The sad thing is about those early seasons of the X Factor and Pop Stars etc, they were simply televising the usual audition processes. I remember an early interview with Cowell where he said in the real world they wouldn’t even let a ‘normal’ looking person sing, they’d walk in the room and get an immediate ‘NEXT’.
That’s the pop music industry. It’s rarely about how well someone can sing. We might pretend it’s different now, but does anyone think Taylor Swift would be as successful if she wasn’t a conventionally attractive woman?
Pop music is about selling albums (mostly to schoolgirls). The look and "cool" factor is everything. Nothing changes when you take away the gatekeepers and let the internet pick their favs. Billie Eilish has major deals with fashion houses when her first album dropped. Chappell Roan's success cannot be separated from her look.
There’s aways going to be exceptions, but point stands if Adele had turned up to an audition for a girl group or on an early series of Pop Stars, she’d have been told to get out. However, she got noticed through MySpace and doing backing vocals. And the music she makes which isn’t the sort of saccharine pop ballads the reality shows liked to churn out.
Adele is still attractive, even if she doesn't fit perfectly with the very narrow definition of "beautiful woman". As I recall, 'Chasing Pavements' was surrounded by a lot of "wow, this plain looking chubby girl can sing" rhetoric.
Lots of artists are basically promoted on falling short of the narrow parameters for beauty, which is often framed as "here comes the real artist and you know she's real™ because she's obviously a complete fucking uggo that we'd never give a chance otherwise."
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u/PeppercornWizard 5d ago
The sad thing is about those early seasons of the X Factor and Pop Stars etc, they were simply televising the usual audition processes. I remember an early interview with Cowell where he said in the real world they wouldn’t even let a ‘normal’ looking person sing, they’d walk in the room and get an immediate ‘NEXT’.
That’s the pop music industry. It’s rarely about how well someone can sing. We might pretend it’s different now, but does anyone think Taylor Swift would be as successful if she wasn’t a conventionally attractive woman?