This admittedly may not have been the best title for the post, but I did struggle to find something more apt in regards to the issue I am about to discuss. The TV programme called the X Factor has been, over the past 2 months or so, been my guilty pleasure. The format has been the same year on year, the show is blatantly fixed that why I bother to watch and believe who I want to win will do so, is a mystery!
This year, one of the contest was a young girl named Cher (yep, that’s her real name) who could both sing and rap. The thing that grabbed people’s attention whether they liked to admit it or not was that Cher was white. Now don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of white artists who have managed to have done fantastically well in what is loosely seen as the ‘black’ music i.e. Hip Hop and R&B. You have to look no further than Eminem to see this. What I found really frustrating in the X Factor was that Cher was seen to be this ‘new’ phenomenon within pop. They kept on saying that is this new niche within pop and describing her performances as ‘edgy’. Cher to me is something that is definitely not new; talented yes, new no. Have they not heard of Alesha Dixon, or Estelle?
One couldn’t help but wonder if the case would have been entirely different if Cher was black. Would they have seen her to be edgy? Creating a new niche? Or simply just another black girl doing the same old urban thing. Maybe I’m just being OTT but whilst you’re deciding have a look at Cher’s audition
Peace
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