the corner office

The X Factor is like WWF for pop music. Take it as a given that every little tiff between wotserface and wotsis-rubbery-botoxed-face is scripted, that the intrigues and dramas and breakdowns and kerfuffles are a load of BS. A big fat farce in the name of entertainment.

But hey, it very clearly is entertaining to lots of people. Millions and millions of people choose to watch it and nobody's holding a gun to anybody's head. Might not be my cup of tea but so what?

The internet has made it ridiculously easy to discover new kinds of music, to listen to the kind of music you want to hear, to mingle with like-minded people, if that's your fancy. Getting music legally is cheaper and easier than it's ever been and getting it illegally is a helluva lot easier than it was in the old cassette tape days.

So yes. Is Simon Cowell damaging the music industry, or is it sour grapes because he's found a way to be profitable in an industry that's been blind-sided by technology?