When Will I Be Famous?
Note: this is a crosspost with fowk.es
Recently I was looking through my computer and found my old coursework for Communication and Culture; probably the only subject I did exceptionally well in at college. I thought it may be good to let you see me with my more serious analytical hat on as I take a look at television talent shows. I scored high on this, and I hope you all at least enjoy a more deep look at a more serious version of myself. Without further ado…
“When Will I Be Famous?” – Ordinary People and Celebrity.
Issue: Talent Shows.
What is the value of the “talent show” both in terms of culture and in terms of society? A case study of the X Factor.
In recent years, a lot of our culture has started to revolve around the idea of becoming famous quickly by way of appearing on television talent shows such as “The X Factor”. The idea of becoming wealthy and powerful with very little effort is an enticing one. However, the question is raised: how does society value the television talent show in terms of cultural worth and the effect it has on society itself. In this analysis, I’ll be specifically focusing on the “ITV” television programme “The X Factor”. I’ll be analysing “The X Factor” mostly from a Marxist perspective, with other theory such as Feminist included as and when appropriate.
It should be established that “The X Factor” consistently produces artists that sing pop music. The first thing that is required is to analyse pop music as a cultural product, before the television programme can be analysed properly. Pop music, in it’s own name, is flawed (“pop” being an abbreviation of the word “popular”). The value of pop music in a cultural sense is quite low. Traditionally, it usually required the specialist skill of musical talent in order to be successful. However, in more recent years, being a pop star is more about the actual popularity and image of the artist in question, rather than the music, which changes the convention of popularity in pop music from being about the music to about the actual person, and their acceptance as a role model. An example of this is the artist “Pink” (now known as “P!nk”). In previous years, she focused on songs about depression, separation and the deeper meanings of romance. For example, one of the lyrics from the song “Don’t Let Me Get Me” is: “Everyday I fight a war against the mirror, I can’t take the person starin’ back at me”1, which is not really accepted as acceptable in pop music (recently, P!nk has adopted a more modern and feminine image. This has caused her increased popularity in mainstream music). Pop music is usually about making people aim for something. This leads onto a point about role models. The actual pop music is now becoming less and less important, and success in the pop music industry is mostly based around image. Many of these artists become role models for the members of the lower classes. Britney Spears is often seen as a role model because of her showing an “ideal” female image that has been dictated by the dominant discourse. Britney is blonde, pretty, has perfect teeth, and, in terms of music, is quite traditional because of her songs mostly being about finding a partner and finding love. This is a traditional idea given by the dominant discourse in order to uphold traditional values. Britney Spears also gives an incorrect image, from a feminist point of view, as to what a female should, apparently, look like. Britney often dresses provocatively in her videos by dressing in skin-tight latex (“Oops! I Did It Again”) or schoolgirl outfits (“Hit Me Baby One More Time”). This is to show how a woman “should” look, and it attracts the male gaze, making her an object of desire. Younger girls often see Britney being successful and want to imitate her, which is dominant ideology showing control over easily exploitable young girls. Feminists would argue that this alienates young girls into behaving how society dictates they should.
With pop music, it should also be noted that it is classified as low culture because of it’s own name. “Pop”, an abbreviation of “popular”, is a type of music that is popular (as the name suggests). The reason for this is the image of the artists and, more importantly, what pop music is. Pop music normally uses simple, repetitive lyrics, a catchy instrumental part and singing about values such as finding true love or earning money (the Nineties were full of these types of songs. Out of the top 10 selling UK singles of the 90′s, two even had the word “Love” explicitly in the title: “Love Is All Around” by Wet Wet Wet, and “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston2). These are all values that the dominant discourse forces on the lower classes in order for them to act a certain way. By twinning an artist singing about these values, and then seeing them become increasingly popular and rich, it creates a system of positive reinforcement. Being rich – and therefore powerful in the eyes of society – is also capitalistic and oppresses the lower classes from being successful. If someone can become a pop star, then they can become rich and happy. This is exactly what “The X Factor” tries to achieve with the common person.
“The X Factor” is a television programme that shows on “ITV1”, and runs during prime time on Saturdays and, in more recent series, Sundays too. The concept of the show is that nationwide auditions take place around the United Kingdom in order to find the next successful pop star from the common people. This can be seen as a vested interest of capitalism for the show to be successful. However, this involves exploring the cultural value of the show first.
The overall value of the show is still low. Points for high culture are strong, however. There is a large amount of expense needed for the show to take place. The fees of the judges must be paid. As the show holds auditions across the country, venues need to be booked. Miscellaneous staff need to be hired. Sets need to be built. Overall, there is a lot of money involved in the production of the programme which gives it some cultural value. It is also necessary for the actual contestants to possess talent in singing in order to progress further from auditions into the “Boot Camp” stages of the show, and then to the live shows that take place on weekends. Specialist skills of the contestants are needed for the show to be popular and the show itself needs people with specialist skills to actually get running in the first place, such as set designers, electricians and builders. However, as mentioned, it is becoming increasingly important for the singers to have a good public image or to be attractive in order to be successful or a combination of the two. The low points for the cultural worth are vast. As pop music itself is considered as low culture, the show is automatically classified as low culture due to the association. The show is easily accessible. The show broadcasts during prime time on weekend television, maximising the audience to the biggest it can possibly get (and with approximately twenty-six million UK households with television in the year 20033, the audience has the potential to be vast). Other forms of media also help to promote the show. Tabloid newspapers and whole segments dedicated to it in programmes that are meant to be informative, such as the BBC’s “Breakfast” or ITV’s “GMTV”, entices the target audience of people in the lower classes to watch the show. What comes from this is an audience of nineteen million people4 tuning in to watch the final of the 2009 series which saw Joe McElderry win the competition. It is also the potential for nineteen million people to buy even further into capitalism. In terms of capitalism, there are many opportunities for the show to make money. First, in order to show support for their act or to show they are fans of the show, viewers at home can buy merchandise, such as mugs and T-Shirts. It is also encouraged by the show for people to text and phone the show in order to prevent their favourite acts from being eliminated. This service usually costs the voter considerably (usually over £1 per vote). This is, again, buying into this artificial economy. The media also has their part in the popularity of such shows. Newspapers such as “The Sun” feature large features dedicated to “The X Factor”, helping to promote it further. People buy these papers in order to keep up-to-date with gossip from the show. It is also notable that the individuals that take part in the show often are subject to the gazes of the Paparazzi. Pictures of the star in question go into the papers, and help to make the newspaper more money by generating some media interest. Also note that a significant amount of money for the programme comes from advertising. With nineteen million people tuning into the show, it must be suggested that companies that advertise during “The X Factor” receive a significant amount of extra customer interest “fuelling the capitalist machine”.
However, it can be argued that it is giving power back to the lower classes. Traditionally, artists are from more upper class backgrounds. Bands such as “The Kooks” and “Franz Ferdinand” received upper class education. Most acts that enter “The X Factor” are from working and lower middle class backgrounds due to pop music being low culture, so it can be seen as giving regular people the chance to earn capital, live their dreams and become powerful. Marxists would see this as a positive point. However, the problem with this is is that winners of the show sign onto the record label “SyCo”, which is a company owned by Simon Cowell, which in turn is part of “Sony”. As they are signed to a record label, the record label initially invests a certain amount of money into an artist (which doesn’t have to be paid back if the artist is unsuccessful). Any money made from record sales goes straight to the record company first to pay off the initial investment. Most importantly, the record label (once the initial investment is paid off) start to pay a certain percentage of the profits (royalties) to the artist, whilst keeping a significant percentage of it for themselves. This money goes to the record label and gives them even more overall power to sign new artists, helping to further increase their profits. This is on-par with the “fuelling of the capitalist machine”. Giving into capitalism takes power away from the lower classes, as they are the people with the least amount of money. Marxists would see this as a negative point (the artist is a “pawn”, used to increase the power of the corporations).
Another point to show the capitalistic approaches of “The X Factor” happened in the most recent series with the “guest artists”. These artists are successful and perform their music in front of a live audience on the main stage. This is a method of promotion for the artist in question. Artists that have performed have included music icons such as Roger Taylor and Brian May of the band “Queen”, and Sir Paul McCartney. Other artists that have performed there include Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke5. The latter artists in this list are also signed to the same record label as the artist that eventually wins the competition, “SyCo”6. This increases the profits of the company significantly if the only artists to perform in a single show are all signed to the same record label, which gives them even more power.
Overall, it can be seen that the idea of “The X Factor” is to give the lower classes the illusion of control over the dominant discourse and the larger capitalist corporations. The idea of the general public (the working and lower middle classes, mostly) some kind of power over what music is introduced into the mainstream or not is a lie. Whilst the public choose which artist is “better”, the only people that genuinely benefit are not the artists or the public, but “ITV”, “Sony” and “SyCo” themselves, as they are the ones that receive the money (and the power) from the general public.
References/Bibliography:
1 “Don’t Let Me Get Me” (Moore, Austin (2001))
http://www.lyrics007.com/Pink%20Lyrics/Don’t%20Let%20Me%20Get%20Me%20Lyrics.html
2 “Top 10 Best Selling UK Singles of the 1990′s” (PopReport.co.uk (Unknown Year))http://www.popreport.co.uk/chart_history/nineties.php
3 “UK television households” (TerraMedia.co.uk (Unknown Year))
http://www.terramedia.co.uk/reference/statistics/television/television_households.htm
4 “The X Factor: more than 19m watch Joe McElderry win” (John Plunkett, “The Guardian” (2009))
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/14/x-factor-joe-mcelderry
5 Extracts from “Live show details” (“The X Factor (UK series 6)” article, Wikipedia (2010))
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Factor_(UK_series_6)#Live_show_details
6 Extracts from “Syco Music – Current Artists” (“Syco” article, Wikipedia (2010))
