Yesterday, I had an interesting discussion about the Eurovision Song Festival, and more specifically, whether song festival submissions are distinguishable as such.
I think there is, though the difference is not not so clear as to make it possible to reliably identify them in a blind test: the majority of these songs were written and arranged to be performed live, on stage, to a large audience, and were meant to appeal to an even larger audience, from many different countries.
As far as the individual songs is concerned, there is nothing inherently wrong with aiming for the widest possible audience, if you succeed. (You could even argue that that is/was the whole point of the festival, which is/was to bring people from different countries together, after the Second World War.) The problem is that to older, discerning audiences (and yes, I admit I am a bit of a snob in this respect) many of the failures are the musical equivalent of soap operas: it doesn't matter how well crafted they are, if certain essential things are lacking. The most recurring problem with soap operas is that protagonists will suddenly do things that are completely out of character, i.e. contrary to everything they did up till a certain point, just to create tension in an otherwise boring situation. With Eurovision songs, it is even easier to miss the mark, because the bar is so much higher (you have to appeal to people from many different cultures, not just one), and there is less time to pull the audience in.
This is presumably why several of the "older" participating countries are so ambivalent about the Eurovision Song Festival, both in the mainstream media (there are radio programmes dedicated to highlighting the worst songs) and at home: many people get together just to poke fun at the Festival (sometimes aided and abetted by commentators such as Graham Norton).
I suppose this situation is just the result of a natural development: the newer Eurovision countries are still on their honeymoon, while the older ones are just trying to make sure the marriage continues to work (which often includes bitching about it from time to time). Hopefully, the next phase will mean less political bias in the voting, and more peace and quiet for those of us (like me) who like the snarky comments, but also want to be able to hear the songs as they are performed.
