I get what you're saying Kaffy and I respect your opinion, but I do have to respectfully disagree. I actually think that the vast majority of people who go on X factor are effectively saying goodbye to any chance of a long successful career, and they have also said goodbye to any chance of being taken seriously as an artist in the music industry... but they can say a big hello to being a puppet of Simon Cowell's and to any chance of being themselves and doing what THEY want! You can virtually count on the fingers of one hand the amount of people who have very successful and well-respected careers after any of the reality tv talent shows.
Girls Aloud and Will Young are the only ones who I think have been very successful and had a bit of respect in the music industry, and have not been dropped by the record company after 1 or 2 years. Alexandra Burke has had an 'ok' success, but her songs are drivel. And Leona Lewis may have had a 'fairly' successful career so far, but she is wholly contrived, fake and manufactured and there is nothing about her that screams naturally gifted raw talent: (like Adele or Amy Winehouse...) And she has no stage presence or strong personality IMO. I wouldn't actually go and see her in concert if it was in my back garden and it was free... she is not a star IMO.. she is an OK looking girl who has been moulded by Cowell, and he had to push her on Oprah: using *his* status in America to publicise her... do you really think that she would have had any success in America without Cowell pushing her into everyone's face? Because I don't...
And do you think she is going to maintain that success for years and years, and be up there with the likes of Mariah, Whitney, Britney, Madonna, Shania and Celine? These are artists who have natural talent and star quality and gumption, and Leona has none. She is as dull as ditchwater and has no personality at all, only what has been drummed into her by Cowell. And her latest single is an absolute load of drivel.
Alexandra Burke is an OK singer but her songs are naff and banal parp IMO, and I predict that within 2 years she will be dropped by the record company and the following year she will be on Dancing on ice. The vast majority of people who have ever gone on pop idol or X factor, have not gone on to a successful and well resepected career in rock. Maybe a few of them have had some kind of 'career,' in showbiz that they wouldnt have had otherwise, but is it the career that they expected to have? i seriously doubt it... And the amount of people who got to the top 10 or 12 in the show(s) who came to nothing afterwards, far outweighs the ones who continue to be in the public eye and continue to stay in work in the showbiz world.
JMHO, but I still think that if somebody wants to have a successful and well-respected career in the music industry, entering the X factor is a bad move. If you don't maintain massive success (and most do not; ) you're dropped like a red hot poker, as quick as you can say 'shallow money hungry git drops another artist!'