Ok, so they did it, I say they meaning the Facebook community, 'cause I have bought neither Joe McElderry or Rage Against the Machine even though I quite like both of them.
Dear God! Who'd a' Thunk you could like a cute wee pop star from Geordieland who won a major popularity contest, AND a rap-metal group from the underground, dreadlock heavy, 'anti-establishment' movement. Of course they're not underground any more, as anti-capitalist as they may be, cause they've been and played live on bloody 5 radio, and been all over the news. Which is kind of the point I'm making.
This Facebook group, rather than pave the way for a new wave of music where everyone just buys what they like, has started it's own sheep-herding exercise, whereby anyone who DOESN'T follow X-Factor is instantly bound by common dislike to follow RATM instead.
"FUCK YOU I WONT DO WHAT YOU TELL ME."
That should apply to people telling you to buy RATM as much as it does to someone telling you to buy Joe McElderry.
Why do we even care about the chart any more? All the coolest bands give their music away for free. The chart is obselete. I don't know what was in it for the other 51 weeks of this year, so why should I care about this week so much? 90% of the music I've bought this year is over 10 years old already. And just so you remember, about Christmas No. 1, Bob the Builder won it a few years back. Westlife. Spice Girls. Mr Blobby has too. Christmas No. 1 is not necessarily something to be proud of.
So well done to Rage for breaking the X-Factor monopoly. Congratulations on having a UK number 1 single, especially at Christmas, and I hope to see you out and about in your new Prius' before long. Cos let's face it, whatever 'anti-establishment' message you tried to put over, you've still made a shit-load of money here, haven't you.
I don't think the Rage people have proved much either.
ReplyDeleteThe chart reflects buying habits.
The type of people who like pop, go out and buy singles (hence the last five years of x factor dominance) and they do so without any call to arms. It's called pop for a reason - it's popular.
The type of people who like alternative music don't (they download illegally, buy albums etc.) - plus their purchasing is divided between a wider variety of genres; no one act rises to the top.
All they are 'raging against' people's freedom to buy what they want to buy! No one is being forced to buy Joe's single, but there are 400,000 people who want to... with no agenda at all. So let them!
They have made the race interesting mind. I'll give them that.
And I think if anything they've fought the 'we wrote a song ourselves and didn't have thousands spent on our marketing' corner quite well.
It's a mixed message at best.
Exactly! Thanks Tom, I too think that all the Rage fans out there spend their time illegally downloading and if they want to get their bands in the charts (which they pretend not to care about for the other 358 days of the year) then they should be paying for music!
ReplyDeleteJoe did have the grandparent vote - possibly the only group of people yet to get their head round illegal downloads - so that's where the sales are coming from! I'm glad he's taking it with a bit more level-headedness than Cowell too.