Hostname: page-component-7857688df4-92hv7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-13T19:18:11.446Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The X Factor and reality television: beyond good and evil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2016

Stephen Graham
Stephen Graham*
Affiliation:
Department of Music, Goldsmiths, London SE14 6NW E-mail: s.graham@gold.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite huge popularity and lasting cultural impact, reality television shows such as The X Factor, a British music competition that started screening in 2004, are seen by many as a cultural nadir. However, in this article I argue that, while reading reality TV as an index of an increasingly superficial, market-based culture makes a great deal of sense, it doesn't tell the whole story. Using the particular music-based dramas of The X Factor as a case study, I explore ways in which this show and populist reality television in general might be seen to embody both the predicaments and potential pressure points of contemporary neoliberal culture.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 36 , Special Issue 1: The Critical Imperative , January 2017 , pp. 6 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Armstrong, S. and Skinitis, A. 2016. ‘Britain's got Talent returns this weekend, but is the day of reality talent shows almost over?’, Radio Times, 9 April, http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-04-09/britains-got-talent-returns-this-weekend-but-is-the-day-of-reality-talent-shows-almost-over (accessed 24 August 2016)Google Scholar
BBC. 2009. ‘X Factor's Simon Cowell wants to run election debates’, BBC News, 14 December, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8411387.stm (accessed 24 August 2016)Google Scholar
Coleman, S. 2006. How The Other Half Votes: Big Brother Viewers and the 2005 General Election (London, Hansard Society)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, J. 2012. The Communist Horizon (London, Verso)Google Scholar
Ewing, T. 2014. ‘Westlife – “swear it again”’, Freaky Trigger, 12 October, http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/2014/10/westlife-swear-it-again/ (accessed 4 December 2014)Google Scholar
Gilbert, J. 2013. Common Ground: Democracy and Collectivity in an Age of Individualism (London, Pluto)Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1991. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Translated by Burger, T. and Lawrence, F. (Cambridge, MA, MIT)Google Scholar
Hardt, M. and Negri, A. 2009. Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (London, Penguin Books)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, D. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford, Oxford University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hearn, A. 2010. ‘Reality television, The Hills, and the limits of the immaterial labour thesis’, triple C, 8/1, pp. 60–76 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meizel, K. 2011. Idolized (Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press)Google Scholar
Rose, R. and Wood, S.L. 2005. ‘Paradox and the consumption of authenticity through reality television’, Journal of Consumer Research, 32/2, pp. 284–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skeggs, B. 2009. ‘The moral economy of person production: the class relations of self-performance on “reality” television’, The Sociological Review, 57/4, pp. 626–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skeggs, B. and Wood, H. 2012. Reacting to Reality Television (London, Routledge)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentine, G. 2015. ‘UnREAL, I Am Cait, and accidental authenticity in reality TV’, The AV Club, 3 August, http://www.avclub.com/article/unreal-i-am-cait-and-accidental-authenticity-reali-223023 (accessed 4 November 2016).Google Scholar
Wall, T. 2013. ‘ The X Factor ’, in Barthes’ ‘Mythologies’ Today: Readings of Contemporary Culture, ed. Bennett, P. and McDougall, J. (London, Routledge), pp. 19–23 Google Scholar
Wintour, P. 2010. ‘Public to choose policies as coalition gets the X Factor’, The Guardian, 27 December 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/dec/27/public-policies-coalition-x-factor (accessed 24 August 2016)Google Scholar