The X Factor machine finally ends and not a moment too soon when it comes to artist’s mental health
If one show epitomised the old school vision of what an artist in the music industry is all about it is probably X Factor. It is truly timely given the mental health issues confronted by the legendary Simone Biles in a totally different but still very relevant arena of celebrity.
For many years as an agency, we have had artists approaching us who have been touched in some way by X Factor and the deeper the involvement, the more emotional impact their stories had and without doubt the greater the impact on their mental health. Now this isn’t to say that they were coming to us with stories of anything the show did wrong, as everyone understood the principle of the show given it was for many, part of their childhood dreams to appear on it. The constant theme was the belief that it would take them somewhere and that they were in some way important and misunderstanding that it was the show and the show alone which was important. In the early years it was vital that the winner/runner up , bronze medallist …succeeded in some way and this was epitomised by the hunger for the public and the show to achieve that Christmas Number 1 . Thanks to the wonderful campaign to get Rage Against the Machine to Number 1 over the festive period many years ago now, it highlighted a chink in the seemingly impregnable armour of the show to beat off all challenges and in some way started to spell the end of the beginning or is it the beginning of the end of the show.
The show took some of the contestants by surprise with its intensity and those who we helped in some ways came across as people who had been through some common experience which only those who had also been through it could understand. Rarely did any of the artists say how the show helped them but they always said how other contestants had helped them and supported them. Almost in the same way as people who have been through an accident where they all came out the other end but only those directly involved could share the fear, adulation, and stress of the whole experience. Then add to that the stories…. Not any great stories about the behind-the-scenes methods of the show itself but the importance of their own stories, the back stories, the family tragedies, the personal triumphs, those things that as PR people in the music industry are known as ‘the angles’ but within the show could spell success or failure or so it seemed.
As in the initial stages it felt to many of the artists that their ‘story’ was paramount above their talent and without the ‘story’ their talent could never shine through due to the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite to know every detail of the key artist’s chosen in the early episodes of the series to drive interest and build a bond. Yet the bond was not with the artist, once they were off the show, the show continued and their story became a remnant of the series, soon forgotten.
Then with the ‘success’ many artists generated whilst the show featured them they sometimes misunderstood that the show was creating a celebrity environment for them and not a talent environment for them, hence once the show had done with them, and the phone stopped ringing they were left to handle things themselves with limited or no support, and then it seemed the culmination of the come down hit them. The show’s over, the memories are all that’s left and the media have lost interest. Then add to this the mental health side of things really started to take over, working hand in hand with the confusion of social networking platforms, that allow you to directly interact with your ‘fans’ only to realise in so many cases the ‘fans’ have left the room a few days, literally, after their departure from the show.
The X Factor served its purpose for so many acts over the years, never claiming to be anything other than what it was, a place for families to gather at a weekend and observe, discuss and interact with talent of all different shapes and sizes, sharing some common ground between kids, their parents , their grandparents, aunts and uncles even, but it was at its heart a variant of historical light entertainment shows from days gone by. Singing, dancing, flashing lights, celebrity panellists and lovable characters introducing what was about to unfold. Not realising that those they were watching perform may end up crushed by the experience, left alone, to contemplate what had happened, where they go and can their mental health stand up to the road they have been on and the road they are left to travel.
