Factory Records

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Discussion on another LJ reminded me that we've not talked about the X Factor yet this year on Poptimists. This seems remiss, since it'll produce at least one enormous hit before 2009's end and - if it does it's job - a viable pop star for a couple years' more.

Also I have actually been watching this year and I'm too ashamed to Twitter about it. We're down to 10 contestants which seems acceptably POLL-sized to me. Kandy Rain's bold attempt at UK ho'n'B was first out, and last weekend that ridiculous kid in the hat was rightly removed. So who's left? And - from our point of view - who might actually make good pop records (as good as "Bad Boys" say, let's not aim too high)? You may have as many ticks as you want.

[Poll #1474745]

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I can't remember which one out of Lucie or Rachel is the good one?

Stacey annoys me even more than the twins I think - X Factor is all about giving it WELLY and she barely has enough for a FLIPFLOP.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I quite like Stacey but I can't BELIEVE I hadn't made the Peggy connection until graciousviv just pointed it out!

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

Lucie's the Welsh one who sang I Will Always Love You at her audition. She's been okay in the live rounds, but not great - Simon disliked Dannii giving her a Leona song (Footprints in the Sand) when she couldn't contort her voice into Leona-esque peaks at the end of the song.

Rachel, I barely remember from the auditions. She went first in week one which, I think, probably did hurt her. Her performance in week one was quite good (although she nearly fell off a perspex staircase). Then she was in the bottom two (and Kandy Rain went, on the public vote). This week, she sang If I Were a Boy and was reasonably weak, I felt. She sang for survival and Rikki with the freaky eyebrows went out.

Week 1, for me it should have been Kandy Rain and the Twins. Week 2, it should have been the Twins and Rikki. However, the Twins seemed destined to stick around to annoy Simon like the McDonald brothers did, despite being vocally quite poor. I'm sure Simon is reasonably happy with that happening so long as a) it means they get lots of phone voters and b) someone else wins.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes Simon wants the Twins to stay in as much as anyone voting for them, at least up to the point where (like Sad Widower last year) they threaten people who might potentially win it. It has to be said my toddler loves them and dances about the room on their routines, so good for them. Plenty of slack to be cut out before they go.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Ho ho.

[graciousviv.livejournal.com]

The one that sounds like peggy "I want to be a yellow coat" (have only caught 5 mins of the whole thing this year.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I have no objection to X Factor. I only wish ITV could find something more interesting with which to fill their schedules, whilst allowing this kind of talent search to continue behind closed doors as it always has done in the past.

For me, one of the beautiful things about first discovering a new pop star is that I don't have any emotional baggage with them - I don't know that artist's entire life story when I first hear their voice on the radio, or on a friend's CD player.

But then, many millions of Britons suggest I'm in the minority.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The object of X-Factor isn't to produce pop stars, of course!

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? As someone who avoids the show like the plague, maybe I'm missing something, but I thought that was exactly the point. Isn't it essentially focus groups for new artists on a massive scale?

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

The real point is to make money and provide a vehicle for Simon Cowell's ego. Significant phone voting revenue, significant ad revenue, rapidly selling Christmas number ones etc. do that just fine without the need to actually find a pop star with any quality or longevity.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well, I was thinking - marginally less cynically I guess - that the point is to create a compelling game show that sustains the interest over 12 weeks. What you get on the X-Factor isn't a launchpad for a career, it's a super-compressed career in itself - a narrative arc of stardom and failure. The winner (and the one or two other viable contestants maybe) then have a career which can't possibly match that intensity of emotion and narrative, so they quickly fade away.

[koganbot]

I wouldn't say that Leona Lewis has faded away. And isn't Shayne Ward still in business?

The fading away significantly hasn't happened for some of the winners and also-rans on American Idol and on one or more of the other American talent shows: Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Chris Daughtry are massive, while Miranda Lambert (third place on Nashville Star), Jordin Sparks, Jennifer Hudson, and Kellie Pickler have viable careers, and Fantasia and David Cook are still in there pitching, and Kat McPhee and Brooke White and David Archuleta aren't yet altogether out of it (too early to tell about Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert, and Kris Allen from last year); there are possibly several more in country whom I don't know about who came up through AI or some other talent show (Caitlin & Will, winner of CMT's Can You Duet, did one of my country singles of the year, "Even Now," but neither of their singles did well enough to get their album released, and they parted ways with their label and with each other).

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I like Stacey a lot, when she goes from her good singing to that overexcited Essex girl chatter. Actually I like quite a few of them - Joe and Danyl are the ones with the most likely popstar futures, I think.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

We're big fans of Stacey in our house for the chatter also.

[koganbot]

Have listened to one each from all but the Twins and Ollie and Jamie, and they all seem more or less cut from the same cloth of respectability plus chops, which certainly hasn't always been the case here in America on American Idol.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

I actually want the Twins to win. This show is getting tired and them winning would underline it. But they are by far the most entertaining act. There is no one who is exceptional and the pushing of a solo male to win this year after Leona/Alexandra is completely cynical. I'm disheartened that Dany has received so many votes.