Elton John Slams TV Talent Shows: “It’s All About The Judges”

Another day, another celebrity criticising reality TV and this time it’s Elton John, who’s spoken out about The Voice, accusing the talent show of producing nonentities who aren’t ready for fame, despite admitting he’s never seen an episode of the show.

The Voice is all about watching the judges… Nobody on The Voice in America has had a hit record. Nobody on The Voice in England has had a hit record – they’re nonentities,” John said to BBC Radio 4.

His comments followed the decline in success of the UK version of the franchise, with this year’s winner Andrea Begley only making it to number 30 in the charts with her track My Immortal. The 2012 winner, Leanne Mitchell, was an even bigger flop, with her debut album selling less than 1,000 copies in its first week and peaking at number 134.

Said John of the chew-em-up, spit-em-out mentality of mass media: “Television and video have done a lot of damage to music. They’ve propelled people into stardom that aren’t ready for it. And they’re only as good as the next song. I hate that, I hate people being cast aside.”

Speaking of being cast aside, winner of The Voice Australia Harrison Craig has only sold 13,167 copies of his debut album in its first week of release, almost a third of that of last year’s winner Karise Eden and his single was beaten by finale guest Robin Thicke and coaches Delta Goodrem and Ricky Martin on the iTunes chart.

John’s not the first megastar to slam music talent shows, with Queen‘s Brian May describing The Voice as “the ultimate insult to music and to performers” and Dave Grohl suggesting they’re “destroying the next generation of musicians”. That’s all good and well, dudes, but perhaps the opinion of someone who isn’t already a super famous muso might be a little easier to swallow.

(via The Guardian)

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