Tim and the Tin Titan

2.10.03

Please Stop
Stop the singing on television. Please. Engough already. I was never a big fan of live singing on TV. I do like music videos, but those are more like mini-movies to me. The musical guest is always the segment I flip channels on. So in this light, I can't take one more stupid "sing on TV an be famous" show.

The first American Idol was something of an oddity. It was a show where they showed you the crass and shallow side of the music business and instead of being weirded out by it, the public lapped it up and asked for more. They wanted "their" singers to win.

But now it's American Idol 2, Junior Idol, Canadian Idol (Ben Mulroney... yerk), the one where people dance instead of sing, etc... And here in Quebec, we are treated to our local version: Star Academie. Imagine Big Brother combined with Idol and you get the Idea. And like everything "reality TV" in Quebec, it's a copy of a French (or Belgium, can't remember) show.

The worst thing about the show is that it is the product of Quebecor Media, a giant communications company. They own TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines and a record label. The whole incestuous chain in one convenient stop. The gleaming example of this is that one evening on the show there was a "controversy" on how the voting was done to remove someone. The next morning the Journal de Montreal had a full front page splash "Contreverse à Star Academie!" on the cover with a huge picture of the evicted contestant. And what was the tiny little by-line at the bottom of the page? "300 morts dans une attaque terroriste à Bali". It's nice to see who owns the newspaper does not affect it's integrity or journalistic morals. Of course the "controversy" was all the talk on the radio stations and in all the magazines. The winners got a recording contract on Quebecors's label. It's blatant end-to-end manipulatiooffo the public by bombarding them into submission with all your media outlets and the CEO of thcompanyny is proud of this fact, as stated in this article.

Also, the fact that the winner gets so much exposure while having but so little effort into their "artistic" career seems very unfair. The actual artisbelieveses in his work, it becomes his life and passion, suffers for it, perseveres through the bad times. The real artists don't just take a half day off work to go stand in line and sing a tune, karaoke style, to some bored judges for a chance of going on TV.

But I know I am trying to swim up a raging river on this one. People look at me funny when they ask me who was my favorite on Star Academie and I tell them I did not watch the show.

Please, stop watching the shows, stop buying the album, just stop the singing...