There are a lot of similarities, I've always thought, between The X-Factor and creative writing classes. Some people are truly terrible and, sadly, don't realise it. You read/listen to them and wonder if they have ever read a modern novel/listened to a genuinely good pop or rock artist in their lives. Some are okay but think that's enough and don't see the huge gulf between that and the standard required to be a professional. And a few are good, of whom maybe one or two a year have what it takes to turn it into a career at some point.
The X-Factor does uncover some talent, but it also fosters the idea that you can go from obscurity to mega-stardom in just a few weeks with relatively little effort - that you are there waiting to be "discovered", honed and shaped by a mentor who will do all the hard work. It gives younger people, especially, a very skewed idea of what any kind of creative industry is like, and just adds to the promotion of instant-gratification culture. The people who are really good at smooth commercial pop - Take That, Robbie, Kylie, the Pet Shop Boys, Girls Aloud - make it sound so easy and effortless, but it just shows how hard it is to get right. (Remember how many wannabe male soloists totally fail to get that high note on "Angels"?...)
Being in showbiz or being a writer, you need to work as hard at it as Olympic athletes do if you want to get to the top of the game. I've heard it said that the number of people making a living out of writing fiction full-time in the UK is about the same as the number of full-time athletes who don't need a secondary job to support them. I wonder what the figures are for musicians.
Must be a bit depressing, though, to be 24 and to be told you're too old to be a pop star. Most of today's big names were only just getting going in their early 20s, surely. It's odd they didn't mention that Nick guy was in the group Phixx (which the Popstars rejects formed). I mean, even I remember them and I don't really follow that kind of music - I quite liked their electro-pop-retro take on boy-band fodder, and I remember bouncing my daughter on my shoulders to them when they did the Sheffield Christmas Lights show in 2003! I think they had a Top Ten hit.
What always astonishes me is the people who have absolutely zero talent. Utterly self-deluded to the point of not understanding what singing actually is. Some of them genuinely are tone deaf. What makes them do it??! You imagine that, if you were to make a list of their talents, singing would be right at the bottom. It would be like me going in for "Footballer Idol"... And their families are there backing them up! Pleading with Simon & co. to "just give 'er a chaaaaaaance!" What's the point of giving someone who is totally talentless a "chance", when they'd be better off doing something completely different? It's a sad indictment of our "culture of entitlement" that people think they have some sort of right to instant fame.