Dave Gorman said on Twitter yesterday afternoon that he knew he’d become an adult when he realised he no longer cared what was number one in the UK music charts at any time of the year. It’s a great quote and I can see what he means, but I guess then that by his logic I’m not an adult because, although I couldn’t care less what’s at number one for the rest of the year, to me the Christmas number one still holds a little piece of magic. Or at least it did until five years ago.
I no longer listen to the chart show. The bands I love very rarely trouble the charts as they tend to have talent and rely on decent music and intelligible new lyrics, rather than electronic re-hashes of old songs and I realised that I gave up listening to anything approaching so-called modern music when Top of the Pops ended in 2006 and Radio Two became a better station than Radio One. But for some reason however, much though I may ignore the charts (and I think I can safely say that I can’t name a single band that have been number one this year) I can’t help but take an interest in the Christmas chart.
Perhaps it was growing up in the seventies and eighties, when all those ‘classic’ Christmas tracks vied for top spot (although as Bob Stanley in the Guardian has pointed out, there have been more than a few duff songs over the years, however I would challenge his inclusion of ‘Two Little Boys’ in that list, especially having seen Rolf singing it last night) which makes me a sentimental old fool at Christmas, but every year I really do truly wish that something other than the X factor winner would get to number one; actually, anything other than the X Factor winner. And finally it’s happened with Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’.
A lot of people have criticised the RATM song because it’s unintelligible, there’s swearing and let’s face it, it’s not really a Christmas song. But that’s why it was the perfect Christmas number one. Ever since X Factor took over the Christmas charts there have been a growing number of dissenting voices complaining about its domination – as a friend of mine stated when we saw a Christmas number one run-down show on TV last year, “the charts aren’t worth bothering with now ‘cos X Factor’s always number one at Christmas and it’s boring.”
Finally this year the dissenters decided to do something about it and put their weight behind possibly the most inappropriate Christmas song ever. And it worked. It got to number one. And more spectacularly, it got to number one without even selling a single hard copy – it managed to trash the X factor contender by downloads alone. RATM have been gracious (and probably pretty stunned) in their victory and are donating a majority of their unexpected money to Shelter, and playing a free gig next year to say thank you.
Yes the song isn’t to everyone’s taste, although I personally prefer it to ‘The Climb’, but the fact that it sold so many copies shows that people don’t want the X Factor song to be the Christmas number one every year. There has been all sorts of comments about how this is a win for ‘real music’, but I don’t think that this was ever really the issue, as Joe Whatshisname’s song is real music, or at least no more manufactured than 99% of the charts (and I don’t just mean current charts – anyone remember Stock, Aitken and Waterman?) To my mind the real reason that RATM won was because people like me are fed up with X Factor’s domination over the Christmas chart.
I do feel a bit sorry for poor Joe. The boy obviously has a good voice and he seems like a nice lad. But I’m afraid that winning X Factor does not, as a lot of people have suggested, give him automatic right to be number one, and the Christmas number one at that.
Unfortunately for Joe, he had the misfortune to win the show at a time when people are finally becoming so dissatisfied with Simon Cowell and X Factor’s hijacking of the Christmas charts they decided to make a stand and he paid the price, although to be fair the song ‘The Climb’ isn’t exactly a classic. Even my mum and dad, who are part of the target audience for sales thought the song dreary, and several hearings didn’t improve it at all (although it might just have been marginally better than Miley Cyrus’ original).
Had the show finished in August he’d have hit the top spot no problem, after all no-one much gives a damn any more what’s number one at any other time of the year and it’s a little unfair of people to start insinuating that he’s a failure because his song didn’t manage to stem the tide of dissatisfaction.
Unfortunately, I don’t suppose it’ll change anything in the long term. X Factor will still air in the last few weeks before Christmas and next year’s winner will face another challenge – unless Simon does something sensible.
I know...how about the X Factor winner singing a Christmas song rather than some twee but dull ballad?
I no longer listen to the chart show. The bands I love very rarely trouble the charts as they tend to have talent and rely on decent music and intelligible new lyrics, rather than electronic re-hashes of old songs and I realised that I gave up listening to anything approaching so-called modern music when Top of the Pops ended in 2006 and Radio Two became a better station than Radio One. But for some reason however, much though I may ignore the charts (and I think I can safely say that I can’t name a single band that have been number one this year) I can’t help but take an interest in the Christmas chart.
Perhaps it was growing up in the seventies and eighties, when all those ‘classic’ Christmas tracks vied for top spot (although as Bob Stanley in the Guardian has pointed out, there have been more than a few duff songs over the years, however I would challenge his inclusion of ‘Two Little Boys’ in that list, especially having seen Rolf singing it last night) which makes me a sentimental old fool at Christmas, but every year I really do truly wish that something other than the X factor winner would get to number one; actually, anything other than the X Factor winner. And finally it’s happened with Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’.
A lot of people have criticised the RATM song because it’s unintelligible, there’s swearing and let’s face it, it’s not really a Christmas song. But that’s why it was the perfect Christmas number one. Ever since X Factor took over the Christmas charts there have been a growing number of dissenting voices complaining about its domination – as a friend of mine stated when we saw a Christmas number one run-down show on TV last year, “the charts aren’t worth bothering with now ‘cos X Factor’s always number one at Christmas and it’s boring.”
Finally this year the dissenters decided to do something about it and put their weight behind possibly the most inappropriate Christmas song ever. And it worked. It got to number one. And more spectacularly, it got to number one without even selling a single hard copy – it managed to trash the X factor contender by downloads alone. RATM have been gracious (and probably pretty stunned) in their victory and are donating a majority of their unexpected money to Shelter, and playing a free gig next year to say thank you.
Yes the song isn’t to everyone’s taste, although I personally prefer it to ‘The Climb’, but the fact that it sold so many copies shows that people don’t want the X Factor song to be the Christmas number one every year. There has been all sorts of comments about how this is a win for ‘real music’, but I don’t think that this was ever really the issue, as Joe Whatshisname’s song is real music, or at least no more manufactured than 99% of the charts (and I don’t just mean current charts – anyone remember Stock, Aitken and Waterman?) To my mind the real reason that RATM won was because people like me are fed up with X Factor’s domination over the Christmas chart.
I do feel a bit sorry for poor Joe. The boy obviously has a good voice and he seems like a nice lad. But I’m afraid that winning X Factor does not, as a lot of people have suggested, give him automatic right to be number one, and the Christmas number one at that.
Unfortunately for Joe, he had the misfortune to win the show at a time when people are finally becoming so dissatisfied with Simon Cowell and X Factor’s hijacking of the Christmas charts they decided to make a stand and he paid the price, although to be fair the song ‘The Climb’ isn’t exactly a classic. Even my mum and dad, who are part of the target audience for sales thought the song dreary, and several hearings didn’t improve it at all (although it might just have been marginally better than Miley Cyrus’ original).
Had the show finished in August he’d have hit the top spot no problem, after all no-one much gives a damn any more what’s number one at any other time of the year and it’s a little unfair of people to start insinuating that he’s a failure because his song didn’t manage to stem the tide of dissatisfaction.
Unfortunately, I don’t suppose it’ll change anything in the long term. X Factor will still air in the last few weeks before Christmas and next year’s winner will face another challenge – unless Simon does something sensible.
I know...how about the X Factor winner singing a Christmas song rather than some twee but dull ballad?
