X Factor contestants..

A lot of bands started out churning out other people's songs - the Beatles, The Who - there's a story about the Rolling Stones in the 1960s turning up to a club in Manchester and the DJ Roger Eagle playing the original versions of their entire first album for a bit of one upmanship.  

I think it's the same with kids and ambitions - people have always decried the attitudes of the following generation.   Personally I don't think we can hold up the 1970s as an era of hard work compared to today - although when it comes to working on the bins maybe it was - I did one summer when you had to carry the bins down to the lorry - none of this wheelie bin nonsense - now that was hard work.

I rarely watch X Factor and can never sit through a whole episode without thinking about the TV researchers in 'Chart Throb' sorting all the applicant's videos and dividing them into blingers, clingers and mingers.

I know that I love Strictly, so I'm not going to say that I hate all reality TV, but I do hate the way the producers of X Factor blatantly manipulate the contestants and the audience. If drinking before an audition is such a no-no, then why did the cameras follow her around recording her getting drunk? Don't tell me they don't have security or people to enforce the rules. Of course they do, they also have producers hissing in the ear of the judges saying "this will make good tv, pretend to be scandalised when she comes on", and to be honest, the standard of most X Factor contestants is so poor you'd think they had all been drinking.

Why do all singers have to show that they are versatile enough to take on any genre? Makes me think that if X Factor accidentally discovered the next Jimi Hendrix they would take away his guitar and then make him cover a bloody Mariah Carey song.

Roll on next weekend is all I can say, give me the sequins any day!

I don't think you spoiled anything, it's an obvious concept, and to be honest I can be quite entertained if I'm out and someone is belting out Karaoke or bashing on instruments, I prefer to see someone who is not quite as polished as some of them. I  personally wouldn't pay buttons to see the likes of U2 appear like Ants in a stadium anymore, but this idea that you can make a star is out of hand.

On the other bin man issue it's not even the hard work, it's the scarcity or not of the people willing to do it.

To be honest I'd rather someone covered a Little Richard or Bo Diddley song than sang some crap they wrote themselves.   

Surely if you really thought you had a chance to make it as a singer/band and making/perfoming music meant that much to you, you wouldn't go anywhere near X-Factor. My wife and 10yr old daughter watch it and the odd bit I've seen makes me cringe; it's embarrassing.

I'm not sure that all of them CAN read ...

plus they'd sign their life away for 5 minutes on TV.