The rags-to-riches fairytale of success through hard work helps to keep a recession-damaged audience in its place
Every autumn the X Factor graces our screens with its presence, which is good news for me – a super fan who views it not so much as a TV programme but a quasi-religious experience. So as the section of the series that tells the contestants' stories is replaced by the bear pit of the live shows, I thought now might be a good time to explore the X Factor's place in popular culture, and what it is actually telling us about the society in which we live.
There's always been a Cinderella narrative to the X Factor: on one hand it's a singing competition, and on the other it's a rags-to-riches tale of ordinary people trying to make it in this cruel world; but never has that narrative been more prescient than in the last couple of years, where it has virtually eclipsed the singing altogether. Last year's shows featured montages of contestants working in Asda, call centres and fast food joints, each one consciously positing X Factor as their only route out of the poverty and mundaneness of modern working class life. This year the Cinderella narrative saw no sign of abating, with contestant Relley Clarke repeatedly referring to herself as "just a housekeeper" and doing vox pops about how X Factor was the only way she could achieve some kind of self-improvement.
It's strange that something so obviously influenced by class politics is presented as totally apolitical. I've always thought that, in reality, X Factor represents a kind of rightwing wet dream; elevating neoliberal values like individuality, competition and self-improvement over socialist ideals such as collectivism, community and common good. Indeed the show straightforwardly appropriates working-class traditions which promote togetherness, like working men's clubs and karaoke, and turns them into a competition for prosperity arbitrated by judges who are members of the super-rich. In 2011, Gary Barlow criticised the Essex act 2 Shoes for sounding like "a karaoke night in Romford", which begs the question: what's wrong with a karaoke night in Romford?
Funnily enough, the only instance I can think of where someone in the mainstream has commented on the politics of the X Factor is in 2011, when Iain Duncan Smith – insightful as ever – blamed the "get-rich-quick" culture of the programme for the riots that summer. His musings led me to conclude that he is not a fan of the show; for if he were, he'd know there's nothing "get rich quick" about it. The X Factor is saturated with scenes of the judges eliciting promises of hard work and dedication from contestants. The overarching message seems to be a familiar one: if you just keep your head down, work hard and be grateful, some glamorous millionaires will choose you above all others to join them in the lap of luxury.
In 2012, the show featured its most telling Cinderella case study. A homeless man called Robbie Hance made it through the first auditions, partly because he could turn out a tune and partly because the judges decided they wanted to "give him a chance". In the second round of auditions, Hance disappeared, which led to a load of lamentations from self-confessed rightwinger Gary Barlow that he had thrown away the opportunity to "turn his life around". No consideration was given to the complicated issues that come with homelessness (Hance later claimed he left because the producers wouldn't give him food), and the undeniable subtext was of an establishment that had been kind enough to throw a poor boy a lifeline, and because he'd rejected it he deserved the poverty he would return to. On the other hand the contestants who offered diligence and genuflection were, of course, universally praised.
In the end it's not surprising that the Cinderella story has become such an integral part of the X Factor, when routes out of poverty are so few and far between in our recession-tainted world. We can't even rely on the welfare state to catch us if we take risks as we pursue our dreams. But despite its fairytale promise that anyone can go from rags to riches, I can't help but feel that the X Factor is simply keeping us in our place.