doing is perpetuating the idea that "gay" and "camp" are synonymous and that "gay" isn't a word for family TV. The whole attitude of "we'll let you onto our show as long as you play by our rules" smacks to me something akin to "OK black people, we'll let you on the same bus as the white people, but you have to sit at the back. See how open and tolerant we are to share our buses with you!" Bring on the gay version of Rosa Parks.
Hmm, this was meant to be a post about how the X Factor has gone so completely fake and gimmick that I'm just going to enjoy it, and it's ended up being a rant about it being so fake gimmicky. Oops :-) And yet, I have to say, I still love watching it. I love hurling abuse as the real talent is shown the door. I love watching the judges tell the acts how amazingly original their version of a song is, when I've seen the same version on American Idol two years previously. But one thing I will never, ever do again, is pick up the phone and give the show a penny of my money. And thus, one tiny part of my woefully-shrivelled integrity can remain intact :-)