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5 avril How TV Talent Shows Saved MusicSix years ago, I guy I worked with approached me about a freelance job. It was to edit the website for a new TV show called Pop Idol. I clearly remember reading it as one word and thinking it sounded like a cough remedy. When he explained the concept, I was equally dubious. I didn't think what was basically a variation on the Opportunity Knocks theme would work for a 21st century audience and so I steered well clear. Shows what I know.
Anyway, it occurred to me recently that despite inflicting musical monstrosities like Shayne Ward and The Cheeky Girls on the charts, TV talent shows have come up trumps with Will Young and particularly Girls Aloud.
This, however, isn't why I'm suggesting they've been a good thing for music. Their real contribution, I think, has been in exposing to the nation the production-line nature of bubblegum pop. In short, the likes of Pop Idol, Popstars, and X-Factor have pulled back the curtain to reveal the Wizard of Oz that is the manufactured end of the music business.
I was a teenager during the dark days of Stock, Aitken, and Waterman. There was plenty of good music around but you'd be hard pushed to see any decent bands on TV or mainstream radio, and they rarely made the charts. In fact, when the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays appeared on the same edition of Top Of The Pops in 1990, it was difficult to believe it was really happening, such was the hegemony of Kylie (before she was good), Jason, et al.
Yes, there was Britpop, but that was a flash in the pan really. Blur and Oasis captured the country's imagination for all of about five minutes and then it was business as usual. There certainly wasn't the breadth and depth of talent we've got in all musical genres now.
I honestly think in educating kids about the cynical way in which pop stars are created and marketed, TV talent shows unwittingly created a thirst for something more authentic, something with a bit more balls. This fact (plus the internet, of course) has given rise to the musical climate we're enjoying today, which is as healthy as it's been in my lifetime.
So next time you're cursing Simon Cowell and his ilk, think about that, because I'm not sure we'd have anything like as many young people listening to Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, Kaiser Chiefs, The Klaxons (and many other artists that have yet to appear on my rapidly-approaching-middle-aged radar) without them. Commentaires (4)Pour ajouter un commentaire, connectez-vous avec votre identifiant Windows Live ID (si vous utilisez Messenger ou Xbox LIVE, vous avez un identifiant Windows Live ID). Connectez-vous Vous n'avez pas d'identifiant Windows Live ID ? Inscrivez-vous
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