Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards hits out at X Factor for "making music into a competition"

30 DEC 2015
BY NICOLA METHVEN



The 72-year-old fumed: "It is not the way it happens. If you get liked, and people like your music, it is because you put music out and lot of people buy it"


Keith Richards wishes he was anonymous



Rock legend Keith Richards feels that music talent shows are killing the business by promising kids fame rather than careers.

The Rolling Stones star believes young talent should not be judged on TV shows which are all about chasing ratings, admitting that after 50 years at the top he still feels uncomfortable being recognised.

Keith, 72, names The X Factor as one of the key problems despite its track record in creating hit acts including One Direction , Little Mix and Leona Lewis.

Speaking on Radio 2 he said: “You wonder why are you in there, is it to make music or be famous for two minutes with the X Factors and all that?. The search for fame. And it seems to be an easy way to jerk your career up.

“In the end I don’t see the point of making music into a competition. It is not the way it happens. If you get liked, and people like your music, it is because you put music out and lot of people buy it - and we like that. It is not a matter of getting on a TV show and some guy going 5 or 7.

“I don’t see that as the best way to run your career.”

Keith said that fame was the price he’d paid for having had the successful career he has enjoyed for five decades.

“Fame, you have got to learn to live with it,” he explained. “Many times I wish I was anonymous. I could put on a disguise like the Hunchback of Notre Dame or something - oh nobody would notice me.”

Keith also lamented the demise of albums, claiming that the attention span of the under 20s has “been diminished” by technology.

He added: “I think that technology and music has a bit of a problem here. But I don’t see that as something that won’t evolve and sort itself out. There are guys playing pop music now and they don’t know it is influenced by the blues - and why should they?

“Maybe it doesn’t occur to them that there is something behind the screen”

He cited Ed Sheeran and James Bay as examples of “the good stuff” that was out there – describing them as “anti hi tech”.

But Richards admitted that his advancing years made it harder to cope with foreign gigs. “I went to Australia twice last year - and you better give it ten days before you say I am ready to rock. Jet lag actually is a b*****d.”


http://www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/celebrity-news/rolling-stones-legend-keith-ric...

     

I enjoy albums...sitting down and relaxing and engaging with the music. Most new music is shit. Competition shows blow outside of the personalities judging them.

Technology is the worst thing to happen to music...I detest MP3 files, cell phones being used for music etc.

But I sound like a dinosaur. The old blues masters had seriously inferior technology and they turned out great.

Who knows!

Gazza wrote on Dec 31^st, 2015 at 11:18am:



Like the difference between a porn "star" ( it takes 3 films to earn that title)
and an successful actor (training, sweat and a ton of luck)

Voodoo Chile in Wonderland wrote on Dec 30^th, 2015 at 5:13pm:

Of course he's right. But it's also 2016, not 1966. That's how you become a star. Because somebody on TV declares you one.

Freya Gin wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2016 at 9:08am:

True.

Well, there were. The bigger exposure you got, the more records you sold.

The Stones for example did very little commercially on their first visit to the US because their TV appearances were on comparatively low-key shows and they werent well marketed.  When they returned later in the year, they played more high profile shows like Ed Sullivan.

Its no coincidence that it was the Beatles first appearance on that show in February 1964 which catapulted them into mega stardom. Biggest TV audience in US TV history (until the final episode of MASH about 13 years later) was followed soon after by them having 8 records in the US Top Ten (including all of the Top Five)

There's no real peak time music shows in the UK (or US anymore) since Top of the Pops ended a decade ago. If a band wants to promote their music on mainstream TV, they generally have to satisfy themselves with being a sideshow on a sports event like the Superbowl or on a variety show like Strictly Come Dancing or the Lottery show in the UK.

Otherwise, you're only going to see them perform late at night.