Music Feature

Has video really killed the Radio star?

Are shows like the X-Factor the reason behind a decline in quality new musicians?

The annual absurdity that is the ‘X Factor’ came to its conclusion for another year this week and the show’s winner James Arthur is almost guaranteed the Christmas number one spot.

The show came under heavy criticism for its lack of genuine musical talent, serving as an epitome of the decline in quality of ‘popular’ music that fills today’s charts. Music is of course objective and everybody has differing tastes, yet it is clear that the use of instruments within the industry has declined and computers are playing a larger and larger role within production. 

We spoke to Dan and Nathan Persad, two brothers who are musicians themselves, about the changes that music has gone through over the past twenty years and the reasons behind this change.

Dan, 39, is a guitarist and has toured with bands all over the UK for over fifteen years, he has recently finished a successful theatre run with ‘Alison’, a rock opera that he co-wrote and composed. Nathan, 34, plays a variety of instruments, specialising in guitar and drums, and still gigs regularly across London, also having released two albums on iTunes.

Twenty years ago ‘The Jam’ were number one in the charts with ‘Beat Surrender’, today the aforementioned James Arthur holds the top spot with ‘Impossible’, a cover. The lack of creativity has been declining for some time and Dan and Nathan feel it is a culmination of many different factors.

“Where to begin with how mind blowingly wrist slashingly sh*t our self obsessed dependency on tediously menial people appearing on our TV screens in and in our headphones has become,” Dan begins with, laughing as he makes his point. It is clear to see what side of the fence he stands on in the discussion but Nathan comes across as more balanced as he talks of the subject; “To be fair, even the legendary Beatles would enter TV talent shows, in the fifties there was this thing called ‘Search For A Star’ or something and the three of them, just John, Paul and George entered several times only to fail each time!” he says, earning a miserable glare from Dan.

There has been a trend, to cite the X Factor again, where the winners of the programme have actually never had as much success as its runners up.  Steve Brookstein and Joe McElderry are two previous winners who have quite publicly failed to sustain a successful long-term career within the music industry. This ‘quick buck’ mentality is down to a dilution of talent according to Nathan; “One interesting thing I have noticed is people usually forget about the winners, witness Girls Aloud and Will Young”, he says, gaining an even more rueful stare from his brother, “ Not that I am saying they are genuine ‘artists’, it’s all down to marketing, but as soon as people catch onto this it becomes a ‘thing’. Acts are saying now they hope they lose in the press and I can only see this backfiring. I don’t watch these shows and never have but you know you can’t help over hearing friends talk about it and seeing it all over the papers, it seems this year people were voting for terrible acts on purpose making a mockery of it so in a way it’s like Britain is slowly uniting against this trash which can only be a good thing.”

Despite Dan’s clear opposition of the X factor and shows of similar ilk, he does acknowledge that music was on the slide before these programmes began and other factors have played their part. “When I was a kid there has always been some form or other of it, Top Of The Pops has been celebrating this since ’64, but I was never into much of that back then either”, he says, “But I have to proportion a large amount of the blame to the rise of MTV in the 80’s which encouraged anyone with enough money to create a mini-film. Video had indeed killed the radio star! Over time, videos became more polished and music became less of the focus.”

There’s no doubt that the ‘MTV generation’ did play a massive part in changing the cultural meanings of music but Nathan adds that the internet, notably YouTube, have only exacerbated that; “YouTube is a mixed-blessing for me. Yes it’s great that artists can with no money can record a decent quality track in their bedrooms and shoot a professional looking video and upload it, but sadly so can loads of idiots with camera phones! If I have to hear another so-called YouTube sensation like ‘Hey have you seen that hamster falling off a skateboard?’ I will tear my hair out!” he laughs, “It has made artists easier to be discovered but also far more difficult at the same time because everybody thinks they can have a go.”

As Dan is quick to add, “Nobody even needs to sing in tune anymore, there’s an App for that!”

You can tell Dan and Nathan are close; Dan is staunch in his position on reality TV whereas Nathan seems to be a bit more open minded. Their chemistry is evident as they continue to divulge, chatting away about music together their passion is apparent.

One thing they do both agree on though is the lack of real musical talent within the charts nowadays. The term ‘musician’ is becoming rarer and rarer as these artists can now make millions without actually having ever played an instrument themselves; the term ‘artist’ has become more common. Dan, unsurprisingly, has strong opinions on the matter; “Yeah the ‘musician thing’. Notice how everybody refers to themselves as a band. Technically they’re groups, not bands. I have noticed more and more these sensitive looking guys with acoustic guitars appearing on these shows. Well that’s just the network bosses grabbing for some sort of credibility by saying ‘Oh, look people! We can do real musicians!’ when I guarantee they didn’t play a note on the album.”

Nathan, itching to talk, claims that, “Everything we’ve talked about at the end of the day is all rooted to money. The image was what people wanted so they focused on that which is where the money was. Everyone has a price and it’s almost like a conveyor belt of ‘voices for hire’ now, albums are churned out every six months and I think the credibility, creativity and hard work of music is dying out as a result.”

They are both interesting points and you can tell they could talk about the subject all day. One thing is clear though and that is that popular music has changed vastly over the past twenty years for many reasons. The question is, is it simply natural cultural and societal change, or is there a deliberate motive behind it with the money involved and the ease at which fame can be achieved with a good image? And should we complain about the diversity which is in essence what music is all about; its objectivity?