The World From My View

X Factor UK & USA

The X Factor

The X Factor Logo

What was once the UK only singing talent/reality show has now spread worldwide. The XFactor's goal was to find the next singing superstar, created by Simon Cowell. The show has become one of the most important things in British Pop Culture.

X Factor UK Judges

Series 9 UK Winner James Arthur singing "Impossible" (41million Views)

The show boosted after singing sensation, Leona Lewis one with her insane and powerful voice. Her music became a worldwide sensation. Today, the show has been responsible for acts like One Direction, Little Mix, Union J, and James Arthur.

One Direction

One Direction coming back to the X Factor stage after reaching world-wide fame

The most recent season in America is currently running on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The season finale is set for Thursday, December 19th. The UK finale was on Sunday, December 15th. The four UK judges are Sharon Osbourne, Nicole Scherzinger, Gary Barlow, and Louis Walsh. The UK winner of the 2013 season (season 10) was Sam Bailey.

Sam Bailey

Union J

The show works like many shows, a typical audition round. After auditions, acts go to a "boot camp" where they are cut even further. after boot camp, they are assigned to a mentor. One Direction, the shows biggest success all came in as individual member. They all were cut in boot camp but brought back only if they agreed to be in a group. The process of putting together these members is said to be one of the smartest things a reality show could do. This process brought Little Mix, Union J, and One Direction to such great fame.

Little Mix

Union J singing "Fix You" on X Factor UK Season 9

After being assigned a mentor, they compete on live shows.

Caroline Flack & Matt Richardson (UK Hosts)

X Factor USA Contestants Alex&Sierra (Group) Singing "Gravity"

*For those unaware of The X Factor, The X Factor USA, or it's major successors, then you don't know anything about pop-culture or popular social media (aka twitter) :D*

Fave Breakthrough Artists of 2013

Favorite New Artists of 2013

So I was perusing the internet as always and I stumbled upon this (x). It's MTV's Buzzworthy's fan-fave breakthrough band of 2013 competition. Fans simply vote for their favorite and whover wins wins. Well as I was scrolling through the list the decision was lilterally just getting harder and harder and I thought, well why don't I just make a blog posts about my faves from it, so here it goes.

5 Seconds of Summer

Members

Ashton Irwin (Drums/Vocals) Calum Hood (Bass/Vocals)

Michael Clifford (Guitar/Vocals) Luke Hemmings (Vocals/Guitar)

About

5 Seconds of Summer, or 5SOS is a band originally from Australia. They toured with One Direction on the UK, America, and Australian segments of their Take Me Home stadium tour. With millions of Youtube hits, dedicated Twitter and Tumblr followers and the support of the biggest boy band in the world, this band skyrocketed to fame. They were even awarded Australian Artist of 2013.

Music

"Out of My Limit"

"Heartbreak Girl"

"Try Hard"

The 1975

Members

Matt Healy (Vocals/Guitar) Adam Hann (Guitar)

George Daniels (Drums) Ross Macdonald (Bass)

About

The 1975 are from Manchester, England. After going through several band names like The Slowdown and Bigsleep, Matt had found a few scribblings in a beat poetry book that had been dated "1 June, The 1975." The date stuck with them and later they fought with their label on the name because no one had ever had a name like that and their management doubted that it would be sucessful. Matt got 1975 tattooed on his arm and finalized the name. Since 2012 they have released the EPs: IV, Music for Cars, and Sex. In September of this year, they released their self-titled album, The 1975 (Find my concert review here and my album review here).

Music

"Sex"

"Chocolate"

"Girls"

Bastille

Members

Dan Smith (Lead vocals/Keyboard) Kyle Simmons (Keyboard/Bass)

Will Farquarson (Bass/Keyboard/Acoustic guitar) Chris Wood (Drums)

About

The London based band formed in early 2010, but by 2012 they had lost two members: a cellist and a violinist. They signed to Virgin Records in 2012 and released their first EPs Laura Palmer and Haunt. After They also released two mixtapes: Ohter People's Heartache part I and II. In March 2013 the band released their first album, Bad Blood.

Music

"Flaws"

"Laura Palmer"

"Pompeii"

Disclosure

Members

Guy & Howard Lawrence

About

Guy and Howard are two brothers that come from the south of England. They released their first album in June 2013 and it became one of the best albums of the year. It debued at number 1 in the UK and it charted well in Australia and all accross Europe. The brothers have played numerous music festivals since they began such as Coachella, Glastonberry, Sasquatch, and they have started a world tour that includes over 40 European, Canadian, and American cities.

Music

"Latch"

"White Noise"

"You & Me"

Haim

Members

Danielle Haim (Vocals/Guitar) Este Haim (Bass)

Alana Haim (Rhythm guitar/Keyboard/Percussion) Dash Hutton (Drums)

About

Haim is three sisters from Los Angles. They grew up playing multiple instruments each and rock 'n' roll had large influences in their lives. From about 2005-2010 the Danielle and Alana played small venues to even smaller crowds. Este decided around the end of 2010 to end her college career and take being in the band seriously. They opened for people like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Ke$ha. In Ocotber of 2012, influential BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe premired their song "Don't Save Me." Ever since then, the girls have been on an uphill swing releasing their first album Days are Gone.

Music

"The Wire"

"Falling"

"Don't Save Me"

The Neighbourhood

Members

Jesse Rutherford (Vocals) Jeremy Freedman (Guitar)

Zach Abels (Guitar) Mikey Margott (Bass) Bryan Sammis (Drums)

About

The Neighbourhood was formed in Los Angeles in early 2012. They're known for posting eveything in black and white. They released the songs "Female Robbery" and "Sweater Weather" in May 2012 and later released an EP called I'm Sorry.... In April 2013 they released their first album I Love You. In June of this year, the single "Sweater Weather" topped the Billboard Alternative chart at #1. They have toured with Imagine Dragons as a support act and now are headlineing their own tour. On December 10th, the band debued their newest single "Silver" on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show and announced a new album, The Black and The White.

Music

"Afraid"

"Sweater Weather"

"Let it Go"

British Fashion Awards

British Fashion Awards 2013

Every year the British Fashion Awards have the most glamorous red carpets filled with the best dressed celebrities. This year people like Kate Moss, Rita Ora, Alexa Chung, Henry Holland, Poppy Delevigne and Harry Styles all walked the red carpet in style.

Some of the best looks of the night

Kate Moss and Rita Ora

Alexa Chung

Henry Holland

Lily Donaldson

It doesn't matter how fashionable the event is, there are always those who do not quite hit the mark when it comes to their fashion choices. Among the worst dressed for me was Pixie Geldof and Harry Styles (sorry Pixie & Harry you're still my faves..)

Pixie Geldof

Award Winners

Christopher Bailey: Menswear Designer
of the Year & Designer Brand of the
Year (Burberry)

Harry Styles: British Style Award

Kate Moss: Special Recognition:
Generational Icon

Phan

Dan and Phil

Youtube

Youtube Logo

If you know anything about social media and the internet, then you clearly know about youtube. British You-tubers' have become the next big internet sensation. Starting with the Harries Twins, Jack and Finn, the world soon became obsessed with any channel that had British speaking hosts.

The Harries Twins with Dan Howell

Dan Howell and Phil Lester, two unrelated people met over the internet. They both started their Youtube channels years ago and met over common interests (aka the internet and video games). (they're really pale because they hate the sun & are nocturnal)

If you know ANYTHING about modern media, then you know about tumblr and its effect on Youtubers'. These two have arisen to the popularity they're at now because of tumblr and twitter. On tumblr fans have "shipped" the two together, calling them Phan. Dan and Phil get most of their photos, video ideas, and feedback on tumblr (along with fanfiction and interesting edits).

Dan tells about his life in the youtube tag "Draw My Life"

Phil tells about his life in the youtube tag "Draw My Life"

Dan & Phil

Dan Howell hosts his youtube channel, DanIsNotOnFire (x). His channel is all about being in the "internet support group" covering many topics: school, traumatizing stories, cooking, murder... Don't worry, he's completely sane and actually hilarious. For people who don't spend all their life on the internet (aka idiots), they won't find his channel to be entertaining as 50% of his commentary has some kind of internet meaning behind it.

Dan explains "shipping" in his video "I Will Go Down With This Ship"

Dan tells about his ironic use of annoying internet terms

Dan currently has 2million subscribers to his channel and 150million video views.

Phil Lester, better known as AmazingPhil (x), started his channel in 2006. Phil has 1.4 million followers and 90 million video-views to this day. There's no specific theme to Phil's channel, he just makes videos to his and his viewers liking. Most of his videos are about childhood stories or collaborations with Dan.

Phil and his video about the new Animal Crossing game

He has jet-lag and decided to make a video

After becoming close friends, they moved in together. They lived in Manchester for a bit where they started doing more collaborations together.

Day in the life of Dan and Phil in March 2012 (Manchester)

After becoming huge internet sensations in the UK, they slowly made appearances on BBC Radio 1. They would fill in for missing DJ's and host Radio Award Shows. After getting so many requests for their return at the station, they got their own Radio Show on Sunday's from 7-9pm (11am-1pm in California). Fans went crazy over internet-pop culture based show.

They explain their radio show on the BBC Radio 1 Youtube

Phil and Dan at BBCR1 (x)

Since they had a show at BBC Radio 1 weekly, they couldn't live in manchester anymore. They moved into a London apartment where they started making more appearances at movie premiers, Radio 1 events, and other UK Pop Culture events.

Tour of their London Apartment

Dan & Phil go through their tumblr tag (in flower crowns)

It Book Review

Alexa Chung

It

The 30 year old British model, actress, tv host, and icon has come out with her tell all book "It". Released in October 2013, the book came out as a #1 seller in many countries.

I highly recommend this to anyone who loves fashion and more importantly Queeen Chung 💎✨

BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge

Where Musical Genius is Made

The Radio 1 Live Lounge

Now hosted by Radio 1 DJ, Fearne Cotton, the Radio 1 Live Lounge (x) is where music is reinvented. With artists stopping by from all parts of the world, artists sing a live version of their most recent hit's along with a cover.

Fearne Cotton with the Grammy winning artist Adele

Fearne Cotton and Katy Perry (March 2012)

Since 2006 Radio 1 has released a "best of" cd of the best songs performed in the past year. The people vote on their top picks to be on these CD's. In the age of technology, these songs are able to be heard on youtube, tumblr, or any blogging website (x.)

Bastille covers Miley Cyrus's "We Can't Stop"

Buzzfeed recently did an article (x) on the 11 Best Live Lounge covers in 2013. Starting with Miley Cyrus covering Lana Del Rey's hit song "Summertime Sadness" and Haim's cover of Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball" at number two.

Little Mix covers JAY Z, One Republic and Nirvana

September was the month of Live Lounges (24 to be exact), with a different artists coming in every weekday to record with Fearne. The month was to celebrate new music and the return of Fearne Cotton, who was on maternity leave. The radio station labeled the evert as "Even More Music Month" to top off the end of summer's countless live events and festivals.

Arctic Monkeys cover Drake's Hold On We're Going Home

Radio 1’s Even More Music Month: Ellie Goulding, The 1975, Queens Of The Stone Age, Rizzle Kicks, Jason Derülo, London Grammar, Bastille, Kings Of Leon, Imagine Dragons, Naughty Boy, Arctic Monkeys, Dan Croll, You Me At Six, Eliza Doolittle, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Birdy, Jessie J, Kodaline, Sam Smith, Daley, Justin Timberlake, Chase & Status, HAIM, and Laura Mvula

Gabrielle Aplin covers One Direction's Best Song Ever

Find the Live Lounges: on Radio 1's Youtube (x) and on the Radio 1 Website (x)

Buy the "Best Of" album (x) (UK Only)

Grammy Nominations 2013

Grammy Nominations Concert 2013

Hosted by NCIS LA star LL Cool J, the Grammy Nomination Concert was a nonstop, performance packed hour. The Award's Concert aired on CBS on Friday, December 3rd.