Knighted for Laughing at Mingers

Apparently pop musics "Mr Nasty" Simon Cowell is possibly going to be knighted, on the recommendation of Gordon Brown for his actions in the Haiti earthquake. (the charity music song) Cowell engenders mixed emotions in me. He is undoubtedly very good at what he does. His unpretensiousness and lack of evasiveness in his self evident desire to make populist, audience grabbing shows like X factor and Britain's got Talent with the express intent of making himself rich is refreshing (but not particularly admirable.) in a populist; prepackaged and mass marketed music business that is loaded with a lot of pretentious bullshit about "being deep", and "wanting to share my dreams and visions" (AKA sell lots of tunes and get rich and famous.) It could be argued that his shows allow everyday people (if you define everyday people as soft focus; good looking under 25's. Susan Boyle and the fat guy the few exceptions to the rule.) to crack a market they would not be able to reach normally. His shows could also be seen as a (unintentional) way of propping up the dwindling traditional recording labels in a world of youtubes and Internet downloads. But there is the flip side as well. It was not too much of an exaggeration to say NME were justified in labelling him the "Antichrist of pop." In the earlier days of the millennium at least, it was grating to see promising indy acts struggling on a shoestring, in a market being saturated by mas produced; bubblegum music. As Ben Elton coined it - "McDonalds for the soul." Cowells base desire to flood the music market with plastic and insipid tunes (I hope I don't sound snobby. I'm not saying this kind of stuff has no place. It just seems to push out others who want to break into the market. Cowell himself admits as much.) It was hard not to wince at one of musics most richest men proclaim he "hates music". Not entirely because of his blatantly earnest chutzpah, - but at him exemplifying the rule of knowing the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

We can't get away from the underlying mockery for entertainment, and the exploitative nature of his shows. For every stranger plucked from obscurity to fame, there are several more victims of the fame game. It is no exaggeration to say that without the acts put on to be laughed at and mocked, the show would lose much of its appeal. With the benefit of selective editing; - and the opportunities for compounding humiliation this entails, for many "comedy entrants" the apparent "anyone can make it" nature of the show just leads to them making it to a highlight show of the worst acts. Its hard to remember car crash telly, like their real life counterparts often have human victims as well.

If the knighthood goes ahead I don't know what Cowell will be knighted for? Services to the meritocracy of fame. Or knighted for services to laughing at minging people who can't sing.