The Insider: FxxK SIMON COWELL!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=244370361112&ref=nf

...someone who has written a piece on this rage-xfactor-crapmusic-realmusic debacle and actually made sense!
whatever your feelings on ratm or xfactor, the point is music has been hi-jacked, and tripe like xfactor is helping to produce a glut of meaningless music that doesn't have any impact beyond the rolling credits of the last installment of a glorified high school talent show.
and cowells an undoubtedly rich, and supposedly therefore talented, bastard.

Analogy Fail: Motown records and The Funk Brothers may have done it with an innovative style and super slick musicianship - but they were every bit a formula-driven hit factory as Syco is. They admit as much themselves.

If there's any difference at all its that collectively we're more aware of the techniques now than people were back then - some of us resent the cynical repackaging of the same musical motifs and styles being endlessly thrown back into the market day after day.

I'd like to see the likes Franz Frickin' Ferdinand or The XX as the house band for Cowell's company and see how good that sounds.

Motown didn't time their releases to hit the Christmas market, they didn't utilise prime time tv to make hits, they didn't market test the public over months to release one single and, most importantly, THEY MADE GREAT RECORDS. Nothing that has come out of X Factor has any lasting relevance. His only genius is to come up with a way to monetise listening to demos / using other people's' songs.

Anyhow, that's in response to the kind of pieces seen (see Word this month) that suggest this very fact rather than some novel new idea of mine. Bottom line is his assertion that he owns the Number One slot whilst hiding behind what the competitors deserve was what really fucked me off. As though all other musicians and artists don't have any rights in the face of his end of the pier show.

What's Going On I'll agree with you but don't confuse indie with what Cowell does. Indie means independent, Syco is part of Sony, indie to my mind means independence of ideas and a belief in pushing the envelope of music, which, again, as you point out yourself, X Factor doesn't do with its endless round of cover versions.
Sure, Motown employed all of this but it created something far more worthwhile and long lasting. And, aside from all that, Gordy utlised his talents to create, however much market research was employed, Cowell throws everything at the wall, waits to see what the public want and then releases it. Not the same thing at all.
This is what really rankles me about the treatment of Cowell and his comments as quoted. This idea that he is somehow an outsider when he is the very heart of the mainstream and the idea that he is creative when he is essentially a strategic marketing man. I don't deny the right of X Factor to exist but i do deny his idea that he has a divine right to be top of the pile unchallenged and that, given his strong position we should somehow reinvent what he does to give it meaning. I repeat, he is Pete Waterman for this generation, that is all

- 99% of every act termed 'indie' I've heard in the last few years has been, in my opinion, lazy, pitiful, derivative bullshit, devoid of any original ideas; a direct result of the money-focussed industry that the bands themselves depend on. Indie as in "independent-sounding" is debased beyond meaning. It is now "White bands with scratchy guitars, etc".

- Syco is part of Sony. So what? Am I supposed to automatically dismiss something because Sony fund it?

- "Sure, Motown employed all of this but it created something far more worthwhile and long lasting [and Cowell doesn't]." - Well that's like, your opinion man. My opinion: What's Going On (and a lot of other Motown tuneage) is watery gash EXACTLY like most of the songs Cowell is responsible for. If a song is good, then it's good - whether it came from Sony Megacorp or my garage. And you may want to bear in mind that the exact accusations levelled at Simon Cowell were directed at Motown and other hit factories when they started. And we know how that turned out...

At the end of day, comparing Syco unfavourably to Motown is equal parts hypocrisy and ignorance. They're two peas in a pod.

Never actually watched this show. Is it any good?

I know I never want to hear "Killing in the Name" ever again though.

By the by: I knew Pete Waterman. Pete Waterman was my friend. Simon Cowell is no Pete Waterman. Though Cowell's haircut reminds me of the front cover of Public Image Ltd's "That What is Not" album for some reason.

but the idea that Simon Cowell doesn't like music is bullshit of the highest order. Of course he cares about money, but do you think he's spent his entire life doing something he doesn't care about? Anyone who's watched the programme knows he gets affected and is attached to music in the same way as anyone else. Except he's interested in pure pop, and the basest element of that - the vocalist. And he gets other people interested in it.. do you not think it's a good thing that the public at large is exposed to "the creative process"? And the creative process doesn't just mean writing shitty indie 4 chorders, but the actual process of performance. Getting inside a song, going through it as one single, uncut take. Is it not good that the public see a singer stripped bare of the production techniques used by *gasp* even credible artists? Is that not something worth taking into the wider world?

...i feel sorry for the people who actually enjoy this show....they've been brainwashed....unfortunatly.

i think you can discard the points about..'people like the x factor songs so they buy it. simple as'.

the question is, why do they like it in the first place. La roux going huge is because people liked the song. given, she was in the right place at the right time, as she has said herself, but the x factor, inevitably, going huge, is because it's rammed down peoples gullets until they feel so caught up in it all, buying the record is an extension of watching the programme itself. it's inevitable, enjoyment of music doesn't really come in to it, it's enjoyment of the whole brand. tell me, can you imagine this sentence being uttered..

(imagine a 14 year old girl or whoever buys)
''well....i really like olly, yeah. loved him all the way through...really thought he had a good voice...but i didn't really like the song he chose to release at xmas so i didn't buy it''

no chance. more discerning music fans might choose not purchase a record by someone they like based on...y'know...the actual quality of the music (similarly, why would you buy RATM if you didn't actually like the song and were just making a stand. bizzare). x-factor fans will buy whatever because it's just become an extension of watching.

that said, i actually think it would be impossible to come up with a cover version by the winner that wouldn't sell. metal machine music as done by olly would still rock the top. you could argue that people like steve and andy, who slipped into obscurity after the initial wave of success, is an example of x factor buyers being discerning and voting with their wonga. or were they just failed by the marketing juggernauts. did viewers really go from fervant appreciating to not caring because the quality of music changed from the performers? doubt it.

so no. they don't just buy because they like the tunes.

i think people might be angry at cowell because he's created a culture in which you don't have to listen anymore, just watch. and that aint music yo. that said, stacey seems perfectly charming and can sing a tune so whatever. again, not sure how she would be marketed though....can't see her busting grooves ala burke and lewis and girls aloud and jls...and it seems like ballads will only get you so far after winning one of these competitions.

i dunno...who the fuck knows or cares. not me. i'm glad i wrote all this to show how little i care.

Cheers.

X factr is killing the indy lke McDonlads. I'm HATNG It!blink4lyf

really huddle round the radio, heart beating in anticipation, to see whether mr blobby or bob the builder or sclub 7 or crazy frog had got to christmas one?

have you suffered the torture of working in a mainstream record shop at christmas? (two words: il divo).

the christmas number one is just another commercial opportunity for record companies to grab some of the public's fickle festive interest, and cash, and sell more records. yawn yawn....get over it.

i think the xfactor show is getting moronic but it's saturday night karaoke entertainment....it's only pop music. chill out!

Simon Cowell's not killing anything. He does what he says he does, cares about it, doesn't moan, rewards people who have ability, and is to honest with those who don't.... and, most, of all, does it all successfully - I love the fact some receptionist like Leona can suddenly be on Oprah and sell 5billion records if they have the ability to gain the public's imagination....whilst these acts are quite stage managed, the ones who've done well are good at what they do....i mean, look at Michelle McManus.