It`s been said many times before, but mostly in terms of hogging the Christmas No1, or lifting the lid on how the music industry works, or by churning out lightweight pop acts.
I think it`s a bit more subtle than that.
You`ve got to pay (not give) the man some respect - as you would do with anyone has a lot of clout in their chosen field. But actually what he`s doing is cheapening music as an artform.
From his point of view, it`s simple. I`ve got the tools and the knowhow to get you stardom. I`ve got the track record and my success is there for all to see. I`ll give you all that but, you`ll be doing what I want you to do - after all it is my money and my time. It`s how the pop industry has been running since day one, it`s not a revolution dreamt up by Simon himself. So as the lucky hopeful looking to get your break (overnight) it`s a dream come true.
But thats only if you want to be a plastic pop star.
It`s the reason you can go out to a bar every night in your home town and hear people who are dripping with natural talent, possess good stage presence and have a strong songwriting ability. But they aren`t going to go on X factor, and nor does X factor want them either. It isn`t interested in music. It`s interest is in TV and lucrative phone votes - that`s the slight-of-hand trick that it pulls off every series. But the fall out from this is this - we`ve got lots of people making great music right now in this country, but it`s not getting picked up by the mainstream press, radio or TV. The result being The general public is left with no idea about the music being made right amongst them.
So you`re just left with the packaged artists. The notion that music is a ticket to celebrity and a stepping stone to signing lucrative deals with a perfumery. That signing a `million pound contract` means you`ve just bagged a million pounds. That the X factor model of artist recruitment, retention and turnover is THE way music should be treated. (If your second album stiffs - thats it, get your coat....Next!! )
But that pushes the other music makers out into the cold.
The public no longer see people who make music as artists. The emphasis has shifted wholly to entertainment. A number of acts breakthrough and manage to be successful whilst maintaining their artistic status, but that used to be a greater percentage not too long ago.
Why blame Cowell? The history of pop music is littered with Svengali`s who were more ruthless than him.
Well, because his definition of popular music is narrow, and very cynicial. And dominant.
You borrow looks from outside pop to make your act look "edgy" ...... spikey hair, tattoo, ironic heavy metal T -shirt, hip hop clothing, or simply `wear` a really expensive guitar (that you seem to be playing but the viewers can`t hear) for the ` I`m real` effect.
The acid test of whether your acts can REALLY sing is to perform songs that were written and performed by people who would be rejected by X Factor because they don`t look instantly marketable AND most ironically of all, they write songs.
You`re only looking for one type of pop star, and you only want R&B pop and ballads.
The turnover of acts is very high, and you`ll often publicly ridicule them if they speak out, and once that happens, that act has a hard time pursuing anything musical from then on, because it becomes the thing `everybody quotes` when they do any publicity.
Leona Lewis. the most successful act out of X factor.
The Top 40 is now jostling with production teams, with a few bands and un - manufactured solo acts. There should be loads more dubstep and grime - the scene in Britain is thriving, but are they breaking through like rave acts did in the 90`s? nah. The DIY indie scene should have sneaked in through the backdoor like they always have, but who gets to hear it now ?
Simon Cowell doesn`t make every pop record in the charts, but he laid out the blueprint on how to make as much money as possible out of music. Everybody else has followed suit. That`s where the money is.
But when money governs the music then it isn`t about what`s good, it`s about what sold last.
When was the last time you listened to the charts to find out what new band was coming of the UK music scene ? Or the radio? Apart from Jools Holland, you are not going to catch them on TV thats for sure, and thats what ... a few bands each week?... and that`s assuming you want to watch the programme.
So we`re left with millions of good songs floating around the Internet, bands and acts, doing self funded albums, pub gigs and small festivals, self distributing their songs and not getting heard, hoping that the big break will come, but those days have long since gone. The charts are now as corporate as MTV. (That is a very sad sentence to write as once upon a time, MTV played stuff you wouldn`t hear on the radio and the charts were a bit more varied - it wasn`t brilliant - but there was a good balance between fluffy pop made to order and music made by humans).
Steve Brookstein. winner 2004. Found himself in a creative straight jacket, the hard way.
By constantly showing the music business as a factory process and discarding the products after they`ve been on the shelf for a year it makes music making look cheap. Berry Gordy may have had the same factory - line approach to artists at Motown, but at least he saw potential in his acts to grow and to find the right people to work with that person to create something so good it HAD to sell.
The charts don`t reflect UK music, I can tell that by bandcamp, you tube and soundcloud that it`s way off the mark. The radio plays whats on MTV, MTV plays whats on the radio. Good luck on being playlisted by either of them mediums if you`re not connected. Good luck on getting connected!
... and Simon doesn`t care about any of this. He`s not in the business of music, he`s in the entertainment business.
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