X-Factor case study

In our media studies class this week we had to assume we were a judge from X-Factor and we were placed in groups and I was part of team Gary.

Our first task was to Define the X-Factor in a sentence and our response was that it was a singing talent show.

We then had to say what we wanted to see this year from the contestants. Our response was a unique recording artist.

Lastly, we were asked what group we would like to have. We said we would want the boys because they are more likely to win and have a Christmas No 1 after the show.

We watched a few auditions from the first shows and had to say what feedback we would give them as they were standing on the stage. What would we be thinking from a professional point of view but we wouldn't neccessarily tell them whilst they were on the stage.

The auditionees were Janet Devlin, Frankie Cocozza, Goldie Cheung, 2 Shoes, The Keys, Jade Richards, Luke Lucas, Craig Colton, Amelia Lily, John Wilding, Terry, Winstanley and Misha Bryan.

One of the contestants were 2Shoes. From their audition we thought their audition was really good and they definitely had good recoding voice and they would fit into a genre.

From a professional point of view we thought that they needed an image overhaul and their fake tans needed to go if they were going to progress in the show because the looked a bit too much. Also, they needed to tighten their harmonising but it was pretty good at the moment.

Another contestant were The Keys. We thought their audition was really good and gave a lasting impression and they also had a good image so their audience would be teenage girls.

From a professional point of view we thought that they didn't fit a genre because they had everything going on from like RnB to hip hop so they would need to focus on one genre.

We then had to think if the contestants had anything special and if they were just singing they same thing we as audiences wanted to hear even if they sounded a bit different. We started talking about the culture industry and we looked at a theory by two men called Adorno and Horkheimer and this theory was taken from the book called Production of Culture/Cultures of Production Paul Du Gay, Sage 1997. Adorno and Horkheimer adopted the term 'culture industry' to argue that the cultural items were produced was the same to how other industries manufactured vast quantities of consumer goods.

They linked the idea of the 'culture industry' to the model of 'mass culture' in which cultural production had become a routine, standardized repetitive operation that produced undemanding cultural commodities which in turn resulted in a type of consumption that was also standardized and passive. They argued that form of music, art and literature produced today were the same thing and nothing was different and it had been corrupted by the production methods and regimes of industrial capitalism. This is because most record labels are privately owned and they will tell an artists like JLS who did not win X-Factor but are signed Epic records who will make them bring put records that will sell and change from who they were.

This video shows JLS when they first auditioned and the genre of music they sang was like soul and they harmonised a lot which made them look more original and gave them individualism.

This video is JLS's most recent video and after going through the X-Factor machine they sole purpose in making music now is for the record company they are signed to to make money they have stripped away all their individualism and made them into a group that teenage girls will like. The repetitive chorus of this JLS song and frequently recurring refrains makes each song more commercial and the more people hear it everywhere, the more they want to but an album or download the song. So Adorno and Horkheimer said it is all done for calculated commercial reasons so that the song will imprint itself on the listeners mind and provoke a purchase.
Adorno and Horkheimer also said that the songs produced today are not spontaneous and there is nothing special everything we hear on the radio is the same and watch on TV. Our brains as an audience is meant to reject anything that isn't familiar and listen to the things they want us to listen to.