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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: X Factor

  • Cowell Quits

    Multiple sources, none more important than the man himself, confirmed today that Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol after this season, which starts Tuesday.

    Cowell is regularly chastised for his heavy-handed treatment of contestants on the popular singing show, but is also routinely recognized as the most accurate judge.

    Sonic Clash readers shouldn’t dig too deeply into the tea leaves on this one.  The 50 year old music magnate is the executive producer of the wildly popular show The X Factor, a phrase he tries to insert into Idol commentary every so often.  His Idol contract included a non-compete clause and when Cowell couldn’t get traction on having that clause waived, he announced he would let his contract lapse and bring an American version of The X Factor to Fox.

    As with most things, Cowell’s decision appears to be financially influenced.  As the defacto star of American Idol, Cowell’s compensation is lucrative, but nowhere near as lucrative as executive-producing his own show.  We see this same trend in bands all the time.  The band members who write the songs make more money — a lot more money — than those who only perform.

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  • Raging Against Christmas: Anarchy in the U.K.

    It’s quite a big deal to have the #1 single in the UK over Christmas. Over the years, that spot has hosted artists ranging from Band Aid (whose “Do They Know It’s Christmas” topped the chart in 1984) to Mr. Blobby (don’t feel bad if you don’t know who that is…unfortunately, I do).

    Anyway, for the past few years, the Christmas #1 in Britain has been tied in with “X Factor”, AKA the British version of “American Idol”. Like “Idol”, “X Factor” is spearheaded by Simon Cowell. Although the show doesn’t mean much on U.S shores, it has spawned at least one certified hitmaker (for a brief time, anyway) in Leona Lewis.

    One guy took exception to Cowell’s domination of the UK charts (and what it represents to true music fans) and started a Facebook campaign to get people to download Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” in the hopes that it would prevent “X factor” winner Joe McElderry from hitting the #1 spot with his cover of Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” (I can’t make this stuff up folks).

    So, the results are in and the #1 single in the UK is…”Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine! Half a million people downloaded it last week, pushing the 18-year old song to the top of the charts. This chart victory is all kinds of symbolic, proving the fact that British music fans are a little tired of having processed musical cheese shoved down their collective throats (although it might have been better had they used their Facebook clout to promote a new artist who needs the publicity). It’s also cool that the guys from Rage have promised to donate money to charity as a result of their chart-topping success. Now if we could just do something about Susan Boyle here in the States…

  • Simon Cowell’s Favorite Audition

    Simon Cowell
    Image by cliff1066 via Flickr

    A day after making UK headlines by badmouthing auditions of hit show The X Factor, Simon Cowell anointed a Susan Boyle successor yesterday.

    Britain’s newest star and the Internet’s latest viral video belongs to handsome 27 year old Danyl Johnson. No, Daryl Johnston is the football announcer. Danyl is a guy who sang With A Little Help From My Friends and then proved he only needed four friends when the judges cooed, oohed and ahhhed over his performance.

    The show has locked the video tight, apparently wanting to track how it can create buzz.  We caught the news on the overnight wires, waited a little while to see what would happen after Cowell, looking more moguly by the week, declared it “the best first audition” he heard on the show.    US visitors can’t see the video on the show’s official site and there is absolutely no embedding allowed anywhere, but we have a link to an official video posted to You Tube.

    Get ready for Danylfever.  And the dude better hope he doesn’t pass by any windows when a newly minted Scottish diva with a fresh makeover is lurking nearby.