Results tagged “X-Factor” from Birmingham Mail - Is It Just Me

Now I know Christmas is a religious festival, one of the two rocks on which Christianity is built, not that that matters, living as we do in pagan Britain, but in the rest of the world it still means something beyond presents, blow outs and getting legless.

But even the Pope probably enjoys the secular bits, the mince pies and mulled wine and all that and it is among the snowmen and robins where Simon Cowell and Sony are hijacking Christmas and the worst thing is we are letting them get away with it.

The Christmas No 1 is a glitzy arrangement of a Leonard Cohen classic belted out by a half decent club singer which was already virtually guaranteed top spot in advance sales before anyone knew what the song was or who would be singing it. We are becoming a nation of lobotomised sheep.

This mass outpouring of grief, such as the embarrassing scenes at Princess Diana's funeral, or adulation, such as the near riots at appearances by X-factor finalists, seems to show that as a nation our lives or our heads are very empty. Anyone who is vaguely famous - i.e. been on telly - becomes a minor deity.

There was some sanity left in that the iconic 14-year-old version of the Hallelujah, by a bloke who died 11 years ago incidentally, pushed Alexandra Burke's version close and came second. That was all sales by downloads as Sony hold the record rights, as people both rebelled against Cowell's cynical arrogance and showed support for a version which will still be around in another 14 years while the Number One will be lucky to last 14 weeks.

Whether either is a Christmas song is debatable but anyone who hears both versions will know that the winner is like one of those knock off Rolex watches you buy in foreign street markets. Flash and shiny but don't expect it to work or last.

The X-factor winner has had the Christmas No 1 since the eminently forgettable That's My Goal in 2005. Since then we have had A Moment Like This, When You Believe and now a karaoke Hallelujah. Can't see any of that lot floating many boats when we get to the Best Christmas Album Ever II in a few years time.

Once upon a time there was real interest in what would be Number ! at Christmas in a battle which has brought us all those festive ditties which fill every shop from November onwards. Now it is whatever Cowell and Sony decide they want to flog us after a six month ad campaign we have paid for. Perhaps it is time for us to stand up and say enough is enough and to take our Christmas No 1 back.

It might be difficult though. In the have your say bit on one of the chart websites we have some creature called Dalin who reckons "Alexandra sings this much better. the Buckley version makes me feel sick. The song should be cheerful!"

With musical appreciation like that we could all be doomed. I hear Dalin is now working on the reggae party version of Mozart's Requiem Mass in D minor.

So here we are, first Monday as a free man since the days of long hair (yes, hair - it was a long time ago) beards and ripped jeans as a student. A cup of tea, a scratch and good moaning to one and all.

Anyone watch the X-factor? While it was a television talent show it was a bit of light entertainment but it has grown into a monster and in the celebritocracy we have become the British public are swallowing - and paying for it - hook line and winner.

Past winners, with the exception of Leona Lewis, who has been marketed as a product by the producers and record company to sell the brand worldwide, are almost down to the level of being answers in pub quizzes and let us be honest, the finalists showed some talent but no more and, in many cases much less, than you will find in holiday camps, clubs and small variety shows with performers who have put a lot more year's work in.

What is disturbing though is that for three months or so a record company is running auditions on television, with built in market research and focus groups in the form of voting and are being paid to do it by ITV and, every time they vote, the public. We are being used in the name of entertainment.

Then, cynically, the record company has a final in which they launch what they cynically expect to be the Christmas No 1. We have been conned into paying for a massive ad campaign to sell a record. Saddest of all is the number of advance orders for a single when no one knows who the artist will be. People buy it just because it has been on X-factor.

Last year's Christmas offering was woeful and you suspect that if the Christmas release from X-factor had been a medley of Chipmunks hits with an accompaniment on spoons there are still people out there who would have bought it in sufficient numbers to make in No 1 - worryingly the same people have the right to vote.

As it is we have a rather second rate version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Any recording of that song will be compared to the late Jeff Buckley's haunting version of John Cale's cover and all the X-factor offering does is show just how good that 1994 version really is.

Sadly the Christmas No 1 spot has now come down to a raffle. Win the talent show and the prize is a guaranteed number one record cobbled together to make a quick killing. We are being conned and just can't see it.

Where do they get these wimpy blokes from on X-factor? Say good morning in a loud voice and they burst into tears. Not much chances of this lot trashing hotel rooms and driving rollers into swimming pools. What is the world of pop coming to?

Anyone find the X-Factor disturbing? No objection to people trying to win a talent show but does it not say something about our society that we try to make entertainment out of laughing out of life's inadequates?

Most of the entrants have more delusion than talent but there seems something rather sad and distasteful about the show's obsession with what is virtually televised care in the community.