Re: The X Factor....(seriously)

"Marjorie Clarke" <dontusethisaddess@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:44fffe25$0$3594$ed2e19e4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What surprised me was that the judging panel had clearly never heard the
song and asked if it was some sort of gospel song or hymn or something
(for those who didn't see it, she sang in a gospelly style).

I didn't see XF but I did listen to Simon Cowell on Desert Island
Discs a week or two ago. Given that he is the same age as me,
I was staggered by his choice of music:

Mack the Knife - Bobby Darin
This Guy's in Love with You - Herb Alpert
She - Charles Aznavour
Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers
Danke Schoen - Wayne Newton
If You're Not the One - Daniel Bedingfield
Summer Wind - Frank Sinatra
Mr. Bojangles - Sammy Davis Jr.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20060813.shtml

I'm not quibbling about the "goodness" of the songs, although they
are pretty much all MOR, it's the vintage that surprises me. They
are all the sort of things that appeal more to people of my parents'
age, rather than mine, and far more characteristic of Louis Walsh
than Simon Cowell, or so I would have thought.

Apart from Daniel Bedingfield, they all belong to the era of
The Black and White Minstrel Show, Des O'Connor and
Val Doonican.

It's no surprise that there is no folk music on his list but I find it
amazing that someone in his position in the pop music world
should have been so unimpressed by 50s Rock'n'Roll,
60s BritPop, Flower Power, Punk, New Romantics,
New Wave or any sort of rock music.

I suspect that Sharon Osbourne's choice would include music
from a wider range of genres and eras, and probably a lot more
modern stuff, despite her being older - OK only 7 years older
but probably old enough to have been influenced by attitudes
at the tail-end of rationing that those of us born in 1959 largely
escaped.


.

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