to be amazed that something as psychologically manipulative as X Factor is allowed on air?

[moondog]

I've been watcihng it for the 1st time.
I can't beleive they are allowed to toy with people's lives like this, building them up, playing with them and then casting them aside.

What an unbelievably unpleasant concept.
I feel tainted for having watched it.

'My ugly best friend' was a classic.

ONE'S own talents. I cannot type.

Soul murder?

Ultimately, all those acts knew that one of them was going home last night. The fact that there were four of them instead of one didn't make that any more real.

I don't like the way the audition process works and I don't agree with using people for entertainment, not least because people with genuine talent are told they're not good enough in order to let that through.

But I actually think that the "dramatic twist" sent a very clear and very good message that "this is the music industry. It doesn't matter how good you are, there will be times when you will not be good enough. If you want to make it in the music industry you have to take criticism, and be knocked back time and time and time again." That is life. We need to get past this idea that people can walk straight into a career in the music industry - they can't. If those acts last night couldn't hack being sent home then they should rethink whether they actually want to be in that industry, because music is 99% rejection before you get to acceptance.

But what about the winners! Will no-one think about the winners!!

Because, actually, many many of X-factors successful acts come from the runners-up. JLS, G4, Liberty X to name but three. If the public end up voting for someone who has the likeability factor (ooh, get me going all Louis there) they sometimes pick winners - Joe McElderberry, Steve Brookstein, the one from East Kilbride who loved his mammy - who have completely forgettable recording voices and who don't fit into the label. So they have their contract for a year and get quietly dropped.

So just being on can be a stepping stone to a far, far better career than the winner. Of course, that is no consolation when your soul's been murdered, but the money is probably quite nice.

Soul murder, God yes.
There's been many contestants over the years that have murdered a perfectly good Soul song. They usually get voted out though.
Then there are others who just nail it.
Bingo

I must admit Lady that's how I read that comment too and spent a fruitless 5 minutes running over the songs from Sat as I didn't remember any soul

I agree.

I think far too many people don't want to accept the sheer brutality of the entertainment industry/arts world.

It's really really tough. You have to be able to take the constant judgement and rejection.
That's the job description.

People have to mock and belittle those of us who findnit distasteful because otherwise they would have to qcceptthat they like laughing at the sad, the deluded and the mentally ill.

Who was sad, or ill or deluded on last night's show seeker ?

Seriously who?

That's right, seeker. None of us actually enjoy watching people singing/performing.

The truth is that neither seeker nor princess watched it did they?

So they have no idea what happened. They have simply picked up some outrage from someone else who didn't watch it.

In reality no one last night was sad, or ill or deluded.

I watch the main shows because by that stage the people are usually there willingly and know what they are in it for and usually have a career beckoning.

Dd loves it and enjoys every part from the song choices, the dancing, the competition etc.

But I do dislike the early rounds. People can be sneery about that, call it middle class, do going but I think it is more than uncomfortable to contemplate watching someone who has issues being set up to be laughed at.

That is not to say someone with mental health issue or special needs should not be permitted to compete. But let us not pretend that pushing someone through the early rounds when they clearly have no talent and lack the resources to process that truth is anything other than mean.

If that happens to someone who is pretty, 22 and has a job and a loving family then they may shrug it off. If they live alone, have no job, clearly would be regarded by most of the world as 'odd' then it is nasty.
I don't think it anymore complicated than that.

Oh and no one was laughed at.

but look at the music industry.

Look at how many people in the music industry have issues.

Amy Winehouse
Kerry Katona
Michael Jackson
Robby Williams

All had substance abuse issues. All have undoubtedly had some mental health issues. And yet all (perhaps with the exception of Kerry Katona) are hugely successful musicians, and there are so many more where they came from.

All have been ridiculed at some point, either publically or in the press. You can't tell me that people who went to watch Amy Winehouse in the past three years did so purely for her talent - most will have gone to see whether she was drunk/stoned/would do drugs on stage/walk out halfway through as had become customary.

People don't buy hello/ok/heat magazine to read about Kerry Katona's career - they buy it to read about her latest stint in rehab/latest boyfriend/episode in the saga that is her carcrash life.

People look at Robby Williams on stage and immediately start to talk about how his eyes were rolling/how he looked as if he were on something.

And let's not even start on Michael Jackson.

Ridiculing those particular musicians is no different to ridiculing someone before they've become famous - in fact it's probably worse because they can't disappear back into obscurity. And yet we all do it - without exception - I imagine there are even some on this thread who are having a go at xfactor but who would happily call an already established celebrity a c*nt or make a comment about the way they rolled their eyes/dressed etc.

No one's mocking or belittling anyone - people on this thread or people on the X Factor.

Oh, wannaBe, Bravo! You've put in to words what my clearly feeble intellect was unable to :o

Yes, why is it all right for celebrities already in the limelight to be ridiculed?

As I understand it, the one questionable audition (Ceri Rees) has been picked up by Ofcom and is being investigated. That was the thicko X-Factor viewers who called on that, because they weren't happy watching it. She doubtless has SN or MH issues, it is not clear which and she shouldn't have been put through.

However, it's unfair to say that viewers are actively baying for this type of thing, because we're not. Yes, it can be funny to watch someone singing wildly out of tune (provided they have no issues and are merely blind to their limitations as a singer) but like I said earlier, it also nice to see ordinary people with good voices audition.

I think a lot of the terrible ones from the auditions go on knowingly because they want to get on television for the laughs.

Crap, Wannabe.
I loved Amy Winehouse for her music and talent, not because of wanting to see her fall so tragically.

I must be a bit odd. I don't think I have ever commented upon those four in terms criticising them because of their mental health.

I slightly objected to Michael Jackson because of the whole being a pedophile thing but I don't lob stuff at people because of their mental health even if they are famous.

But I also don't buy hello or closer. I am not interested in Kerry katona because I don't see her doing anything.

I think assuming everyone who likes Amy wine house and Robbie Williams has a ghoulish side is a bit far.

maybe you did.

But when Amy Winehouse played did the media report on how good she was? Or did they report that she was drunk (again) taking drugs (again) and seemed totally out of it?

When Michael Jackson announced his tour dates was it all about how wonderful he was going to be? or about how no-one could foresee that he could ever possibly do it in the state he was in, with there even being some suggestion that the whole performance would be mimed? Especially when some of the dates were put back early on and further speculation followed.

Some people will blindly follow an act for their music alone without any thought about their private life. But most don't.

It's fake and pantomime and not even remotely entertaining.
I am sick to death of being subjected to mindnumbing conversations at my PIL house about X-Factor and who's fallen out with who.
Every year SIL drones about some amazing talent who ends up with one warbley durge in the charts then bogs off to the back page of Heat magazine.
Simon Cowell has ruined television. Thanks to him everything is a competion with fake tension, and I can also never forgive him for bringing Power Rangers to the UK.

What Pag said, absolutely, says what I am trying to say much more eloquently, damn her

Has anyone said x factor viewers are thickos? At best I would say different tastes and priorities to me.

'And yet we all do it - without exception - I imagine there are even some on this thread who are having a go at xfactor but who would happily call an already established celebrity a c*nt or make a comment about the way they rolled their eyes/dressed etc.'

I honestly don't think I would do that: I did object to MJ becuase let's face it a LOT of dodgy things seemed to go on during eeh trial for those who like me are old enough to remember the whole thing. But only that and then: I work hard NOT to make points like that about people, not an easy thing in our society and I fail at times but I try my absolute hardest.

Someone gave me a copy of Hello a while back as part of a birthday relax kit: apart from an interesting article about the life of Estee Lauder I didn't recognise anyone in there: I was almost disappointed, I thought it was my time to get with the program but oh no. Was a bizarre experience: I guess you either get it or you do not.

Anybody who likes Robbie Williams is clearly deluded.

You know I honestly don't remember any media reports about Amy or MJ in the last few years until their deaths (was away when Amy died, we kept wondering why the entertainments team was playing her music back to back). I read teletext until we lost the remote control, and we watch newsnight sometimes but otherwise we have spent the last year or so in a vaccuum I think. Less scary.

Of course it's pantomime, that's one of the reasons it's so enjoyable.
So we can boo the ones we hate and cheer on the ones we like.
And no, apart from Leona, and Will Young from Pop Idol, the winner doesn't usually last at the top for long.
But then there's always next year and the fun starts again.
Nothing wrong with Panto.
I love settling down on a Saturday night with a bottle of wine, The X Factor and of course the X Factor thread, which appears to be one of the fastest moving on MN.