Fred expresses a bit of cynicism about the various surprise talents on Britain’s Got Talent. I like this line at the end:

Britain’s Got Talent is an excellent reminder for us music snobs just how much it is true that, in the opinion of a great mass of people, music itself ought never aspire to the so-called condition of music. It wants to be a sound track for something else.

How true; sad but true. Everyone likes music but most people can’t imagine it being anything more than a soundtrack for their lives. I admit that much of the time it’s merely my soundtrack but sometimes I do really listen. There are many people who don’t even know what you’re talking about when you say “really listen”.

But I didn’t mean to go off on that track. This is about television. I still want to believe in the Susan Boyle phenomenon – dowdy spinster surprises and wows the judges and is an instant international hit. For those of us who desperately (well, maybe not quite desperately) wish the world would stop equating physical beauty with talent this was a shining moment of hope. And if it was only manufactured? So what? It’s still shiny; let us have our moment.

Alas, it looks like Britain’s Got Talent is turning back in the other direction – toward youth and the ever popular Cute Kids. (It’s funny… I know more about what’s happening on Britain’s Got Talent than I know about American Idol.)

The opening paragraph of that article illustrates exactly what keeps these shows going.

I don’t know about you, but I’m already sick of Susan Boyle from Britain’s Got Talent. And I don’t even live in Britain! I’ve just reached my Boyling point with her.

Short attention span. On the other hand, those shows also encourage short attention spans. Of course it makes sense that they would encourage what they require for survival.