Does anyone else think that the judges/mentors are really limited in the songs that they choose, or let their acts perform. You rarely hear something unusual.

There were so many rock songs that could have been sung last night, but you get the same songs being repeated over and over again.

Is it lack of imagination or what?

Also, what's with all the U2?

Not sure. I was pleased that they let Rebecca sing a Stones number (and Matt did the Moody Blues), but you hardly see any of the acts do classic songs from the Stones/The Who/The Kinks/etc on a normal week.

Some acts don't allow the performance of their tracks on talent shows.

The Eagles blocked a theme night on AI series 1 (but subsequently enough money was paid for certain songs to be performed), Lou Reed blocked Susan Boyle singing Perfect Day on AI etc. There were problems with Donny Hathaway's 'A Song for You' on AI too - Eliot Yamin's audition could not be shown until they had secure rights - that only happened when his daughter (an AI backing singer) agreed to it.

You can't blame them really - some of the acts murder all time classics!! I think the 'top 100 songs' that contestants are allowed to perform at boot camp are chosen for a reason. They are either cheap to get rights to (as happens when the original songwriter has died) or composers have an agreed fee with ITV. The reason we have in the past had many 'Big Band' or Jazz standards is that most of the original songwriters are dead and the fees are cheap. Feelin' good gets covered every year at some point!

Good thread I was thiking of putting summat like this up.

The song choice element fascinates me in several ways.

1 - how much input does the act have in making the choice. Last night SC said Harry came up with Summer of 69. There were stories last year about bust ups with SC and two of his acts, danyl and Jamie IIRC about song choice but I might be wrong.
How many times does an act have a song 'forced' on them. An earlier thread said Storm had a load of ideas for songs that he wanted to do but LW wasnt keen, plus Storm mentioned some Annie Lennox material but LW said SC did not like her!

2 - The mentors role.
I assume the norm is for the mentor to tell the act what they are going to do. I think that under normal circumstances the act does not get much of a say.
How many times this series have you thought what a bad song choice even before the act does it?
This year I think DM has certainly found some howlers. I do wonder just how much of a music knowledge the mentors have. LW and SC do seem to plough the same old same old a lot of the time. Are they limited by a lack of imagination / knowledge or are they limited by the number of songs available to them.
By that i mean are they restricted by copyright or permission or charges. For example Susan Boyle was originally refused permission by Lou Reed to sign one of his tracks on US tv. Does TXF have a library of usable tracks which limits what can be done or is it just that the mentors arent really up to the job?
I would love to find a site they detailed every song acts have done thru the history of TXF.

I figured a lot of it would be down to rights issues and money. It's a shame though as I feel the show repeats itself a lot.

I know that on AI a list of only 50 songs is drawn up for each theme. That's not a very big choice of songs!!

Occasionally someone will pick a song not on the list and it will be okayed and the rights purchased. Occasionally a song is put on the list but when the songwriter realises it's being used on a talent show permission is withdrawn (this happened when Taylor hicks wanted to perform Crazy Love. Van Morrison songs are not placed on lists now).

This goes some way to explaining why the song choices can be 'samey' and chosen year on year. Also, even when they have theme nights, certain songs are held back deliberately : either for the 'group performance' or because the songwriter does not want them performed. Roger Taylor and Brain May are quite fixed on which Queen songs they allow to be performed and others are the same.

That's rubbish. That's just Louis being small minded and unimaginative.

Simon likes Annie Lennox a great deal. She is one of the regular performers on Idol gives back and has occasionally been to watch live shows.

Will Young definitely sang an Annie Lennox song durin Pop Idol and she turned up to watch him in the final. She has been at the XFactor finals before and refused to be filmed or interviewed (but her presence has been mentioned on Xtra Factor)

It's strange for songwriters to prevent cover versions being done of their records as they'll get royalties every time the song is played. I suppose they are sometimes worried about the "artistic integrity" of it.

But you're right, they do seem limited to a small pool of songs when there are thousands out there that could be good covers.

It was something I read somewhere so cannot back it up but that is what LW is supposed to have said, if SC does like her then maybe it was just LW's way of getting Storm off the idea.

I've always assumed they only use songs owned by Sony or by artists owned by Sony because it's cheaper. I don't know for sure though but it would seem to make sense.