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Originally Posted by jet
You can’t ‘push’ a person to have the X Factor – they either have it or they don’t. You say you don’t think Jahmene has anything going for him and even his vocal ability isn’t that great so why then do you insist he is the X Factors big guns chosen one? If they are sabotaging Chris because he hasn’t been in the bottom 2, they could do the same with jahmene. If he hits wrong notes all over the place and screeches like Johnny Robinson as you insist he does why would they even want him to win? Why wouldn't they criticize him and use that to sabotage him to make sure Union J or James wins?
They seem a better bet for chart success anyway. Jahmene is cute, but he isn’t the sort of boy young girls really go for – Union J fits the bill here according to your reasoning. Do you really think their ‘target audience of young girls’ are going to be swooning over Jahmene and buying his records in their thousands/millions? Really? Pop music isn't his forte.
I believe they simply hear what I hear and what many viewers hear and think he’s a great singer who isn’t the usual pop act the show churns out but has a future selling albums to a niche audience. Even I suspect that Jahmene isn’t going to be setting the current charts alight for the next 5 years. That is where we differ in our opinions. When I watch the X Factor I’m not looking for a fluffy pop act like Little Mix. I do enjoy them and I love many different types of music and I find the show entertaining but ultimately I’m hoping for someone with a VOICE – a person who makes my spine tingle and who has depth and a long time career that doesn’t rely on getting into the Top 20 to be seen as ‘successful’.
Leona Lewis will be around long after Little Mix and Cheryl Cole have called it a day. Can you see them making pop records in 10 years time? Leona could well still be around, Joe McElderry even could still be around, Jahmene could still be around because they have a VOICE and that is their strength. They could be selling albums pretty steadily for a long time to come because they are unique AND have good voices and don't rely on the fleeting whims of teenyboppers.
They won’t be making their label a fortune, but how many do these days? Joe was dropped by the label, so they aren’t ‘stuck’ with any winner long term but another label snapped him up and he has a good fan base of ‘older fans’ who love his voice.
The X factor ideally want to discover acts who will make them a lot of money short term in an industry that is fickle and ever changing. It’s not a disaster if their fav doesn’t win -– they make their bucks anyway. One Direction, Olly Murs, JLS didn’t win but they are more successful than the winners apart from Leona and to a lesser extent Alexandra. Cher Lloyd, Rebecca Ferguson, Misha B, Amelia Lily didn’t win but are doing well.
For those reasons I never stress over who actually wins.
They didn’t set out to destroy the reputation of anyone before regardless of who they wanted as their winner. Every business uses the press but to say that X Factor bosses seek out people and pay them dirty money to deliberately bring down the reputation of decent people just because they want a particular winner is just too farfetched. If Chris wins and they want rid of him they will have him release an album and if it doesn't do well they can get shot of him like they did with Joe. If he won't go quietly they can do like they did with Shayne Ward and keep putting off working on his next release until everyone forgets about him anyway.
I don't believe it matters so much to them who the winner is that they are willing to destroy someone’s reputation and possible future employment prospects.
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You're right, you can't push a person into having something if they don't have it, but they pick 12 contestants every year and they have to make do with what they are left with towards the end. He is their chosen one because he and Chris are the only two who have yet to be in the bottom two and, as I said, they don't want to be tied into a record deal with Chris because they're not going to be able to make him appeal to the target demographic. Jahmene is the more likely of the two to be able to do that. Yeah, for them in an ideal world, Union J would be that act who would take on that mantle, but they've been in the bottom two a few times so their popularity isn't going to tide them over to a victory. They're not going to sabotage Jahmene because he's getting the votes that Union J and James Arthur are not. By the half way point, the only acts getting criticism were Chris, Rylan and District 3. Chris because they don't want him to win, Rylan because he's the joke act and District 3 because they didn't want the boy band vote to be split and they evidently had less support by virtue of being in the bottom two so early on against Melanie. It's called cutting your losses.
They aren't going to be swooning over him, that's my point, but he's more marketable than Chris - even though he isn't all that marketable as a pop star anyway. This is my point, we're splitting hairs over the same thing - they want Jahmene to win because they can do more with him than they can with Chris. Jahmene is going to flop, just like Joe McElderry, because his voice and personality do not belong in pop music. The sad truth is that success IS measured against chart positions. No one is going to fund someone who doesn't sell well - and selling well reflects in chart positions. This goes back to my point about Leona Lewis. She's struggling to sell albums and singles, and even she's turned to a dance sound to try and shift some copies. It has very little to do with vocal ability, and everything to do with image and overall performance skills. Being able to sing well might have cut it twenty years ago but pop music is so competitive nowadays, you need to bring more to the table. Cheryl Cole has been around for ten years, so I don't even get what that comparison is about - and only time will tell for Little Mix, but they've had two number 1s out of three singles so I foresee a pretty lengthy career for them already. I think you're wrong about the 'voice' artists though. They rely on the teen market just as much as anyone else, because it's the market that buys music the most.
I completely disagree with you. They've had more flop winners than they have successful ones. Not one of their successful winners has been male. They desperately wanted Olly Murs to win because he was lively, had a personality and was a good performer. He's still selling records for that precise reason. They absolutely do not want Chris Maloney, the antithesis of that, to win, because he will go the way of Steve Brookstein, Leon Jackson, Joe McElderry, Matt Cardle et al. At least with Jahmene he's young and cute in a little brother kind of way. They're not just going to accept having a crap winner who they'll never release successful records through if they can do anything about it. Even in the subtle things like revealing the story about Jahmene's dad to evoke sympathy, and drawing attention to the "Chris votes for himself" thing to make him look desperate and ridiculous.