I remember the day very well: The X Factor final at Wembley in 2012. I was but the last person from my circle of friends who actually still watched and even I had missed the majority of the live shows. How Little Mix ended up in the final though was a mystery to me. They were four randomly chosen chicks that shouted into a microphone. Fulfilling the formula of a group with ethnicities ranging from the blonde chick to the black chick, Little Mix had only made it that far because people sorta wanted a group to win. In the final they were facing a seriously talented guy called Marcus Canty. Well, he lost, nobody ever heard of him again and Little Mix are now Little Mix.
I watched their progression with awe. Sometimes you have artists with so much talent to be on stage you see them as background singers and know they will just make it to the front one day. Many people can sing, many can dance, many look great. But that certain something you can't teach. In fact, talent then is secondary. Having said that, all four members of Little Mix don't have it. They can sing, they can dance and they're very good-looking. But after years in the business, if Little Mix disappeared tomorrow, you could cast four talented chicks in their role and hardly anyone would notice they're even gone at all.
The reason I never bought Little Mix was the apparent dependency on a great set of producers. Damn, their tunes are catchy! Most Little Mix songs make me want to kill myself but shit, I can't stop singing them. It's the perfect music to clean. If I was trying to get a crowd in a good mood, I'd for sure play that crap. So basically, I'm a huge Little Mix fan. Little Mix just has almost nothing to do with these four chicks. They seem awesome enough, lots of attention on their music obviously came from their high profile relationships, but whether Little Mix sing "Touch" or one of the other dozens, makes no difference to me. I enjoyed their dancing in the video, they're very hot mommas, and I like when girl groups dress as "slutty" as they want but have an empowering message because you can be both an independent woman and a scarcely dressed girl with way too much make up if that's what you like being. For that message I'm thankful but again, was that Little Mix or a good stylist, writer or producer? Probably the latter.
I would never want to take away from Little Mix' success and despite me spending 30 mins writing about this now, I really don't care. But I think I found a silver lining anyways: an artist is never just the artist. Like I love Michael Jackson, he's the greatest and everyone agrees. While he had "it", I'm pretty sure he didn't design all of his outfits, the "Earth Song" video wasn't written by him and that nose he didn't construct himself either. All these things combined made Michael Jackson, the artist, though. And people loved it. Now Jesy, LeAnn, Perrie and Jade might have less "it" than the big ones, but their act works. I can't wait to listen to "Power" again and return to the UK and live by that. So much more that a song, it's just the fucking truth and songs like that are important. So thank you, Little Mix, whatever that means, for existing...
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