Recording Reality - Essay Example

Recording reality al Affiliation: Recording reality The X factor talent show The X factor is a music television in Britain aimed at finding new talent. Aspiring singers are given the opportunity to display their singing talents whereby at first they are subjected to public auditions. It is a reality show, which began in 2004 and was created by Simon Cowell. Since that time, the show has been aired on an annual basis from August through December. The show is then broadcasted on various TV stations like the ITV network in the United Kingdom and TV3 in the Ireland republic. This show acted as a replacement for another highly successful show ‘Pop Idol’. Simon Cowel, who was one of the judges of the Pop Idol show quit and launced his own show, the X factor and owned its television rights. However, there was a perceived similarity between the two shows and this created a legal dispute. The only existing difference between the shows is that in Idol, judges only sued to criticize the performances of the contestants, unlike in the X factor where the judges mentors the participants. Participants/ contestants have continued to gain popularity and publicity out of participation in this show. In addition, the winning person gets the prize of a recording contract (Blanco, 2014). The talent show is mainly concerned with locating a potential pop star individual or a group, singing talent, personality and appearance, stage presence and routines of dance, all these are fundamental elements of the participant’s performances. In the initial shows, each contestant performs once in the first show in the presence of some studio audience as well as judges, singing over a pre-recorded form of a backing track. Dancers are also featured in the whole process. Contestants are also allowed to carry with themselves guitars, a piano, or any other singing instrument. Purpose of the X factor talent show The X factor talent show is aimed at improving the lives of participants who have singing talents. Ben Haenow won the X factor and he could not believe it, this experience changed his entire life. Other purposes of the talent show include: Provide fun and entertainment to families, children and generally all viewers of ITV and other TV stations which air the program The provides an opportunity for the participants to display their performance and cultivating skills Raise funds for supporting and sponsoring certain programs and grants. Whereas not everyone admits to being a fan of the talent show, its strong appeal has spanned generations from different gender and socio-economic backgrounds. In addition to the purposes of entertainment and growing talents, the show also presents a mass marketing opportunity for businesses and organizations in the UK. Brands pay money in terms of premium for them to reach large audiences on the X factor especially on ITV. Any person of any age and those who believe that they have singing talents are always allowed to audition for the show to cultivate their talents. There have been a number of talent shows on TVs. This means that acts compete against each other to gain support of the audience and win their hearts. The X factor stands itself in a competent way since its authors and directors are well experienced in the field. The X factor talent show has not been without criticism and controversy since the time it was launched. As of September 2014, ten completed series of the show broadcast had already been aired on the ITV network. Some of the alleged controversies include; At one time, Judge Lous Walsh was allegedly accused of assisting contestants during auditions. It was claimed that he had personal connections with these contestants. In another incidence, Judge Sharon Osbourne was blamed of voting against some of the Simon Cowell’s contestants. Target audience X-factor has grown to be one of the largest brands in the world’s reality shows. A certain professor of marketing by the name Chris Hackley from the Royal Holloway conducted a research on the reasons behind the popularity of the X factor reality show and found out that the main reason has been the audience. Many people are obsessed with hit TV shows, which help in tapping into human needs for rituals of transformations and change. Together with his colleague in the same field, Professor Stephen Brown of the Ulster University claimed that many people worldwide love listening, hearing and watching stories. They love rags-to-riches fairy tale stories, which is a factor brought about by the show X-factor. The stories that we grew up hearing where a person’s life changes after being recognized as a superstar represent the main composition of the X-factor show. This kind of music competition satisfies the audience’s wish to see someone ordinary they know becoming a superstar and a public figure as well. The producers of X-factor know their target audience and what they wish to pass to them as efficiently as possible. Simon Cowell, the initial overseer of this talent show, thought and decided to come up with a show that connects emotionally with people’s audiences. People can talk about the difficulties of life and other personal issues during auditions. This show targets people who not only have the best voices but also someone with something special they can offer. For example, beautiful face, personal styles of singing, or an individual’s likeable personality. The factors matter a lot to the audience just as the way a product stands out from its competitors. Many people have continued to watch this show since it started. For example, in 2010, 17.7 million viewers in the whole world tuned in and watched Cher Swagger, Aiden and Katie Weep perform on stage. Interaction of the talent show with the definition of a documentary A documentary is a non-fictional picture in motion that is aimed at documenting some reality aspects for the purposes of instruction and maintaining a record of something historical. It is the innovative treatment of actuality. A documentary is a live show recorded for future use. The x factor is all about people presenting live in front of judges who at the end come up with a winner or the one with much talent than other performers. The proceedings are then recorded from where they can be retrieved in future, for instance YouTube. The x factor show is thus a documentary and confines itself clearly within the definition of a documentary. It lies in the genre of a reality TV show. This show consists of documented unscripted situations and occurrences that are real and features publicly unknown cast (Blanco, 2014). This show confines with the definition of a documentary since it represents something more of the normal news, sports coverage, current affairs, and entertainment programs. Events are recorded from a live event thus the concept of actuality is satisfied. In this show, the subject matter is grounded in real and factual life. The context of the program is treated as independent from the program itself. This means that the vents would still have happened irrespective of whether someone was there to record or not. The X factor show can be considered a documentary because of the following factors: (Blanco, 2014). The starting point of the program show is aimed in exploring the subject matter and a critical approach and analysis of the talent show. The audience need to have a general overview of what the program is all about The X factor program is much interactive and explains the idea, characters, participants in a special way It has an attracting appeal and relevance to the audience There is an information conveyed at the beginning of the show It is very important we note that the real and live happenings of the events does not represent a documentary but the recorded part of the show is a documentary and interacts clearly with its definition. In the show , there is an author, director, spectators, thus the X factor talent show is a conventional documentary. The talent show also records live recordings of contestants being trained during auditions, as well as the reactions to the current standing in the contests, which is a major element of the cotemporary documentary. A documentary is any form that is aimed at recording live events for instance in the case of X factor, auditions as well as the actual competitions are recorded to be aired later on the TV (Blanco, 2014). References Blanco, B. M. (2014). The Oxford handbook of dance and the popular screen. New York, NY.: Oxford Univ. Press. Read More