X-Factor Caught Cheating Red Handed
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
X-Factor and American Idol are the number one and number two things wrong with the music industry today. And the number three thing wrong with the industry is auto-tune. Combine these things together and you get a truly distasteful happening in pop culture. Music is supposed to be real. Real emotion, real feelings, real people, and real talent. Especially if people are getting rewarded for talent. Why should people get rewarded for artificial talent?
The new series of X-Factor started this past weekend here in the UK. The season premier had over 10 million viewers, more than any X-Factor season premier before. Since then, everyone has been abuzz about it, but not for the right reasons. The public (and media for that matter) finally picked up on part of what is wrong with the show. They cheat. This time, they were caught using auto-tune on some of the contestants. So a show that is supposed to find the most talented singers in the UK is actually falsifying the contestants voices. So they aren't really looking for the most talented singers are they? They are looking for the person who can be the most marketable singer, with the help of auto-tune.
The show released a statement claiming that they only used auto-tune to correct the sound due to poor live sound in the venues, so that the viewers at home could hear a sound that was more like that of what the "judges" heard. This was the first round of the competition, where everyone is competing against each other, hoping to make it to the next round. And by auto-tuning certain performers wouldn't that give certain people an unfair advantage? How can you justify an honest competition that puts singers who are being auto-tuned against singers that are singing with a natural voice?
That is the equivalent of stuffing lead weights in the front of one bobsled at the winter Olympics, and then saying that it is fair because all of the bobsleds are all going down the same track. Doesn't make sense does it?
Steroids give someone an artificial advantage in sports. So isn't auto-tune essentially a digital steroid?? Think about it. When you correctly (and honestly) use auto-tune, it gives a cool effect. It's not supposed to sound real, it's supposed to be apparent that an artist is using it as a part of the song they are singing. But when auto-tuning is used in a dishonest way it is disgusting. Be honest when using it, don't try to hide it and then suspect that the public is too dumb to know the difference.
I've never been a big fan of auto-tune, but I understand it. T-Pain and Kanye West have used it to build their careers, but they didn't try to cover it up. What X-Factor did was offensive. They tried to cover up that they are not an honest show/competition/money-making-maching-for-Simon-Cowell. I bite my thumb at thee, X-Factor. Quit trying to pretend to be something that you are not. Or just change your mission statement to "searching for the next average-talent person to become a manufactured pop star". Then at least the public, who still believes X-Factor is 100% real and honest, isn't. Do it for the music, do it for the public, and do it for the truly talented artists of the world.
by Bryan Chisholm, Artist and Brand Development, R&R Music
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Giving certain people an unfair advantage is only the start. Katie Waissel AKA Katie Vogal AKA Lola Fontain has had a recording contract and a TV show (Green Eyed World) and is still signed to Sony! So you know when Simon says words like 'Pure Genious' he has just been given a nice big fat brown envelope. She's also the same person who says she's one of the few 'genuine' contestants on the show. I didn't think people under a recording and/or management contract was allowed on the show?
Every aspect of the show is a farce and everything in the news about the show is perfectly engineered media hype.
However it is an excelent case study for the likes of a PR student! From that point of view the show is the best in the biz.