Rebecca Ferguson X Factor

[murraymints]

That was so embarrassingly awful don't you think ?

[pixie373]

I totally agree, jj. But this isn't the "music business". It's just commercial pop. As you say, there are lots of great singers and musicians, but they tend to actually write and perform their own music. I would debate whether someone singing along to a backing track written and performed by a computer, can be called "music" at,all.

[andy-hughes]

jj - "You wouldn't spend money to go and see any of them."

That is absolutely the key to the whole 'talent show' system.

If you are in everyone's living room on a Saturday night for three months leading up to Christmas, and you DON'T have a Christmas Number One single, then something has gone wrong somewhere.

But ... by August the following year - do you have an audience who will buy your music and pay to see you perform?

That is where the wheat/chaff separation really shows.