being the last remaining fan of a group - what does it feel like?

i think it's a mistake to think the reality-tv spasm is over: i think it's only just begun to be honest — and as i've always said i like the way the power-dynamic of the tastemakers/gatekeepers vs wannabes has become part of the show (b4 it was always locked away behind closed doors)

kym said she wz sad and shocked when h/s split, and she wished them well

she's a terrific singer and has an interesting temper, but they made SO MUCH MONEY so fast that she may not have much hunger any more, which is a pity obv

do you think so, mark? i know they were given £100,000 to splilt between them but once you take away the enormous promotional costs, production, etc and the cash cow of publishing is not for them cause they did not write any of songs - kym did the rgith thing by marrying another trash celebrity on par - as we all know that none of them will escape the evil clutches of being the first disposal pop act. though it is interesting - and i don't think it's the death toll for reality television - it's more bland and generic, it's the future, kids, its' the future of music - ....

though - i said this when i had an interview with a potential magazine- that music media is forgetting something that popshows have done - they have taken the veil done - it's no longer magic - people know what's it all about - clued in - and i think the media have just ignored that fact, that the pop audience is now very sophisticated because of the reality television shows, instead, the media rely on the bog standard interview techniques - instead of celebrating the kids, they are trying to celebrate the lifestyles of the 'popstars' which is wrong as the magic is over, the curtain drawn, the fat lady sung...etc.

it is an interesting question - how are the print mags dealing with the fall out of the reality pop shows - ....

well it sold a huge amount, so i wd be surprised if even the quite small percentage they were getting didn't translate into quite a lot of money

the escape-the-clutches thing is interesting, seeing as both myleene and kym also have a hunger for respect and dignity, i think (m as a musician, viz her famous speech when they got to number one, and k just anyway (several examples)

"bland and generic": see i think the lesson here is very mixed, and will be taken difft ways by difft people (in fact it intensifies the tastemakers/gatekeepers vs wannabes struggle => at the moment we're still publicly watching oddities being winnowed out, and most applicants are still fairly innocent => but history has shown that this kind of forum doesn't just attract the naive...

(the guy who won TOUCH THE TRUCK donated all the money to some vegetarian anarchist antiglobalist cause, plus there've been lots of scandals about "fake" characters turning up on shows like Vannesa and Trish, or getting shock-horror docs made abt them, plus there's the imminent pornification — via channel 5 — of the entire Rtv whatever)

to me it's a boiling nexus of desire, control, boringness and oddness, w.roles switching around in a curious way all the time

exactly: curtain torn down, 17-yr-olds as clued-in as most print journalists, possibility of big prize money

it's like a return to the 50s except we know everything we know now, and no one trusts the controllers

1. which print mags? nme? or ok?

2. everyone in on the game. but are we? what exactly have we learnt from popstars/popidol? did we not know these things before? television and music, divorced for 30 years, friends again.