This is a good article from a year ago about the X Factor curse (the Matt Cardle prophecy having since come true):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-rad...winners-doomed

I found the third paragraph down particularly pertinent to young Arthur.

I also like this comment on the article, very true:

"The men's main appeal is to early-teen and pre-teen girls. By the time their proper album is ready a year later, their fan base has usually moved on to the next pretty boy. A year is a long time when you're that age."

Thoughts?

My comment - it should happen earlier - the forgetting about him part.

That article is more pertinent to Jahmene than James to be frank. Arthur has potential to succeed because he appeals to a wider target in my opinion than Douglas who has the teen vote this year. He certainly doesn't appear to appeal to the teen contributors on DS. Douglas will win but I think he will follow the likes of Ward and McElldery on the scrap heap.

Interesting, I could never pinpoint who Jahmene's key demographic and voters were. But if, as you say, it is the teens then this could be true for Jahmene too.

Why label it at teens? You think joe mcelderry was raved about in schools? leon jackson? hell matt cardle wasn't really a teen vote either. They are mothers, middle aged or grandma's who vote for those types.

Teens actually buy music as we see for cher lloyd, one direction etc etc etc

I don't know how true this is when you consider that Cher's album sold less than Matt's and Little Mix are at present trailing behind his album sales also. LM opened with 53k compared to Matt's 70k.

You seem to have a strong sense of what was and what wasnt said in the school classrooms. You also slightly miss the point. Yes it is the teens that buy the music (or upload it now) and it's their tastes that change so quickly that spell doom for male singers according to that Guardian piece.

hasn't Matt Cardles second album sold 3x more than Alex B's currently? And i'm not convinced Rebecca or Cher() will do much better 2nd time round either

Males may be harder to launch initially but females appear to be no easier to sustain.

I'm a 30 year old mother and I buy music!
Edited to add- I download it onto my iTunes account (yes, mothers and 30 year olds have iTunes, I even have an iPhone 5!!) I have a range of music genres. Everything from hip hop to opera/classical, dance to soul, 'alternative' to rock (I even love a bit of heavy metal!!) you name it, I've probably got (and listen to) something from that genre.

Agree totally about teen girls moving on to the next boy if they don't hear/see that boy for months. Fickle things these teen girlies!

You're suggesting that Alex B's album has sold just over 11k copies. Is that right?

To be fair Little Mix will not make it because they offer nothing new. It's a really fickle business.

I think Jahmene will have a wide age range of support to be honest, I have seen teens supporting him and think he is great and a good role model. Same could be said for middle age to older , he seems to have a varied support in respect to age.

To be fair nobody is saying you don't.

i don't have any figures to hand, something like that i think going by the last time i read about it on here

"bettingcriticToday, 15:05
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BootlegTulip
Interesting, I could never pinpoint who Jahmene's key demographic and voters were. But if, as you say, it is the teens then this could be true for Jahmene too.
Why label it at teens? You think joe mcelderry was raved about in schools? leon jackson? hell matt cardle wasn't really a teen vote either. They are mothers, middle aged or grandma's who vote for those types.

Teens actually buy music as we see for cher lloyd, one direction etc etc etc"

Refer to the above...

I really like Rebecca and she's the only X Factor alumni whose album I've bought, so maybe I'm being biased here. But even though she hasn't been popular in the mainstream market, she is hugely credible and big in the UK jazz/blues scene.

Yep ok but as a winner he will get a huge teen vote and its that market that he needs to continue to appeal to and who will have the big say on whether he makes it in the future.

Her album has sold 600k and is certified double-platinum. She has done very, very well indeed. Unlike Cardle, she has not been dumped by her label, forcing her to record and release via a micro-label. Her second album, when it is made will be properly funded and marketed internationally by Sony.

I kind of agree with what your saying here, everyone considers past contestants to be flops if they are not in the pop scene, however a lot of them do well in other areas of music that more suits them. If people end up having a fairly stable career in a different genre of music other than pop, I would say that they have done well rather than say they were flops.

Look at the USA show last year, the runner up was Josh and Melanie won, now Josh was an over and was clearly more rock than he was anything else. Regardless of Josh being in his 30s Syco offered him a contract, he was actually more sought after than the winner was. He eventually signed with sony and is NOT a pop artist.

And female so maybe the article had a point. Rebecca Ferguson provided the most embarrassing moment of 2012 for me. I was at the Luonel Richie concert at the 02 and Rebecca was one of the guest duets. Imagine the cringing embarrassment when Lionel introduced her on to the stage as Sarah Ferguson!!!

Except the boys they list don't actually have a primary demographic of teens or pre-teen girls.

To be fair, they basically signed almost everyone. The entire boys category was signed + Rachel, Melanie etc.

But they don't seem to be putting money into them - it seems like they were signed solely to block other labels from getting them.

Lets agree to differ shall we. All I will say is that yes they almost certainly must have appealed to teens. They wouldn't have won otherwise.

Ok, just checked and her latest album has sold 16k to date: Matt's sold a little over double that. Both are disastrous and neither will find funding for another album based on those figures.

Well not all no, Melanie was signed to Syco and Epic, which is standard to the winner. Josh went with Sony and Chris Rene went with Epic, Ratchel went to disney which was technically not a record label and i thought myself it better suited her age.

Chris was hiphop , josh was rock and Melanie was more Gospel and I think the pop scene really does not suit her.

I think the real shocker for me was that Simon and Syco went after Josh real quickly which is pretty unheard of for Simon with an OVER