The Man Who Hijacked Christmas

Call me a cynic. Simon Cowell has, as I am one of those who is just delighted that the Rock Band 'Rage Against The Machine' is challenging the single by the X Factor winner, Joe McThingie, for the No. 1 slot at Christmas.

I admit I know naff all about this band and their single, 'Killing In The Name', is about as Christmassy as 'God Save The Queen' by the Sex Pistols but this is one in the eye against the 'Formula' that makes Cowell and his backers millions each year. To boot, young Joe's voice is one I have heard many times before but cannot put names to it and the single, 'The Climb' is sugary claptrap, hastily put together to target the sales cycles that will get it into the charts for Christmas. If that is the standard of British music this year, then we have not progressed much. On the album side, Susan Boyle is dominating with historic high sales on Amazon.com - at least she has a profoundly different voice and helps light up old songs. McThingie, meanwhile, is all formula even though his voice is very good he brings little new life to existing songs as Will Young embarrassingly did not either.

The 'Formula' is cynically designed by Cowell & Co. The X Factor show serves up on a plate an audience participation melee which is carefully designed to build up to Christmas so that he delivers a package of around 30m viewers to his advertisers ensuring he gets top dollar on rates while a guarantee of a No. 1 single for the winner, regardless of what tripe they sing - it really does not matter as a big proportion of the audience who voted for the winner will buy the single even if they sang 'Bah, Bah Black Sheep' - frankly.

And that's how Simon Cowell has hijacked Christmas.

But two can play at that game. Cowell spends a good deal of his vast profit to ensure that the 'Formula' delivers the hit single at the right time via the prodigious viewing figures of the show. What is new is that the internet has the ability, through social networking, to take the germ of an idea of an individual and spread virally - for free - across the globe and get people to do things. The 'Formula' would not work if it cannot guarantee the Christmas No. 1 and Cowell will be a few pence poorer as a result.

But there is more than that at stake. Britain has always been the seeding ground of cutting edge music from Punk Rock to Glam Rock to Northern Soul - we have a history of innovation in music that comes from the grass roots. This whole Christmas affair is one strike back for the people who still fight to get on the bill of the local pub or club, who take their demo tapes around by hand to studios, who busk at Underground stations in the hope of being discovered. Talent endures and karaoke is just rehashing old songs with a slight difference and while that has a place, surely it is not at the top of the charts at Christmas.

While I am on the subject, I saw the dreadful video and song by Cheryl Cole the other day. She is beautiful, have no doubt, but dressed in stupid clothes and made up to look like some dominatrix took away all the good things about her. It's like the hair advert she does - all is fine until she opens her mouth and even some of that is dubbed. Talent does rise to the top - I am not that much of a cynic, but surely when we have grown bored with the 'Formula', as inevitably we will, the likes of Ms. Cole, as gorgeous as she is, will outlive their purpose.

I actually think it is Simon Cowell who has cynically used his 'Formula' to manipulate Christmas to fuel his personal wealth and excite the likes of Sir Philip Green to back the worldwide advance of the X Factor to make him even richer. Good luck to the guy - each to his own and he works hard for his success.

But let's make Christmas ours again. If Rage Against The Machine achieves that, then I am all for cynicism.

'Stinging' Attack

With a pretentious name like Sting, it's a tough call to say that the X Factor is 'TV Karaoke'.

He may have a few gold albums, Grammys and whatnot under his belt, but Sting doesn't seem to know his music after all. He has launched a pretty scathing attack on the X Factor branding it a 'soap opera with has nothing to do with music'.

He sort of gets it but he doesn't. The X factor, as everyone knows, has nothing to do with music but everything to do with a few people making a very great deal of money.

The fact that the public funds the entire contest plus the advertising over the endless monotony of each series, culminating with the play off between two acts guaranteed to get hit singles as the public has to maintain its loyalty, seems to elude him. The acts are just the fodder for the public and should any of them have an iota of talent, they signed away the rights to any real earnings at their applications for the first audition. None are expected to last - that's not the point as the next series provides the ongoing revenues. Why should Cowell care if anyone is actually any good?

Yes, it is about Simon Cowell self promotion and, no, it isn't about helping kids fulfil their dream. It is a rock solid formula to exploit the public's fascination with the sad spectacle of, and participation in, human competition, embarrassment and rejection. The cynical exploitation of Susan Boyle nearly ruined a genuinely sweet person's life but it has helped maintain a long forgotten career of a person who avoided the 'ugly stick' mainly thanks to the skills of a good plastic surgeon.

The formula is repeating in all formats from Strictly Come Dancing, to the ice skating version, and much more. But like it's forerunners of talent shows they all come to the end of their line - as even Big Brother did. By then, Simon Cowell will be very, very wealthy and, hopefully, forgotten. The one legacy will be that youngsters will think that success can come on a plate and last when it really doesn't. Will Young has shuffled away after his monotonous rendition of the classic soul song 'Come on baby light my fire' which was an embarrassment as well as an insult and it shows that while there is a voice, it does not mean you have talent. The lack of creativity is frightening as the performers even get told what to wear, steps to dance and how to behave. I somehow long for someone to bring back the days of wrecked hotel rooms, dead chickens and drug-laced blank interviews.

Sting needs to get a life and maybe prolong his career by doing a cover version of Jedward's first hit single. Which will probably be a cover version of one of his song's but only he will spot that.

Lack of Role Models?

It is fair to say that young people are sometimes wrongly led by modern role models. In a recent survey, careers at the top of young people's lists are no longer doctor or lawyer but singer or sports star.

I'm not sure how such careers got to the top of the list but certainly there is a growing belief, it seems, that success comes on a plate ala X Factor or scouts just arrive from Premier League clubs at your municipal sports ground. It appears that hard slog is no longer on the agenda - and some would say this a direct result of our 'Can Have' rather than a 'Can Do' culture of materialism and new found affluence, perhaps fuelled by the credit boom years since 1997. I don't know.

So scouring the Sunday Times on the weekend, I came across an article in the Appointments Section which intrigued me. Under a general article on the Law as a career, there was a pull out biography of a Mike Pullen, described as a 'Class Warrior'. Mr. Pullen has no doubt had an extraordinary and hard career, having not attended school until 12 as a fairground child. The rest you can read for yourself but suffice to say he is now at the top of his profession and he advises countries on how to deal with the EU and the World Trade Organisation. He cites that he gets on well with Iraqis as he also comes from a 'tribal society', having not lived in a brick building until he was 26. A great 'rags to riches story', it appears - the stuff of role models.

He claims he fought the class system as his accent was a negative for getting into the City, but he did. Pity for us Welsh too but we each have our cross to bear. Then it all goes belly up as he says, "If you want to be controversial, you would say the most disadvantaged minority is the white working class male. They've no role model, apart from drug dealers and footballers."

There was a bit of 'lawyer speak' up front so that you cannot say it was his real opinion but it is clear that it is by glancing at his background. It's the kind of comment that would appeal to Nick Griffin and the BNP Party - successful white lawyer fought prejudice to get to the top and it is a story tinted with colour. White working class men are at a disadvantage - and they don't even have role models.

I think his comment is both dangerous and laced with racial connotations and is not worthy f a successful person. You only have to look at people Lord Sugar or Sir Philip Green to see how people who come from a working class background can get to the top. I am always moved by the story of Bruce Oldfield who came from a Barnardo's Home to rise to the top of his profession - ah, but he was more advantaged because of his colour? There are many, many stories of not just sports people but business people who have made a great fist of their lives yet came from a working class background - and they would be people of any race, sex, colour, or disability. We might find that most people from a working class background who have made success are white - we may not. I would be more interested to know if coming from a working class background is a disadvantage at all - the opportunities are there for those with the commitment to to better themselves. I would suggest there are sectors of society far worse off than white working class males - if Mr. Pullen wants one great role model, look to Simon Weston. Neither his accent or his horrific burns or lack of education has held him back when any one of those could.

I don't see why white working class males should have a role model who is the same as them in terms of colour of their skin - what has that to do with it? I doubt if Tiger Woods thought about his origins when rising up to become the most brilliant golfer in the world in a sport dominated by white people, nor Arthur Ashe or Barack Obama for that matter but in professional careers and business we can all think of many people who rose to the top from working class backgrounds. Looking across the array of successful business or legal people, I suspect that there is a whole array of stories of hardship to get to the top, and it would have involved all sorts of race, sex and disability stories to go with it.

I come from a working class area although my father, a man with no degree, worked his way up from a working class background to become a highly rated professional in the oil business that gave me an advantage in life that I was very grateful for. He was always my role model because he worked hard for what he got and he developed skills and expertise of his own to become an invaluable commodity to his company, BP. It killed him in the end but that is a different story.

It also taught me that you may think you are disadvantaged in life but if all you do is wallow in your situation then it is highly likely that you will stay there. In my final year at college, I was the only graduate in my class who had got a job before my course ended. There was a good reason for that as we were in the turmoil of miner's and steel strikes - the same time as Mike Pullen was graduating the 'University of Life' - I applied to 72 companies, got 55 first interviews, made 23 second interviews and got offered two jobs. I went to work for Hewlett Packard, about who I had no idea when I applied, and the interviews were with real managers who were looking for something different in what was then, and now, a company that held talent in high regard rather than looked at your home background. My accent or background never held me back.

I think Mike Pullen is doing himself a disservice but he is definitely doing a disservice to others. I fail to resonate with his point and I think it is remark savoured by the wrong sort of people and serves as little inspiration to any working class person let alone white males. It is the kind of remark that is at the heart of the BNP's illogical ideal - if you are a white working class male, blame everyone else for your plight except yourself as you are disadvantaged.

How you better yourself has plenty to do with race, colour, age and disability and Britain has a track record of prejudice in all those areas. But to say that white people are discriminated against in Britain is worthy of the BNP only and it's why it is representative of the 'blame culture' that is growing in our society.

We are in a modern world and opportunities to grow ourselves abound. Mike Pullen could be a role model but he didn't have to be white to be one. If he wants to see what disadvantage is all about, take a trip to Africa and see at first hand. His eyes may just get opened.