Talent Competition Shows – Are You A Fan?

With the start of the new “The Voice” season just around the corner I wonder what you all think of these singing and talent competition shows.

The opinions of some well known musicians are quite obvious:

“Television and video have done a lot of damage to music. They’ve propelled people into stardom that aren’t ready for it. ” -Sir Elton John
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jul/03/elton-john-blasts-talent-shows

“It’s destroying the next generation of musicians!” – Dave Grohl

http://deltaskymag.delta.com/Sky-Extras/Favorites/Rock–n–Roll-Jedi.aspx

But it’s apparent they are still well received or else the networks wouldn’t keep making them.

Full disclosure, I initially watched “The Voice” quite regularly as I bought in to the concept of “judging the voice without seeing the performer”. I thought, yes, maybe this will be less about who looks the best and fits the mold of a “commercial singing product” as a music industry marketing department might see them and more about actual vocal talent.

And perhaps it started that way but I believe it and most other talent shows have become more about the “judges” or “coaches” than the contestants. It’s well known that the coaches on “The Voice” have done very, very well since signing on to the show.  Adam Levine has admitted that “The Voice” has taken his band Maroon 5 from a slumping band in 2011 to a top selling and charting success and given Adam himself his own clothing line and two fragrances.

And who really ever had heard of Blake Shelton before “The Voice”? Now, he’s a household name more known for his on- show antics with Adam than his music.

I realize some of these shows have uncovered and produced genuine superstars, Carry Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Chris Doughtry, Jennifer Hudson but there are a large number of contestants that do well or win that go on to do virtually nothing and fade away as quickly as they rose to “fame”.

I do agree with both Dave Grohl and Sir Elton John as I posted above that to some degree, these shows give a false sense of what it takes to do well in the music industry and many people get propelled to a level of success of which they may not be ready for or truly deserving.