Maybe I just don’t want it bad enough.
You won’t find me lined up under a suburban sun, periodically sheltered by the drifting shadows of a hard-to-get-to arena. Nor will I arrive anywhere by 6am, if I’m not needed until 6pm. I like food and water, and won’t fast no matter how good my spot is. I will not tailor my look to be the right amount of crazy, my story the right amount of sad, and my voice the right amount of eager, (even if I am accosted by a headset toting crowd controller and asked to do so). I don’t have the energy to impress pubescent producers and no named experts; I’m simply a figurative Eeeyore when it comes to this sort of thing.
Yet millions of people gather each year, auditioning for a sparkly career & instant success by way of winning a reality TV music competition. This week, I became one of those people...
Thankfully I missed all of the above, as I was scouted for The Voice UK (instead of attending the open auditions), but I did hear horror stories from my fellow scoutees. I didn’t manage to avoid over 5 hours of nervously waiting for my name to be called, or feeling like cattle being shuffled from one room to the next. I smiled to myself in elevator rides filled with the humming of scales and the rolling of lips. I couldn't help but role my eyes amidst endless guitar tuning, 9am stage makeup and doe eyed hopefuls. I genuinely felt for those with watery eyes in hotel corridors though. Overall, it was a memorable experience, made bearable by the incredibly kind and welcoming staff of 'The Voice'.
I am not expecting a call back after my audition (I gave myself a 6/10). But this opportunity has opened my eyes to a very slick operation, operating under the premise of producing 'stars', but it could be ratings, I'm not sure.
There are obvious benefits to being on this type of show, and many people have had their careers kick started this way. However, the undercurrent belying this generational shift in the way we find and nurture talent, has many artists grasping at proverbial straws, wondering how they got there, and if this is the only way.
The reality is, there are thousands of artists with legitimate potential going unnoticed each season, and there are countless winners who no none remembers. As an artist, what is the appeal? To try and impress a biased, mind-already-made-up producer? To have your skills overlooked, in favour of people who are so bad, they are good to watch? To have your life deemed too sane and your talent too polished? And if you win, 'oh you won X Factor' *deathly silence*, or 'can you do anything besides sing covers?'. Winning or loosing, you've got your work cut out for you.
Surely as contributors and consumers of reality TV, we need to know that ratings often trump talent. And at the end of the day, it is a TV show first and foremost.
This competition is great for the artist who has grown up wanting to be great at what they do, instead of wanting to be famous. The show can be like a surgical procedure- the breaking of bad techniques and the stitching up of by professionals, and I would milk the show for all it's worth as a contestant (knowing the gold is in the journey). But for the artist who hasn’t experienced an open-mic night fail, watched and appreciated the slow and steady incline of social media followers, and lived an unmanaged, unsigned, un-financed life within the music industry, the show acts more like a Band-Aid. Ninety seconds worth of stage time (verse 1, chorus, big bridge, dramatic quiet chorus), a live band and some sequins mustn't be the goal. This approach is a quick fix, a way of fast tracking or bypassing the hard work that’s involved in building a career.
You don't want your success to roll out with the credits.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy though, in and amongst the waves of mediocre talent and fame seekers lining the pavements each year, is knowing the record labels are getting lazier because of it. There aren’t too many serious artists that I know of, hoping their BIOs read ’contended in such-an-such talent show’, but most of us are belittling our talent (singing covers instead of our own material, singing in genres we don't love, not playing our instruments) in front of millions each night, because how else will we get signed? How else will we get noticed? If the only way we find and support new talent, both as industry folk and as music lovers, is by way of sitting on the sofa, actual talent will disappear as fast as the careers these types of shows produce.
A successful career is built by labels investing in ‘works in progress’, not finished projects. It’s built by a collection of people possessing vision, long-sightedness, and a commitment to the long haul. It’s built on the support of fans showing up to midweek gigs, and inviting their friends to like a band page. It’s built on an artist’s ability to evolve, grow, work hard and persist. A career is not built from a silver screen alone, it’s from a belief that great things take time, and don’t come on silver platters.