At school if you were to win a talent show contest you would probably be rewarded by a brief moment of applause and perhaps if you were lucky, a milky way bar and a pat on the back from your mum. Indeed, if you were to win any of the TV talent shows of the bygone era such as Opportunity Knocks or New Faces you would at the very most be classified as the winner of the show and that was it. Now of course being the winner of a show back then wasn't such a bad thing- you would be on TV and be seen by millions of viewers and therefore the exposure you would get is a big reward in itself. Many winners or just contestants that appeared on shows such as New Faces made their careers in the 70's/80's from these shows. Les Dawson, Lenny Henry , Paul Daniels , Michael Barrymore, and Jim Davidson to new a few that made their careers after being contestants. The biggest reward therefore is appearing on television and getting the exposure you would want from appearing on national television.
The reward of exposure nowadays is of course much greater considering the internet age where clips on YouTube can bring in views in the millions. Where people from all over the world that isn't just in the country the program is broadcast, can view the talent (or lack of) on display from contestants. We do live in an age where record company producers and talent scouts will find clips of people on websites if they are popular enough and have the exposure where a record deal is not completely out of the question. To use the admittedly worrying example of Justin Bieber - here was a kid that had a YouTube channel and got some attention and as a result he was snapped up by a record company. When looking at contemporary TV talent shows like BGT- The prize for winning is not only massive exposure but also the prize of being able to perform at the Royal Variety. Oh, and £100,000. Not bad. Not bad at all. The thing is though is that unlike most competitions where you lose- losing isn't necessarily going to be the end of things. If you lose at sports day (which for the record I did quite consistently ) you kind of ...well...you lose. You didn't win so by that very definition you kinda lose. But the exposure on TV talent shows often mean that just appearing on it can have the potential to change your life, and sometimes being a runner-up means that you can go on to have more success than the actual winner. [The Talent Show Story, 2011]
Let's take an example from the hit talent show Pop Idol (2001) where in the 2nd series a woman called Michelle McManus was the competition. Who? you know! Michelle! Large lady...no. Well let's take a look at the winners of The X Factor during the early series. Steve Brookstein? Shayne Ward? I suppose the point I am getting to is that being a winner isn't necessarily a link to success. I think the majority of winners are prone to winning Christmas number 1 and then eventually being dropped by their record label when their first album doesn't sell by the bucket-load.
It could be argued and it will because I am about to- that this isn't much a reflection of TV talent shows as much as a reflection of the music industry. In quite simple terms if an artist does no sell many albums and the record company isn't making money from him/her they will drop the artist. It's really simple and naturally driven by money and success. Many artists of the past regardless of whether they appeared on a TV talent show are going to come across the unfortunate situation where at some point in their career they hit and all-time high and strike a number one song or album. but 3 years later they are working as a plumber or have given up music entirely. It's the very nature of the industry to welcome and invite a great musician with open arms when they get a number one single- and then pat them on their backs and show them the door out when their next album is great car boot sale material, and is strewn with cobwebs on a shelf in your local HMV. I think though that TV talent show stars potentially have a shorter stay in the limelight than most performers, because there is that shadow lingering over them which says that the whole thing is just a more extended "15 minutes of fame!" which is drawn out to be a slowly declining 15 weeks of fame. At most.
The best way I could describe it is that because the show is on TV and being watched by millions- people vote for the person they like the most and the whole thing is like some theatre production where people want the hero to triumph. A few weeks later they win and the audience goes wild and everyone sheds a tear as confetti falls on stage. Soon after that the theatre production ends, packs up and moves away. Nobody really cares any more. Somebody has won because people liked what they did and was entertained on a Sunday night when there was nothing else worth watching on TV, but it doesn't mean they will rush out the following day and buy their albums and list them amongst their favourite musicians. In a lot of ways it's like glorified big budget karaoke competition night down your local , where the winner walks away with a goofy grin on their face and a packet of pork scratchings, and mildly drunk people are telling them they are BRILLIANT and should apply for the X-Factor. But the week after they couldn't care less.
Let's take the winner of series one of the X-Factor as an example. The previously mentioned Steve Brookstein who won the show in 2004 and won the Christmas number 1 race with his cover of "Against All Odds" that December.
Remember this guy? Nope. Nobody does.
Roll on a few years and after a few failed albums and what's he up to now?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1254549/X-Factor-winner-Steve-Brookstein-plays-pubs-Simon-Cowell-fall-out.html
Well last year he played a gig at a Cornish pub. Which was a complete sell-out with tickets only costing £2.50 each which all of 50 people happily paid for. You even get a discount if you buy a pork pie from the pub, how could you refuse. When Brookstein isn't directly contributing to the Cornish pork pie market, he's busy writing his book lovingly titled "X-Factor Nightmares: The Manipulations. The Greed. The Deceptions" which details his outspoken thoughts on the X-Factor and his career and his falling out with Simon Cowell.
[The Daily Mail Online, March 2011]
Another person to fallout with Simon Cowell aganist his policies of churning out cover albums and being generally discarding of talent was Pop Idol winner Will Young, who is currently enjoying much greater success then Brookstein did very much not courtesy of Simon Cowell. Indeed, not everyone who has appeared on or won a TV Talent show has suffered the same fate. Will Young, Alexendra Burke, and Leona Lewis is certainly in a position where they can claim they may have sold a few million albums.
So there we are. It doesn't matter if you're a winner or a loser. You have to face up to what the music industry is and it's clearly a tough joint. You have to face the fact that you may have to enter that spotlight and leave and pack your bags the moment the show ends. It's like your granddad showing up to your primary school nativity play and tell you that you played the part of the one of the three wise men really well, when you know that you wore your mums tea towel on your head and made a bit of an arse of yourself, and tomorrow morning you have to get up early for double maths in the morning. Nobody is going to take you as a serious actor in that maths lesson tomorrow. And your granddad is going to forget your performance by the time Coronation Street is on the next day. In summary then- TV Talent shows appear to be a great potential gateway to fame, but once you're past the gate there's no guarantee of what's going to happen.
The reward of exposure nowadays is of course much greater considering the internet age where clips on YouTube can bring in views in the millions. Where people from all over the world that isn't just in the country the program is broadcast, can view the talent (or lack of) on display from contestants. We do live in an age where record company producers and talent scouts will find clips of people on websites if they are popular enough and have the exposure where a record deal is not completely out of the question. To use the admittedly worrying example of Justin Bieber - here was a kid that had a YouTube channel and got some attention and as a result he was snapped up by a record company. When looking at contemporary TV talent shows like BGT- The prize for winning is not only massive exposure but also the prize of being able to perform at the Royal Variety. Oh, and £100,000. Not bad. Not bad at all. The thing is though is that unlike most competitions where you lose- losing isn't necessarily going to be the end of things. If you lose at sports day (which for the record I did quite consistently ) you kind of ...well...you lose. You didn't win so by that very definition you kinda lose. But the exposure on TV talent shows often mean that just appearing on it can have the potential to change your life, and sometimes being a runner-up means that you can go on to have more success than the actual winner. [The Talent Show Story, 2011]
Let's take an example from the hit talent show Pop Idol (2001) where in the 2nd series a woman called Michelle McManus was the competition. Who? you know! Michelle! Large lady...no. Well let's take a look at the winners of The X Factor during the early series. Steve Brookstein? Shayne Ward? I suppose the point I am getting to is that being a winner isn't necessarily a link to success. I think the majority of winners are prone to winning Christmas number 1 and then eventually being dropped by their record label when their first album doesn't sell by the bucket-load.
It could be argued and it will because I am about to- that this isn't much a reflection of TV talent shows as much as a reflection of the music industry. In quite simple terms if an artist does no sell many albums and the record company isn't making money from him/her they will drop the artist. It's really simple and naturally driven by money and success. Many artists of the past regardless of whether they appeared on a TV talent show are going to come across the unfortunate situation where at some point in their career they hit and all-time high and strike a number one song or album. but 3 years later they are working as a plumber or have given up music entirely. It's the very nature of the industry to welcome and invite a great musician with open arms when they get a number one single- and then pat them on their backs and show them the door out when their next album is great car boot sale material, and is strewn with cobwebs on a shelf in your local HMV. I think though that TV talent show stars potentially have a shorter stay in the limelight than most performers, because there is that shadow lingering over them which says that the whole thing is just a more extended "15 minutes of fame!" which is drawn out to be a slowly declining 15 weeks of fame. At most.
The best way I could describe it is that because the show is on TV and being watched by millions- people vote for the person they like the most and the whole thing is like some theatre production where people want the hero to triumph. A few weeks later they win and the audience goes wild and everyone sheds a tear as confetti falls on stage. Soon after that the theatre production ends, packs up and moves away. Nobody really cares any more. Somebody has won because people liked what they did and was entertained on a Sunday night when there was nothing else worth watching on TV, but it doesn't mean they will rush out the following day and buy their albums and list them amongst their favourite musicians. In a lot of ways it's like glorified big budget karaoke competition night down your local , where the winner walks away with a goofy grin on their face and a packet of pork scratchings, and mildly drunk people are telling them they are BRILLIANT and should apply for the X-Factor. But the week after they couldn't care less.
Let's take the winner of series one of the X-Factor as an example. The previously mentioned Steve Brookstein who won the show in 2004 and won the Christmas number 1 race with his cover of "Against All Odds" that December.
Roll on a few years and after a few failed albums and what's he up to now?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1254549/X-Factor-winner-Steve-Brookstein-plays-pubs-Simon-Cowell-fall-out.html
Well last year he played a gig at a Cornish pub. Which was a complete sell-out with tickets only costing £2.50 each which all of 50 people happily paid for. You even get a discount if you buy a pork pie from the pub, how could you refuse. When Brookstein isn't directly contributing to the Cornish pork pie market, he's busy writing his book lovingly titled "X-Factor Nightmares: The Manipulations. The Greed. The Deceptions" which details his outspoken thoughts on the X-Factor and his career and his falling out with Simon Cowell.
[The Daily Mail Online, March 2011]
Another person to fallout with Simon Cowell aganist his policies of churning out cover albums and being generally discarding of talent was Pop Idol winner Will Young, who is currently enjoying much greater success then Brookstein did very much not courtesy of Simon Cowell. Indeed, not everyone who has appeared on or won a TV Talent show has suffered the same fate. Will Young, Alexendra Burke, and Leona Lewis is certainly in a position where they can claim they may have sold a few million albums.
So there we are. It doesn't matter if you're a winner or a loser. You have to face up to what the music industry is and it's clearly a tough joint. You have to face the fact that you may have to enter that spotlight and leave and pack your bags the moment the show ends. It's like your granddad showing up to your primary school nativity play and tell you that you played the part of the one of the three wise men really well, when you know that you wore your mums tea towel on your head and made a bit of an arse of yourself, and tomorrow morning you have to get up early for double maths in the morning. Nobody is going to take you as a serious actor in that maths lesson tomorrow. And your granddad is going to forget your performance by the time Coronation Street is on the next day. In summary then- TV Talent shows appear to be a great potential gateway to fame, but once you're past the gate there's no guarantee of what's going to happen.
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