The show has been making its annual appearance on our TVs for over a decade, airing its twelfth season last year. Unarguably, a dozen seasons is a decent count for a talent show – especially since these days there are so many – that one might find it difficult to keep up and tell them apart.
The abundance of talent shows is proving to be a problem not only for us watching them, and those trying to get us to watch them, but mainly for those competing. Nowadays talent is far from enough to achieve stardom. The contestants need to be unique, preferably slightly eccentric, have a good ‘sob story’ AND know how to sing. However, success on the show might still not guarantee them a prosperous singing career. The further success of the contestants is determined by the situation in the music industry. We often hear the judges asking ‘is there a market for this person/band?’ No matter how talented, once the scene is saturated, it is very difficult for an act to make it big. Even if they sign with a label, it is most likely going to invest most of its money into already established artists who bring in more revenue.
It all sounds very business-y and a bit unfair, but that’s what the music industry is – a business, and Simon Cowell would not have gotten to where he is now without having the finest business goggles on throughout the series. Back in 2006 the music scene needed a glamourous girl with a big voice, and so followed Leona Lewis’ win and immense success. She continues to release music to this day. The people needed a light-hearted fun singer, and so they got Olly Murs in 2009. Despite being reasonably successful considering he ended up second, Olly tried his hand at presenting the show last season. Alas, his presenting career was rather short-lived as he supposedly wants to focus on his music again.
Sadly, as we have seen multiple times now, if an artist is proving to be difficult to work with (see James Arthur) or simply not profitable enough, they don’t achieve success. So far all previous winners, except from Little Mix and now Louisa Jones, have sooner or later “parted ways” with Simon’s label Syco, proving that a win on the show does not mean as much as people would like to think.
It is time to address the elephant in the room – the boybands. Despite finishing second, JLS started relatively successfully, only to be later crushed by the arrival of One Direction two years later. Again, it was not due to lack of talent, but it was apparent, that after Syco realised just how big the fish (read One Direction) they caught was, they focused most of their attention on it, unarguably neglecting the other artists. Matt Cardle, who was the actual winner of the famous season 7 which brought us One Direction, left Syco after basically declaring that staying would be pointless since the label’s main priority would be, you guessed it, One Direction. Probably the second most talked about act to come off the show are season 8’s Little Mix. Back in 2011 there was a market for a new fresh girlband and the talent of the girls in the band was undeniable. Unfortunately, the label was still blinded by the cash One Direction was bringing and proceeded to promote Little Mix as the girlband 1D boys talked about and later Zayn’s girlfriend’s band. It is unfair and quite frankly insulting to the band which is perfectly likeable without having to be linked to a fellow boyband, but that is how Syco operates. Hopefully now that there are whispers of One Direction leaving Syco after their contract with the label ends in March Little Mix will receive the attention they deserved all along.
Meanwhile season 9’s Union J, who were inevitably going to be compared to One Direction and managed to release a handful of successful songs, have a storm of their own brewing right now. George Shelley has recently been kicked off the band for supposedly lacking commitment after coming off I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Josh Cuthbert has signed multiple modelling contracts, and JJ Hamblett is working with his partner Caterina Lopez on a reality show called “We are the Hambletts”. Such is the post- X factor life it seems. The stars burn bright, but do they burn fast..
Who is your favourite X factor contestant or who do you believe should have received more attention?