94066 the X Factor Experience

A special thanks to BLU and the X Factor participants Executive Summary The past decade, the creative industries have been growing, and the continuing increasing numbers of hopefuls who want to make a living in their chosen field of performance, has made the competition fierce for a creative career. What follows, is harsh working conditions which is unseen in other more ‘traditional’ sectors, and while there are many desirable features and especially psychological rewards to be gained, what characterises work in this sector is high uncertainty, low payment, short contracts, and generally ‘no one is better than their last piece’. The desire to pursue a creative career is expressed in many ways, but one of the greatest examples, is the global phenomenon of X Factor that has shown to hold the power to radically change the lives of hopefuls from one day to another. The aim of this study is to examine the participants that have signed up to the Danish version of the X Factor programme and how these participants subjectively experienced the work dynamics of the creative industries. This study found that the participants had three internal motives for entering X Factor, these can be seen as a need for 1) an experience out of the ordinary; 2) approval and 3) exposure. These would be complemented by external influences from both 1) social ties and 2) the production team. This study revealed several findings that all give insight to some of the complexities behind creative work and television production. Consistent with recent research on work subjectivity in the creative industries, the working environment of X Factor brought highly ambivalent work experiences. Self- development and creative freedom was highly valued throughout the course of the programme and many of the participants found X Factor to provide the right circumstances for self-actualising their potential. However, this came with a shadow cost, and the participants were willing to self-exploit and self-inflict high amounts of pressure in order to be able to practice their beloved art form in front of the country, where tensions, anxieties and pressure became part of everyday life during their participation. An analysis of the participants’ final moments of the programme revealed how participants cope with being eliminated from X Factor. Consistent with recent research three strategies were found: 1) venting emotions; 2) minimizing the significance and 3) focusing on future opportunities. Furthermore, this study found three accounting strategies, that the participants used to justify their elimination post X Factor: 1) blaming the format; 2) emphasising on the tough working conditions, and 3) focus on development. Self-improvement seemed to be an important factor for coping with failure and to continue believing in future success. Keywords: talent show, subjectivity, creative work dynamics, emotional labour, coping with failure 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 AIM OF THE STUDY 7 2. X FACTOR- ‘IT’S TIME TO FACE THE MUSIC’ 8 2.1 THE X FACTOR PROGRAMME 8 2.2 THE X FACTOR FORMAT 9 2.3 X FACTOR AS REALITY TELEVISION 11 2.3.1THE REALITY TAKEOVER 11 2.3.2 THE X FACTOR REALITY 13 2.4 THE X FACTOR ECOLOGY 16 2.4.1 ‘STAR-MAKING’ AND EXPLOITATION STRATEGY 17 2.5 X FACTOR POPULARITY ON SCREEN AND ONLINE 19 2.5.1 RATINGS AND SHARE 19 2.5.2 ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA 21 3. METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE AND STRATEGY 23 3.2 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION 24 3.2.1 PRIMARY SOURCES 25 3.2.2 INTERVIEWS 26 3.2.3 PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION 27 3.2.4 SECONDARY SOURCES 27 3.3 DATA ANALYSIS APPROACH 28 3.4 LIMITATIONS 29 3.5 VALIDITY AND GENERALISATION 30 3.6 ETHICAL REVIEW 30 4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 31 4.1 THE CREATIVE LABOUR LANDSCAPE 31 4.2 THE CREATIVE LABOUR MARKET - MAIN CHARACTERISTICS 33 4.3 OVERSUPPLY OF LABOUR 34 4.4 LONGING FOR CREATIVE WORK 36 4.4.1 LABOUR OF LOVE 37 4.4.2 RISK-LOVERS 37 4.4.3 PSYCHIC INCOME 38 4.5 CAREERS IN ART 38 4.6 PARTICIPATION IN REALITY TELEVISION PROGRAMMES 40 4.7 WHEN ART BECOMES WORK AND WORK BECOMES ART 42 4.7.1 SEEKING FULL POTENTIAL 43 4.7.2 SELF-IDENTIFICATION WITH WORK 44 4.7.3 CREATIVE CONTROL 45 4.7.4 (SELF-)EXPLOITATION 46 4.7.5 WORK-LIFE BALANCE 47 4.7.6 THE SOCIAL ASPECT 50 4.7.7 EMOTIONAL LABOUR 51 4.8 COPING WITH ELIMINATIONS IN REALITY TELEVISION 52 2 5. ANALYSIS 55 5.1 ENTERING THE LOTTERY 56 5.1.1 AN UNCONDITIONAL LOVE 56 5.1.2 AN EXPERIENCE OUT OF THE ORDINARY 59 5.1.3 SEEKING APPROVAL 61 5.1.4 SEEKING EXPOSURE 62 5.1.5 INFLUENCED BY OTHERS 63 5.1.6 AUDITION DAY 66 5.1.7 THE RULE SET 67 5.1.8 SUMMARY 69 5.2 FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY 69 5.2.1 CELEBRITIES OVERNIGHT 70 5.2.2 WHEN ART BECOMES WORK 72 5.2.3 PERFORMING THE ART 75 5.2.4 THE X FACTOR FAMILY 79 5.2.5 SUMMARY 81 5.3 X FACTOR AS THE PUPPETEER 83 5.3.1 FORMING REALITY 83 5.3.2 THE BALANCING ACT 85 5.3.3 HIRED FRIENDS 87 5.3.4 THE MONEY SHOT 89 5.3.5 SUMMARY 91 5.4 GAME OVER 92 5.4.1 THE ELIMINATION 93 5.4.2 GOODBYES 95 5.4.3 LOSING ACCOUNTS 98 5.4.4 SUMMARY 100 6. CONCLUSION 102 6.1 SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS 102 6.2 ACADEMIC IMPLICATIONS 104 6.3 PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS 105 6.4 FURTHER RESEARCH 106 7. REFERENCES 107 8. APPENDICES 114 8.1 APPENDIX 1: SONG THEMES 2016 114 8.2 APPENDIX 2: OVERVIEW OF THE WINNING PRIZES 2008-2016 114 8.3 APPENDIX 3: AVERAGE RATINGS 2008-2016 115 8.4 APPENDIX 4: SOCIAL MEDIA DATA 116 8.6 APPENDIX 6: PRE-CASTING CONTRACT 119 8.7 APPENDIX 7: OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES 121 8.8 APPENDIX 8: PARTICIPANTS 123 3 FIGURES AND TABELS FIGURE 1: RESEARCH QUESTION AND SUB-QUESTIONS 7 FIGURE 2: THE X FACTOR ECOLOGY 16 FIGURE 3: SALES PERFORMANCE 2008-2016 18 FIGURE 4: AVERAGE RATINGS 2008-2016 20 FIGURE 5: FACEBOOK LIKES AND INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS 22 FIGURE 6: RATIONALES FOR PARTICIPATION 59 TABLE 1: SUMMARY TABLE: FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY 82 TABLE 2: SUMMARY TABLE: THE X FACTOR PUPPETEER 92 4 1. INTRODUCTION The past decade, the creative industries have been growing, and the continuing increasing numbers of hopefuls who want to make a living in their chosen field of performance, has made the competition fierce for a creative career. What follows, is harsh working conditions which is unseen in other more ‘traditional’ sectors, and while there are many desirable features and especially psychological rewards to be gained, what characterises work in this sector is high uncertainty, low payment, short contracts, and generally ‘no one is better than their last piece’ (Blair, 2001; Menger, 1999). In recent decades, precarious work has seen a dramatic increase, due to factors such as globalisation, the spread of information technology, and the shift from manufacturing to a service sector. Due to these changes, a new economy has been created, which demands flexibility in the workplace, resulting in a decline of the standard employment relationship (Fudge & Owens, 2006). There is plenty of research covering careers, working conditions and labour market issues in the creative industries, but not much research has been conducted on the creative workers as individuals, or how these workers feel about, or subjectively experience their jobs. The literature that does exist on this area suggests that creative work contains highly ambivalent working experiences (Banks, 2007; Hesmondhalgh & Baker, 2011; McRobbie 1998; Ursell 2000), where self-fulfilling rewards often are intertwined with tensions, anxieties and pressure. Never ‘breaking through’ or not knowing where the next contract will come from, puts pressure on the creative workers due to the precarious circumstances they live under. In spite of this, the rewards that come from working with their beloved art seem to fuel a never ending desire to make art their main occupation. The choice of entering the creative industries can be compared to participating in the lottery (Hesmondhalgh, 2013), and it can not be ruled out that people overestimate their chances of ‘making it’. For many, they eventually have to come to terms with never reaching success. This due to failure being the norm in the creative industries, as a consequence of the high uncertainty and vast amount of hopefuls (Caves, 2000, Menger, 1999). It is a fact that the big monetary rewards only lay in the hands of a few successful individuals, whereas those outside the inner circle can not expect to find a creative job with security like jobs in other sectors. It is argued that those who fail in the industries continue to fight for a creative career (Rosen, 1981). Despite this, not much has been written about how creative workers cope with failure and rejection. Just recently researchers have used psychological theories to examine how 5 hopefuls use different strategies to prevent loss of face when failing in the creative industries (Van den Scott et al, 2015; Wei, 2016). When creative workers are located in an environment where success is uncertain, it can in worst-case lead to depression if they never make it or fail to deliver. Learning to cope with failure and shoring up the necessary resilience to make it in the long run can therefore be seen as very important when failure is the norm in the creative industries.

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