A veritable storm has been brewing in the charts this week, and it's all down to The X Factor and a Facebook group.
A few weeks before the winner of this years X Factor was announced, a group popped up on Facebook entitled "RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR CHRISTMAS NO.1", urging people to buy the bands song 'Killing in The Name' the same week as the X Factor winners single is released, in an attempt to get ‘Rage’ to the top spot in the charts for Christmas instead of the winner of the singing competition (a winner voted for by the public).
Last week the winner of The X Factor was announced as 18 year old Joe McElderry, from South Shields, Tyneside. After going largely unnoticed throughout the early stages of the competition, Joe proved to be the dark horse and, after consistently outsinging his rivals on the show, was eventually announced as the winner of the one million pound record deal.
The point of the Rage Against The Machine Facebook protest is, according to its founders, to prevent The X Factor from claiming its 5th consecutive Christmas number one and undermine the predictability of the current Christmas number one race.
Many members of the protest group have said that buying Rage Against The Machine instead of the X Factor winners single gives power back to the people, and proves that we don’t all have to buy what we are told to by corporations and people like Simon Cowell. Which makes no sense whatsoever. The X Factor is voted for by the public, and it is the public who decide who wins. No one forces those members of the public to watch the show. No one forces those members of the public to vote. And no one forces them to buy the winners single. What the group has failed to take in to account is that, whilst many people look down on pop music or reality tv, a lot of people enjoy it, and will buy Joe’s single not because anyone is telling them to, but because they want to. If people don’t like the show, they don’t watch it. If they don’t like the winners song, they don’t buy it. It doesn’t seem to have crossed the group’s mind that the reason the X Factor winners single gets to number one every year is because people like the show, and it is those people who chose the winner, and it is those people who go out and but the single. Not because anyone makes them, but because they want to.
The biggest problem with the protest though, in my opinion, is that, actually, The X Factor won’t be at all affected by the protest. Next year, The X Factor will return the same way it always does. It will dominate Saturday (and now Sunday) night viewing for months in the run up to the final, and when the winner is announced they will release a single and will, as usual, be hot favourite to scoop Christmas number one. The show itself and the way it works will be in no way affected by whether McElderry or Rage Against The Machine hit the top spot this year.
The Facebook group also claims that it is not aimed at Simon Cowell personally, which is lucky for them, as Rage Against The Machine happen to be signed to Epic, a subsidiary of Sony Records. Know what other label is a subsidiary of Sony Records? Syco, the label owned and run by Simon Cowell and the label which will release McElderry’s, and any further X Factor winners, singles. So, Simon Cowell benefits either way.
So, who exactly IS going to be affected by this protest?
A few weeks before the winner of this years X Factor was announced, a group popped up on Facebook entitled "RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR CHRISTMAS NO.1", urging people to buy the bands song 'Killing in The Name' the same week as the X Factor winners single is released, in an attempt to get ‘Rage’ to the top spot in the charts for Christmas instead of the winner of the singing competition (a winner voted for by the public).
Last week the winner of The X Factor was announced as 18 year old Joe McElderry, from South Shields, Tyneside. After going largely unnoticed throughout the early stages of the competition, Joe proved to be the dark horse and, after consistently outsinging his rivals on the show, was eventually announced as the winner of the one million pound record deal.
The point of the Rage Against The Machine Facebook protest is, according to its founders, to prevent The X Factor from claiming its 5th consecutive Christmas number one and undermine the predictability of the current Christmas number one race.
Many members of the protest group have said that buying Rage Against The Machine instead of the X Factor winners single gives power back to the people, and proves that we don’t all have to buy what we are told to by corporations and people like Simon Cowell. Which makes no sense whatsoever. The X Factor is voted for by the public, and it is the public who decide who wins. No one forces those members of the public to watch the show. No one forces those members of the public to vote. And no one forces them to buy the winners single. What the group has failed to take in to account is that, whilst many people look down on pop music or reality tv, a lot of people enjoy it, and will buy Joe’s single not because anyone is telling them to, but because they want to. If people don’t like the show, they don’t watch it. If they don’t like the winners song, they don’t buy it. It doesn’t seem to have crossed the group’s mind that the reason the X Factor winners single gets to number one every year is because people like the show, and it is those people who chose the winner, and it is those people who go out and but the single. Not because anyone makes them, but because they want to.
The biggest problem with the protest though, in my opinion, is that, actually, The X Factor won’t be at all affected by the protest. Next year, The X Factor will return the same way it always does. It will dominate Saturday (and now Sunday) night viewing for months in the run up to the final, and when the winner is announced they will release a single and will, as usual, be hot favourite to scoop Christmas number one. The show itself and the way it works will be in no way affected by whether McElderry or Rage Against The Machine hit the top spot this year.
The Facebook group also claims that it is not aimed at Simon Cowell personally, which is lucky for them, as Rage Against The Machine happen to be signed to Epic, a subsidiary of Sony Records. Know what other label is a subsidiary of Sony Records? Syco, the label owned and run by Simon Cowell and the label which will release McElderry’s, and any further X Factor winners, singles. So, Simon Cowell benefits either way.
So, who exactly IS going to be affected by this protest?
One of my biggest problems with the protest is the fact that the only person who will be at all affected by it is 18 year old Joe McElderry. Being the first X Factor winner not to reach number one with his debut single sets a pretty bad precedent for the rest of his career. X Factor contestants are generally expected to fade in to obscurity after a couple of years anyway, but having this hanging over his head gives him even less chance of people ever taking him seriously. I think it's quite sad, as Joe always came across as such a nice person on the show and it seems a shame that the slim chance he had of a successful career as a singer is being cut even shorter by a group of people, many of whom have admitted not paying any attention to the charts any other time, who have chosen to make some sort of 'stand' against people with different tastes to them at the expense of what seems to be a very sweet kid. And let's not forget, Joe won The X Factor for a reason: he's a very good singer, and whilst his single isn't going to change the world it's a perfectly enjoyable song, which for a lot of people is enough.
So, if you don’t like Joe’s single, don’t buy it. But don’t jump on the bandwagon and ruin it for those of us that do enjoy The X Factor and want to see people we have come to care about do well.
So, if you don’t like Joe’s single, don’t buy it. But don’t jump on the bandwagon and ruin it for those of us that do enjoy The X Factor and want to see people we have come to care about do well.
You make a valid point Lauren ... good on you for taking the time to clarify! I do agree but I kind of think the charts are now pretty much a moot point and long for the days that an actual xmas was number one...surely the christmas number one is about cheesy music...bring back Wizzard I say :-p
ReplyDelete*whoops shoddy editing, that should say *xmas song!
ReplyDeleteAh, now there's an idea I can get behind! I love proper Christmas songs, and would have far less of a problem with this whole thing if an actual Cristmas song had been picked instead of the pseudo-political rantings of RATM.
ReplyDeleteThe entire X factor is planned with the knowledge that the winners single will be released for Christmas number one. If they released it the week before, would people hold out just to buy it for Christmas number one? The X factor big bosses would get just as much money from either weeks sales, but which is more prestigious? The week before Christmas, or Christmas?
ReplyDeleteI think Its good that people are noticing these things. I used to be interested in the Christmas number one. I can remember how glad I was Mad World made its own way to Christmas number one.
Also, I was voting for Ollie. He may not have had the voice of a twelve year old, But he was a performer. I wonder how many songs on Joe's album will be covers/ballads?