I would normally rather watch my own mother take a shower than watch the X factor, but for some inexplicable reason I found myself watching most of last night's episode. I really wish I hadn't.
I realise my sentiments will be nothing new but I just felt like I had to vent somewhere as it did (I'm sad to admit) make me quite angry.
For starters, who the hell ARE these judges?? Quite what Sharon Osborne knows about music, and what makes a song great is absolutely beyond me. Yet she sits there expressing all the authority of someone who invented music. And sound. And everything else that exists. The woman's an egotistical, witless, moron who knows nothing. About anything.
Same goes for Louis Walsh. Is there anyone in the public eye (outside of politics) who exhibits less wit and real knowledge of his chosen subject than this Cretin? I have an airing cupboard that knows more about music than this idiot.
Of the four, Gary Barlow is the ONLY one who has any business judging musical ability. I'd NEVER (even in an emergency) listen to his music, but I can at least acknowledge that he's a capable songwriter, so from that point of view he could be said to have some authority on the subject of musical ability.
And then there's this Nicole person. I don't think there exists (in a public figure), such a massive gulf between who she is and who she thinks she is. I believe she used to sing in the Pussy Cat Dolls, which in itself, should render her entirely unsuitable to comment on anyone else's musical talent. It's like asking a cat to be on the Nobel prize committee. She also appears to have a personality which consists of a handful of settings (including Faux-Emotion, Faux-Enthusiasm, hyper narcissism, and industrial strength vanity), all of them nauseating to a quite worrying degree.
The show itself is STILL massively dependent on sob stories and massively exaggerated emotion, all of which is pumped up to 11 by the ever willing judges (and contestants) - one mention of some guy's kid was enough to send him into tears. What the hell was the story there?? Was his kid born with no arms, legs or head? Or body? I suspect not. Where was the booing? Or are people REALLY that stupid to see what's going on?
And then we have Louis chiming in with one of his 7 sentences that he knows how to say - "How much does this mean to you?". For F*CK'S SAKE!! As if any of the deluded wannabes are going to shrug their shoulders and mumble, "Meh, not much, really".
Then there's the classic "I've made my decision" after which it still takes 20 seconds of "tension" before the big reveal, like the judge who said it had crashed and had to be reset by one of the production crew.
I also noticed the show has a new method of exploiting/humiliating the contestants - by picking them for the next round then ditching them because someone sang better than them. 1) Why not just get more chairs to sit on, and 2) to make it more humiliating, why not have one of the production staff on hand to actually pull the seat from under them as they're about to sit on it - thus indicating they're really getting binned?
This entire show exists entirely as a money making scam. It has NOTHING whatsoever to do with music, or talent or genuinely doing something good in this horrible, cruel world we live in. It's about cynically exploiting everyone from the audience to the contestants.
And, from a personal viewpoint, as someone who adores music (listening to, and writing/recording) and loves good, thoughtful, ENTERTAINING TV, this programme is everything that's wrong in the world. It not only encourages laziness (by giving the impression fame is merely an audition away - no hard work required) but it actually discourages originality by relying on the same old tired musical clichés.
The sooner it's dead and gone, the sooner it can be replaced by some other mindless, turgid crap (which entertainment doesn't HAVE to be)
I realise my sentiments will be nothing new but I just felt like I had to vent somewhere as it did (I'm sad to admit) make me quite angry.
For starters, who the hell ARE these judges?? Quite what Sharon Osborne knows about music, and what makes a song great is absolutely beyond me. Yet she sits there expressing all the authority of someone who invented music. And sound. And everything else that exists. The woman's an egotistical, witless, moron who knows nothing. About anything.
Same goes for Louis Walsh. Is there anyone in the public eye (outside of politics) who exhibits less wit and real knowledge of his chosen subject than this Cretin? I have an airing cupboard that knows more about music than this idiot.
Of the four, Gary Barlow is the ONLY one who has any business judging musical ability. I'd NEVER (even in an emergency) listen to his music, but I can at least acknowledge that he's a capable songwriter, so from that point of view he could be said to have some authority on the subject of musical ability.
And then there's this Nicole person. I don't think there exists (in a public figure), such a massive gulf between who she is and who she thinks she is. I believe she used to sing in the Pussy Cat Dolls, which in itself, should render her entirely unsuitable to comment on anyone else's musical talent. It's like asking a cat to be on the Nobel prize committee. She also appears to have a personality which consists of a handful of settings (including Faux-Emotion, Faux-Enthusiasm, hyper narcissism, and industrial strength vanity), all of them nauseating to a quite worrying degree.
The show itself is STILL massively dependent on sob stories and massively exaggerated emotion, all of which is pumped up to 11 by the ever willing judges (and contestants) - one mention of some guy's kid was enough to send him into tears. What the hell was the story there?? Was his kid born with no arms, legs or head? Or body? I suspect not. Where was the booing? Or are people REALLY that stupid to see what's going on?
And then we have Louis chiming in with one of his 7 sentences that he knows how to say - "How much does this mean to you?". For F*CK'S SAKE!! As if any of the deluded wannabes are going to shrug their shoulders and mumble, "Meh, not much, really".
Then there's the classic "I've made my decision" after which it still takes 20 seconds of "tension" before the big reveal, like the judge who said it had crashed and had to be reset by one of the production crew.
I also noticed the show has a new method of exploiting/humiliating the contestants - by picking them for the next round then ditching them because someone sang better than them. 1) Why not just get more chairs to sit on, and 2) to make it more humiliating, why not have one of the production staff on hand to actually pull the seat from under them as they're about to sit on it - thus indicating they're really getting binned?
This entire show exists entirely as a money making scam. It has NOTHING whatsoever to do with music, or talent or genuinely doing something good in this horrible, cruel world we live in. It's about cynically exploiting everyone from the audience to the contestants.
And, from a personal viewpoint, as someone who adores music (listening to, and writing/recording) and loves good, thoughtful, ENTERTAINING TV, this programme is everything that's wrong in the world. It not only encourages laziness (by giving the impression fame is merely an audition away - no hard work required) but it actually discourages originality by relying on the same old tired musical clichés.
The sooner it's dead and gone, the sooner it can be replaced by some other mindless, turgid crap (which entertainment doesn't HAVE to be)
