The American Idol contestants had to sign over their management rights to the producers? I’m outraged. Er, actually, I’m not at all suprised. Salon.com: Slaves of celebrity
[Kelly] Clarkson is less an artist, in the old-fashioned sense, than the extruded product of an impersonal manufacturing process. Clarkson and the other finalists signed an unusually onerous contract with 19 Group, the production company headed by British pop entrepreneur Simon Fuller. These young performers are wrapped up for recording, management and merchandising under the most restrictive terms imaginable: Their careers are literally not their own.
That’s exactely why Fuller did American Idol– to get cheap talent. Find some unknowns, have them sign one-sided contracts and then take advantage of them quickly before they fade from the spotlight. This is what happens with most the manufactured pop singers or groups, with the rare exception of a group that stays around for more than a year or two.
