XFactory

I've always been marginally aware of American Idol, America's Got Talent, and the other talent shows up to the point of watching a few episodes of "The Voice" last year and actually following "The X Factor" up to the bitter end just before Christmas this past year. I'm not sure if it was out of desperation or not, but I haven't sensed too much excitement in the music biz over the past year. That is why the shows seem so dynamic. What better way to pump potentially lucrative new talent into the system as well as build a massive nationwide audience for the artist(s) who end up in the finals?

The Frank Capra-esque quality of plucking some wide eyed innocent out of the proverbial crowd (A Star Is Born,etc) has a lot of appeal. the traditional Hollywood rags to riches- overnight success story. The shows go through hundreds of potential superstars, quickly winnowing out the tone deaf wannabes from the legitimate performers thanks to the likes of the perpetual bad boy Simon Cowell to the cut and dried Britney Spears, to the simple but effective Demi Lovato, to the teflon smooth Clive Davis successor Antonio "L. A." Reid  The ongoing tension of contestants being voted out each episode combined with the alternately affectionate or toxic exchanges between the judges is carefully and slowly played out to wring out every last possible drop of emotion. The X Factor also profiled the finalists, adding a human interest dimension to the competition, providing compelling reasons why this or that contestant should win. Since the show features different genres (This year's winner was country performer Tate Stevens) covering all forms of "pop" music, it provides a diverse sampling of the styles that still define the record biz.

At first, it seemed like a bona fide way of exposing and injecting new talent into the system until I started thinking about the people doing the judging, most notably Cowell and Reid, since both have been credited with generating millions of dollars in revenue by uncovering and developing successful acts. Record companies have suffered from an assembly line mentality in the recent past to the point where each new act is basically a clone of the previous one. I usually tell my media classes that this creates "disposable" pop stars who are interchangeable, and that the companies would rather spend 80 million to acquire a Mariah Carey or a Justin Timberlake than invest in a variety of acts with no obvious future.To extend the train of thought, it follows that judges with that type of mentality will instinctively look for talent that fits their mold.

Consequently, instead of truly dredging up uniqueness, the Xfactory promotes sameness. You can certainly understand the reasons why, especially the staggering amounts the music companies invest to launch an act. Yet I can't help wondering for what it's worth if someone like Janis Joplin or Carlos Santana would have ever left their respective stamps on the industry without the nurturing of Clive Davis, or if Diana Ross and the rest of the Motown lineup would have made out of Detroit without Berry Gordy,.or if Aretha Franklin could have survived without Ahmet Ertegun and Atlantic. The alternative these days is a band like The Bare Naked Ladies promoting themselves online without a label as well as solidifying their fan base with cruises and ongoing events, or the famous benchmark set by Radiohead when the group suggested fans pick their price for their product. Fortunately, as an African drummer once told me in an interview, talent is like smoke under a blanket - no matter how much you try to cover it over, it will come out.