Manufactured bands like this are cash cows for record companies, but there is also a race against time to recover the investments in their product.
For that reason, they have millions ploughed into capitalising on their relevance for an intense period of time where their product is drained of everything. Unlike people like Bowie, the band are in control of nothing-even the co-writing. Co-writing is a nonsense, but an important phrase to use when trying to sell the "integrity" of the band i.e. to try and fool the public/fans that their involvement with the writing and recording process is a collaboration and not an autocracy.
These kids wanted to be famous. Their brand is handed to them, their musical style is handed to them, even the way they behave in interviews is handed to them. Nice shiny pretty ornaments. That's what separates manufactured bands from genuine artists. They can sing, but that's literally their lot. They have no idea what they're letting themselves in for when they sign on the dotted line. I seem to remember S Club 7 or someone like that saying they didn't get a single penny for several years (royalties are usually paid twice yearly).
Add to that the underlying psychopathology of people like Jesy, who believes the path to validation is to put yourself in the firing line of criticism. It's like having a nose job when you've got body dysmorphia-you don't see the change. You still feel ugly. I don't doubt she's another Caroline Flack with respect to her, and I don't doubt overdoses, self-harm and eating problems are novel issues only presenting since the band started. I have no doubt these issues predate her fame, only that fame has amplified the symptoms.
The music industry is competitive, critical, bitchy and incredibly haughty. The days of hanging around in clubs together and talking shop with a view to jamming at each other's houses with a spliff and a bottle of Jack, are dead. That's why there's a belief that true music is dead. The parasitic, money motivated machines have taken over, and machines don't empathise-they just demand more, and more, and more.