Rage against the X Factor machine
Dec 20th, 2009 by admin
X Factor is a ‘let’s find a new singer star act’ here in the UK – think American Idol (both shows are, in fact, produced and run by Simon Cowell). The show has run for about six years now – and every year, the final show generates massive newsflow and ratings. The last show of the year is in early/mid December, and in every case the winner of that year’s edition has had the Number One song for Christmas. I didn’t know this, but apparently betting on which song will win the Number One slot for Christmas is apparently a decades-old UK tradition.
Well, some people have gotten sick of having each year’s Christmas song shoved down their throats. This year, there was a massive grass-roots movement to get an alternative song into the No. 1 slot – and they actually did it: Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’ is this year’s number one Christmas song beating out X Factor winner Joe McElderry’s song (‘The Climb’) by 50,000 copies.
‘Killing’ is great song – not sure how Christmas-y it is. But kind of a cool story, where the people actually beat out Simon Cowell’s corporate machine.
I personally hate this ‘manufactured star’ model. How many of these stars actually go on to have major careers? Here are the X Factor winners:
Steve Brookstein
Shayne Ward
Leona Lewis
Leon Jackson
Alexandra Burke
Joe McElderry
Here are the American Idol winners:
Kelly Clarkson
Ruben Studdard (Clay Aiken)
Fantasia Barrino
Carrie Underwood
Taylor Hicks
Jordin Sparks
David Cook
Kris Allen
Of these, the only ones I’ve actually heard of are Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Leona Lewis. I actually think Daughtry was the best act to come out of American Idol and he didn’t even make it to the finals. Not commercial enough, I guess. But the rest of those names? I mean, granted – I’m definitely not up on the modern pop scene (you know you’re getting old when you never know more than a couple of names in the weekly ‘Top Ten’ lists…and only when those acts are ‘revival’ acts from when you were in uni…). But still – I wouldn’t know any of the other names if they came up to me and introduced themselves on the street.
I think I’ll stick to acts like Jamie Cullum that made it on their own, with their own talent.