Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group

X Factor? Or American Idol redux?

By Amanda S. McClain, Ph.D.

     The new American version of X Factor debuted this fall on FOX.  While it purports to be a different show than American Idol, for all intents and purposes it might as well be called “American Idol: Fall Season.”  The differences between the two programs are minimal: on X Factor there are contestants as young as 12, group auditions are permitted, and competitors may be age 12 and up (and up…).  The similarities abound: a focus on attaining your dreams, awful auditions, and a lucrative prize.  While other disparities may exist, the similarities dramatically overshadow the contrasts.

     One difference, which casual viewers may not notice, is X Factor’s lack of American emphasis.  Throughout American Idol, flags wave, iconic American cities are visited, the lighting is red, white, and blue, and the dialogue consistently references the American Dream.  On X Factor, the contestants discuss attaining their own dreams, with no mention of America, or hint of patriotism.  In a way, this personal emphasis is American as well.  After all, the traditional American Dream is to attain success through your inherent talent and skill, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.  While the X Factor contestants may not explicitly label their dreams American, by dint of appearing on an American Idol knock-off, they may as well.

     Of course, Simon Cowell is one crucial element X Factor’s first season shares with the first eight American Idol seasons.  On American Idol, Simon represented the Other, the caustic Brit unfamiliar with American civil norms.  On X Factor, his Otherness is absent and his caustic comments are expected.  Indeed, he hasn’t been nearly as scathing as in the past.  His timidity and lack of astringency have made him boring.  He’s no longer novel and audiences have grown accustomed to nasty reality TV characters.  Instead, the interactions between wacky Paula Abdul and moody Nicole Scherzinger are more interesting, as are L.A. Reid’s references to past pop hits he helped to cultivate.  In fact, L.A. Reid appears to be more like bland Randy Jackson, or Randy Jackson’s more articulate and boring relative, missing Randy’s flavor while adding more gravitas and heavyweight music industry experience.  No name-dropping Journey from this new guy.  Instead, he name-drops contemporary stars like Justin Beiber.

     Like American Idol, X Factor offers a sundry mixture of contestants: country and urban, black and white, male and female.  Like American Idol, the X Factor contestants are the most fascinating element of the program.  Over the years, American Idol featured more and more of the contestants’ back stories, strengthening audience connections with the participants through shared elements: poverty, families, and religion.  While already following the American Idol format, it behooves X Factor to follow Idol’s lead in this as well.  While Simon may have been the original draw, the contestants are what make the program worth watching.   The contestants represent America, in all its forms, and audiences enjoy watching versions of us.  The contestants on X Factor are us at home: hopeful, anxious, awed, and determined.  And American.

     What do you think?  Do you watch for the judges or the contestants?  Is one show more compelling than the other?

 

Amanda Scheiner McClain is assistant professor of communications at Holy Family University in Pennsylvania.  She is also the author of American Ideal: How American Idol Constructs Celebrity, Collective Identity, and American Discourses available now.  Learn more by clicking here. 

 

 

Holy Megabucks, Batman! The Astounding Popularity of Superhero Films

By Timothy McGettigan

“The first person to live to 1,000 is already 60 years old.”—Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer of the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Foundation

Has anyone noticed a pattern in recent summer film seasons? Maybe it’s just me, but lately it seems like one out of every three blockbusters is about a superhero. Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man, the Hulk, Wolverine, Captain America…need I go on? A review of any one of these films would be very brief: mind-numbing eye candy. If you like big muscles and even bigger explosions, then superhero films are for you. If, on the other hand, you prefer films that are slightly more sophisticated than WWF throw-downs, then you might find the burgeoning popularity of superdude sagas a wee bit puzzling.

Apart from costume changes – for example, the star of Captain America also played the role of the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four – most superhero films are pretty much identical. The stories revolve around a central character, who is often a loser, and who experiences some sort of tragedy. The plot thickens when the luckless everyman gets juiced up with some sort of superpower. The story builds to a climax when the super-charged hero dashes off to vanquish a bad guy who has really got it coming. OK, so if that about sums it up, then why do superhero movies set box office records year after year?

Hollywood producers have long known that a film’s success depends on forging a personal connection with its audience. But what connection could there possibly be between real people and comic book fantasies?

Ever since people invented anthropomorphic  gods—such as Thor, the star of a recent superhero blockbuster—it’s fair to say that humans have been fascinated with superhumans. The coolest thing about superhumans is that they are sublimely untroubled by the mundane problems that plague mere mortals. Compared to the gods, humans are puny, weak, and insignificant. However, humans are also similar enough to the gods that, if we permit our imaginations to run wild, we can privately entertain fantasies about wielding their superpowers:  “There, but for a thunderbolt from heaven, go I.”

 This leads us back to Aubrey de Grey, the Chief Science officer of a foundation that is devoted to finding a cure for death. Yes, you read those words correctly. Now, what on earth would inspire an otherwise level-headed scientist to claim that humans might be on the verge of achieving immortality? Such an outlandish fantasy would certainly seem to fall well outside the pale of serious science; however, it still falls well within the bounds of human aspirations. Keep in mind that Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

 In other words, fantasies often lead where science fears to tread. Crazy as it may seem, today’s fantasies are often tomorrow’s realities. If you want a glimpse of what the future might hold, then I recommend that you catch the inevitable sequel to Thor or Captain America. And don’t be surprised if you spot Aubrey de Grey in the front row of the theater.

 

Tim McGettigan is a professor of sociology at CSU-Pueblo and he is also the author of Good Science: The Pursuit of Truth and the Evolution of Reality.