Talent Shows

[john]

Hey

 

Do talent shows have any virtues? Are they an essential route to fame in the 21st century? If you don't think current talent shows have any credibility, is there anything that you think they could be doing that would be credible?

 

If you were to design a format for a credible talent show, what format would it take?

 

Or perhaps you think there is no need to be credible in the modern music industry?

 

Cheers

 

John

[MonoStone]

Depends what you call a 'talent show'... The recent 'UK's Best Part Time Band', and 'Guitar Star', were a little bit more credible...although nowhere near as credible or good as they could or should have been! But they weren't in the typical talent show format.

 

I don't like the XFactor style 'Star Factories' which tell the sheep what they want... But with or without them there have always been hugely popular artists who were never really credible anyway.... I dislike the sheep more than the shows.

 

I'd have to think really hard about whether I respect ANY artists who only perform covers or have everything written for them, especially if they even get told how to perform the songs.

 

I don't believe talent shows are an essential route to fame at all. There's no evidence to suggest that's the case. There are way more successful artists/bands that didn't make it via a talent show than did.

 

On one hand I think... IF John Martyn had been discovered on a talent show I'd enjoy his music and respect him just the same.... on the other hand I think... would the Britain's Got Talent crew have got him to wear a spangly jacket, choreographed him with some badly themed dancers, told him to ditch his best songs and got him a recording contract with someone who would never in a million years let him and the producer piss about sticking mics around a lake to record a 9 minute song with no recognisable structure just because it would be brilliant?

 

Oh hang on ... Simon Fuller partnered with Chris Blackwell!? WTF!? I just found out whilst writing this...that's spooky!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TapperMike]

Television or Live Performance?

 

Buddies of mine and I conceived and ran of this talent show which we purposely fixed not to win for ourselves.  It was all about making a few bucks.

We found this old dollar movie theater in a run down part of town that would run Dollar shows.  Yep that's right $1.00 for third or fourth run bad movies. They even had a .50 night.  We put together a "Battle of the Bands" as we were too young to get gigs in bars and too old for the high school party circuit.  Got bands like us, Printed of thousands of flyers, paid for advertising in the two local "scene" papers and in the hometown paper.

We worked our arses off to get the show launched.

 

We performed to a packed house. We placed third out of three.  When everyone was paid off we made 250 dollars split equally between our four man band.  Of the band I'm the last one playing an instrument.  We tried together, we tried apart. Jobs, families, life caught up with the rest of them.  As far as the other bands.... Only one member of the two five piece bands still performs as far as I know.  Nobody got PR out of it.  Nonetheless it was nice playing in front of a big crowd.  It was a great learning experience for me.  

 

With regards to open mic's.  I love em.  People think they are going to perform and enhance their following.  Regardless of how well they perform they don't take a bigger crowd then they left with.  Also they don't get paid. Maybe a bar will be nice and send you a free drink during the performance.  Open Mic's / Blues / Jazz jams are more about networking with local musicians.  You get to see what the competition is up to. You get to mingle with like minded performers. And if you haven't been on a stage performing before or you are rusty or you want to try out new ideas that's cool.  Careers, broader audiences, no.

 

As for TV what may make for a great 4 minutes of television viewing may also not make for a good career choice. 

 

 

[Rudi]

 

7 hours ago, MonoStone said:

Depends what you call a 'talent show'... The recent 'UK's Best Part Time Band', and 'Guitar Star', were a little bit more credible...although nowhere near as credible or good as they could or should have been! But they weren't in the typical talent show format.

 

I rather enjoyed 'UK's Best Part Time Band'. (I didnt see the other one).

 

I have never regarded music as competitive.

I know it's treated that way. Album & singles charts. Battle of Bands, talent shows etc.

 

MS makes a good point about John Martyn.

We can all think of major artists who could never cut it in a talent show. Dylan, Waits, etc. and if you did you would stifle their talent.

I think all of us have some crazy notions about music; myself included, but competition sits squarely in the crazy corner.

 

I don't think that talent shows have any creative value.

 

Can you become famous & make money from them? Yes.

[Mahesh]

As said by others, I too think that TV shows with format similar to the X Factor and American Idol are of not much value, at least not as much as it should have. 

 

As a singer-songwriter myself, though I can see these shows as a good way to maybe get to know a few people in the industry, it simply goes against my goals as being known as a singer songwriter since these shows only do covers. I've heard that because these producers don't have the rights to all the songs, you're choice of songs when you sing on these shows are also limited and the list merely includes the very popular ones most of the time. I wouldn't know of it personally but if it were true, what a bummer!

Though many have asked me to go for a particular show in India that is trending at the moment, I'm glad for more than one reasons that I decided not to go. 

 

[MonoStone]

1 hour ago, Mahesh said:

Though many have asked me to go for a particular show in India that is trending at the moment, I'm glad for more than one reasons that I decided not to go

 

Go on it...don't compromise...and walk off before the finals! Lots of exposure!  

[Mahesh]

1 hour ago, MonoStone said:

 

Go on it...don't compromise...and walk off before the finals! Lots of exposure!  

Yeah Dek. That was the only reason I considered going. But then it has been getting a LOT of backlash from the indie community because of its quality (allegedly. I don't want to comment).

Who knows, in the future seasons IF it gets better