Sunday, December 23, 2012

Is X Factor a Fixed Southern Fried Fraud?


 
Okay, imagine in what Universe this would be fair, to take 1 Country Act and let it compete against the split vote of two Popular Acts, and then allowing the Country Act to win with a minority of the vote.  This is about what happened – the Cowboy Hat Act got about 42% of the Vote.  Carly Ann Sonenclar got 41% of the vote, but the other Popular Girl Act got 17% of the vote.  Carly Rose would have needed only 2% more of the vote to beat Potato “Tate” Stevens, and if the vote had been only Him against Her then she probably would have won with a better than a 12% margin of victory.  Now that would have been the obviously fair way to conduct the competition, but they didn’t do that, did they.  You know, in many Democracies they never allow a ‘Winner’ with less than 50% of the Vote, or they do a run off Election.  X-factor needs to conform to at least a common sense level of ethics.  Already one of their Judges has resigned – the Black One, no less.  I suppose the remaining Judges are Stupid, or think We are.  

 

Also, I was thinking, that this split the Yankee Vote strategy could only win if the Dixie Cowboy Hat Vote was not also fragmented.   But notice, from the very beginning, there was only 1 Cowboy Hat Act.   Was ‘Tater’ Steven ever any good?  Well, no better or worse than the big fat full voice that can be found in any small town church choir.  But he was the ONLY Cowboy hat to show up, and so he was going to be the Predestined Winner of X-Factor.  That is simply how the Demographic Math goes.   You see, the Yankees, on both the West and East Coasts and in the Upper Mid-West, they will divide their votes fairly for whatever talent they see and hear, Black or White, Rock or Pop.  Whereas the Red States, the Bible and Incest Belt, those States largely suspected of callous and severe bigotry, well, they would vote only for a Cowboy Hat Act, not so much because they particularly like the talent, but that they would do anything to spite the Yankee Vote.   Do you think I am overly cynical?  Well, note the History of the Dixie Chicks, where the South was willing to jeer and harass and chase even its own name-sakes into exile for breaking with some perceived notion of Southern Solidarity against the Yankees.  And, now look how all of those Red States suddenly want to withdraw from the United States of America and become their own little Hateful Republics because a Black Man won the Presidency… again… one time and they can take it as some kind of a historic joke, useful for telling the Minorities of America and the World that American Racism no longer exists and so they need to stop their crying about all the still apparent Institutionalized Racism; but then to let the Blacks win the Presidency twice, well, that is no longer funny or useful and so they apparently find it intolerable against their Family Values, that, well, that the people in power have to be the same color as the rest of their family… and wear Cowboy Hats as a symbol of their Solidarity with the South and their implacable Hatred of Everybody Else.  So Dixie was just voting for the Tater’s Hat, and to spite the rest of the World who was voting for that funny looking little yankee girl with the foreign sounding name.

 

Now, why would the X-Factor Producers rig it up so that some no-talent Cowboy Hat would win their big prize – a 5 Million dollar Recording Deal.  Well, what exactly does Ol’ Tater win anyway?  How much of the 5 Million Dollars goes his way?  Probably not much.  What is really going on, I suspect, is that the Producers of the X-factor Show are also financially intertwined with the Record Company that will receive the 5 Million dollars for the “Record Deal”.  In effect, they are paying the money to themselves – the right hand giving the 5 million dollars to their own left hand… but behind the back, so to speak.   They want a Cowboy Hat Act to win, because, well, that is probably the kind of musicians they have under contract, and the kind of Tour Map they are used to.  They probably bave a few Cowboy Song Songwriters under contract who will now set to work tossing together a few generic Country Western Songs – faithful dogs, pickup trucks, and either laments concerning horribly slutty unfaithful girlfriends or wives, or impossibly idealistic love songs to perfectly virtuous female paragons, as though they are making love to their sisters and mothers, and not those real girls that they meet in the real world – the ones that end up being so slutty and unfaithful.  Anyway, Country Music is now hardly very creative, and it is enough to simply do the same old thing over and over again, just barely shuffling the same old words around and a bit of a tempo change between the same old chords.   But, what else is their Audience going to go off and see?  They are a captive audience, just as limited in their choice as the Gays in New York, who have to go see the same old stupid formulaic Broadway Plays that are offered or not see anything at all, but they certainly will never just stay home.  So it is that the country music fans will go and see whatever Cowboy Hat the record companies trot around for that season.   But it is kind of sad for Little Fat Boy Ol’ Tater Stevens.  He is doomed from the start.  He is really nothing but a Wannabee Garth Brooks, in a World where the Real Garth Brooks has been shuffled off as, well, “old hat”, that is, old cowboy hat.  The public has already had it with overweight clean cut family values big full voice church choir tenors.  It is either that, or, Garth Brooks, who epitomizes such a classic type, would be somewhere now making new records and touring his big fat butt off, instead of  being, well, somewhere in the middle of Country Nowhere wishing he had a good Day Job like Tater does.

 

Anyway, no hard feelings, Tater, I’m sure you weren’t smart enough to know you were winning a rigged game… your innocence in this Scandal is probably beyond reproach.   Oh, You do you know what is going to happen, don’t you?    They will take 5 minutes to get you to record about 12 songs – some famous covers,  and a few of those generic original songs by the record company hacks, and whatever was your signature song during the X-Factor extravaganza .  It will be a mix of ballads and up-tempo stuff.  It will come out sounding like Taylor Swift sung by an Old Fat Guy.  Nothing will be great, and the production values will be cheezy.  I don’t think that the 5 Million dollars will be frittered away paying for Studio Time, the Best song writers and the finest studio musicians, no, not if it will take away from the Executive Pay Budget.  Yes, do make it point to see the Accounting Sheets for that 5 Million Dollar Deal, and see what the Producers of X-Factor are cutting themselves in for, and what the Executives and Owners of the Record company cut themselves in for.   Oh, next.  You will go on tour to all the big Country Music Stops, on a Bus – again, all the costs coming out of ‘your’ 5 million dollars.  Cross your fingers that they don’t make you provide and set up your own equipment.  You will be promoted, more or less, as that big Fat X-Factor Cowboy Hat that was able to keep that little Yankee Foreign B__h from winning.  But you already did that, right?  Why should they see you Now?  So, guess what?  The Record Company won’t simply rely on you.  No, you will have an Opening Act, and probably a Second Act, that your Record Company actually has under something of a more permanent contract, and which they actually have some lasting stake in.  Yes, you will eventually be allowed to trot out on stage.  But rest assured that your Record Company already has plans for a third or maybe even a forth act to keep the crowd happy if you turn out to be a big flop.  Oh, and if you do suspect that the Record Company is unhappy, then, well, it sounds paranoid, but begin buying your own food and don’t eat or drink anything they provide.  You see, if you get ‘sick’ then you can probably be replaced on Your own Tour Schedule.  Just look at your Contract

 
Anyway, Tater, don’t burn down any bridges between you and that Day Job.

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