That's the question kids up and down the country, if not across the world used to ask, and probably still do when sci-fi institution Doctor Who graced/graces the TV screens. But in my case, the TV nasty in question is the UKs very own "musical talent contest" the X Factor which I believe has finally finished tonight.
So I guess in that short statement you know where I stand on Simon Cowell's circus. Is it really music, well I guess 12+ million people in the UK would say it is, and then many millions more would tell you it isn't, I guess it depends on your perspective. For me it's not music, it's not about anything but gross profiteering and the production of more facsimile tribute act popstars to flood an already crowded musical world. What it creates is another layer of "noise" (not in the musical sense) that just further surpresses talent that is trying to get itself heard through the conventional methods of hard work and genuine talent.
Let's be realistic, as a contest it takes people with no better than half-decent singing voices and average talent and transforms them in a matter of months from being a total nothing to a chart sensation and that's good for them, I think we'd all love to go from a zero to hero in a short space of time for doing something where we receive acclaim from the masses whilst earning a stack of money but what is the end musical product?
I guess it depends what your musical taste is, but for me, good/great musicians need to be able to answer 2 of 3 questions with an affirmative answer to classify as having proper talent. Those questions are...can you sing well and with passion, can you play an instrument, are you able to write your own lyrics and music? See there's plenty of people out there who can answer yes to all three of those questions, let alone two of them but most on talent shows will struggle to answer yes to one of them and here's the thing about TV talent shows. Even if you as artist can answer yes to those questions, the likelihood is that your musical choices have already been decided for you and they're purely commercially driven decisions, it's profits over music all the way.
I guess that's probably the reason why you never seen singer/songwriters or proper bands on shows like the X Factor, it's a mix between genuine talent not necessarily being mainstream enough, the artists refusing to sell out their talent for money and from the likes of Mr Cowell's perspective the commercial risk of someone being allowed to release their own music without littering it with covers and fluffy meaningless songs.
The problem I guess I have with music TV talent shows though is the real potential damage that they're likely to have on the music industry in the longer term. First of all, kids now are growing up thinking that unless they get on TV they don't have talent, second that they'll see this as an accepted musical medium and if they want to create music think it more important to fit the mould rather than explore their own musical paths and finally they're growing up with the vision that the music industry is easy to crack and is simply a vehicle to making huge amounts of money....the bottom line is, it's not.
X Factor has a place...just not in my house or on my iPod...that's all I'm saying.
Nite all xxx
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