Dispatches from the North: The Christmas Number One – British Christmas Number 1
December 16, 2009 by Lisa
Filed under British Music, Dispatches from the North, Entertainment, Humor
One interesting thing about Christmas in Britain is how big of a deal it is to have “The Christmas Number One”, that means to have the top spot on the UK Charts the week of Christmas. Bookies even take bets on who will be the Christmas number one, it is just a massive deal here. There is really no reason why, the week of Christmas is no more important than any other week as far as music goes, in fact I would argue that having the top record in the summer during festival season is probably much more impressive than having the number one song at Christmas.
I heard a report on the radio the other day that many bookies have stopped taking bets on the Christmas number one since every year since 2005 the winner of the X Factor shoots straight to the top with the song they release the week of the X Factor final. The X Factor producers have intentionally scheduled the show to culminate less than two weeks before Christmas, just in time for the winner’s single to be downloaded and requested on the radio enough to reach the top. The final single is actually chosen about a month before the final to make sure all potential finalists can sing it, and its usually recorded by each of the top three finalists the week before and the alternate versions from the runners up are discarded never to be heard and the winner’s version goes public only hours after the result is announced.
This year the Christmas number one is slated to be X Factor winner Joe McElderry or “Geordie Joe” who is a good North Eastern boy from South Shields. I was thrilled this past weekend when he won as I voted for him every week and think he was definitely the most talented singer in this year’s competition. This year the X Factor single is “The Climb” which was released by Miley Cyrus quite recently for The Hannah Montana Movie. I thought it was an interesting choice to select a song that has been in the charts by another artist so recently, but its definitely an improvement over last year’s X Factor Single.
Last year was an interesting dynamic because the X Factor winner sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” which was also released by Jeff Buckley, and the winner actually did the Buckley version. Many music fans, especially fans of Cohen and Buckley, thought the song was inappropriate for the X Factor finalist and that the diva belter Alexandra Burke who won last year delivered a version that wasn’t true to the spirit of the song and completely ignored the fact that its not a celebratory and triumphant song. I personally was on the side of the critics, I don’t think it was an appropriate choice. Its one of my favorite songs and I love it for its haunting quality and Alexandra’s oversung version showed no connection to the lyrics of the song at all. Its not her fault, its the X Factor producers who made the mistake of choosing a song that didn’t suit her style or the style of the show for that matter. Anyway, as a result of this last year Alexandra Burke’s “Hallelujah” was the number one and Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” was number two, which meant the same song was being played all over the radio by two different artists and when the recognizable piano intro began you never knew whether you would hear Buckley’s lamenting version or Burke’s diabolical version.
This year a campaign called “Rage Against the X Factor” has been launched to make Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” the Christmas number one. I don’t think this is really aimed at the X Factor contestants, its definitely a shot at the producers and really at the idea that something is preordained and inevitable. It takes the fun out of the Christmas number one if you already know who its going to be. However, I think its really unfair and doesn’t hurt the producers at all, it only spoils the fun for the X Factor winner who, lets face it, is just an ordinary Joe (pun intended) and doesn’t deserve that type of malicious meddling. By attempting to fix the Christmas charts I don’t think the people following the “Rage Against the X Factor” campaign are really any better than the music producers they are raging against.
If you have seen Love Actually you may remember Billy Mack’s attempt to beat out boy band Blue for the top Christmas spot with his hilarious Christmas song. Last year a similar bit of comedic genius happened. Comedian Peter Kay did a parody reality show called Britain’s Got the Pop Factor …and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice where his character Geraldine McQueen “won” the fake reality show and released two singles. One was “The Winner Song” (co-written with Gary Barlow of Take That) and another single “Once Upon a Christmas Song” which were both loved by all and made it pretty far up the Christmas charts with “The Winner Song” peaking at number 2 and “Once Upon a Christmas Song” peaking at number 5. ”Geraldine” also made appearances on all of the chat shows and appearred everywhere throughout the Christmas season. I love that the ridiculousness of The Christmas Number One has a fun side as well and also Peter Kay donated all of the proceeds from Geraldine’s singles to the NSPCC, a charity that helps abused and neglected children in Britain. I think Peter Kay did it the right way by trying to mix it up without being malicious and also being charitable, which is much more than be can said for the Rage Against crowd.
So who will it be this year? Will Joe McElderry keep the tradition alive and claim the top spot or will it go to quite possibly the least Christmasy song ever?
Author Info - Lisa Coulson is an American Expat living in the North of England in Hartlepool. She writes a weekly column on Wednesdays about life in the UK. Lisa also has her own blog - Anglophile's Digest Read more from this author
I won’t waste too much time on this mainly because this article seems to have totally missed the point of the rage campaign. Largely that the rage campaign is not malacious but about reclaiming an old British tradition of having a fight for the christmas number one spot, and not automatically expecting it just because you have won a talent contest. Especially when the song is quite frankly rubbish, also not really christmassy and not written by the artist singing it. On this point I would like to add that I like most supporters of the RAGE campaign do belive that Joe is very talented even if I’m not a fan of the song.
My MAIN point I would like to make is that supporters of the rage campaign are also dontaing to charity, please see http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas/
It was also reported today that Rage Against the Machine are also donating the proceeds of the sales to a UK youth music charity.
The RATM campaign has so far raised £40k for charity (Shelter).
Tom Morello (RATM) has also pledged to donate some of his proceeds to charity. So yes, the RATM campaign is also charitable and I think you should amend your article as it’s extremely misleading.
Since when is the X-factor winner entitled to the number one spot? How can you call the RATM campaign malicious meddling when you support the X-factor which is essentially just a lengthy marketing campaign for the X-factor winner? Simon Cowell has been fixing the charts for over half a decade but people like you didn’t complain then. Your comments just reek of hypocrisy and ignorance. Research the facts before you comment next time.
The X Factor winner is NOT entitled to the number one spot. The X Factor winner gets the top spot by being supported by the British people. The charts haven’t been fixed, they just keep making songs that a great number of people enjoy. You might not enjoy it, but it doesn’t make the millions of British people who do like the music any less entitled to have their favourite artist at the top of the charts. As I mentioned in my article, the producers have strategically scheduled the show to allow for this to happen every year, so I don’t think I have in any way glossed over the fact that this comes from a bit of engineering. I never once said in this article that I believe the X Factor winner SHOULD be the number one, only that they have been. I think you have put some words into my mouth here.
The X Factor has also donated a hefty sum to various charities over the past several seasons, and not just as an afterthought.
Your argument can be applied to Rage Against the Machine as well. You may not enjoy it but the 800000 people who have joined the Facebook group have the right for their song to be on top of the charts as well. Since Joe has so much marketing behind him and 20 million people watched him win the X-factor, he should have no trouble beating Rage Against the Machine if the British public like his song so much. I really can’t see what you are complaining about.
I disagree. This was not a case of Rage Against the Machine releasing a new single and people buying it. It is an organised effort aimed at knocking someone else off the top of the chart, so its not the same thing at all. I think its a rather arrogant insult to the millions of people who enjoy the music.
I am not a huge fan of pop music, and I actually really a huge fan of Audioslave and Tom’s other projects, but I respect that not every person has the same taste in music as I do. The fact is that the Rage Against the X Factor make it seem like there is a vast conspiracy to make the X Factor single the number one when really the only conspiracy going on here is the Rage Against the X Factor campaign. Which is what my main point was.
If Rage wanted to release a new single they wouldn’t need the help of a facebook group to sell records and worldwide they would easily outset Joe in a heartbeat. But this campaign isn’t about liking Rage’s music, its about disliking pop music and that is why I think its malicious.
Please can you amend your article as it’s extremely misleading- RATM campain has raised over £40k for Shelter so far (http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas) and Tom Morello from Rage is donating proceeds to charity too.
In addition, this ‘competition’ will only increase money for all charities involved.
Your article is extremely biased and you’ve left out these very important facts, I think you should be ashamed and if you had any professionalism as a writer you’d amend it immediately.
“Its about disliking pop music and that is why I think its malicious.”
How much further from the point could you be? You’re so far from it the point isn’t even a dot on the horizon, its on the other side of the globe.
The point, or at least to me, and I need to stress this point – AS A MUSIC STUDENT studying the music industry – is that the music industry is broken. A monopoly has been placed upon the charts by a businessman, not a musician. Joe, whilst a talented vocalist, has unfortunately taken, what nearly everyone in the music industry sees as, an easy route to fame, where he personally has not made the choices, but a businessman has made them for him. That, Lisa, is not music.
Music is tribal, a primal instinct that humans use to convey emotions, feelings and talents. Its a form of communication, not a commodity to be traded and marketed so monstrously as Simon Cowell does. This campaign is to get music that has a heartfelt message BACK into the charts and back to the top.
Rage Against the Machine have a message in their track that is appropriate to this campaign, and to today’s political atmosphere. Joe’s track… well, where is the message? You tell me.
This is a campaign about getting TALENTED MUSICIANS back into the domain where they so rightfully belong, not pawns of businessmen.
Whilst we’re all entitled to our own opinions, at least make sure you know where you’re coming from when trying to debunk the RATM4XMAS clan.
Merry Christmas, however! Hope you have a good one =)
Just wanted to say that while I find the bias and cynicism in this article particularly amusing, I do take particular issue with this quote:
‘ I think Peter Kay did it the right way by trying to mix it up without being malicious and also being charitable, which is much more than be can said for the Rage Against crowd.’
Malicious? Hardly! We have nothing against Joe personally, I think he has a great voice and could go far. This is about restoring competition to the Christmas number one, the way it used to be rather than expecting the X Factor to win it every year, despite the quality of the song.
As for the ‘Rage lot’ not being charitable, I suggest a little more research be done into the subject! We have set up donations via a Just Giving site with money going to Shelter. We have so far raised over £38,000. Not bad for a group of people who are, clearly, not charitable…
Also the Rage campaign has raised thousands for charity, so you’re incorrect on that point as well.
Not charitable?! The Rage Against The X-Factor campaign on Facebook has raised almost £40,000 for the homeless charity, Shelter. You have a duty as a publication to get your facts right before you publish your stories.
Here is the link to said charity campaign:
http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
think youll find we’ve raised £40,000 for Shelter charity
http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
‘I think Peter Kay did it the right way by trying to mix it up without being malicious and also being charitable, which is much more than be can said for the Rage Against crowd.’
If you had done your research properly you would know that the campaign is promoting donations to the charity Shelter and at the time of writing has raised nearly £39,000 http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
OI.
You should check your facts right, Currently we (the rage agaisnt the machine campaign) has raised over £35,000 for charity.
X-factor sucks. END OF
Gduck
but RATM WILL be downloading money to charity.
And the Facebook group has raised thousands for Shelter!
It’s quite inaccurate of the author to call the campaign “uncharitable”, as the campaign has so far raised over £38k for Shelter, see: http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
A small point of order about your article. You’ve failed to mention that everyone who is downloading RATM is also being encouraged to donate to the homeless charity “Shelter”, and we’ve raised over £30,000 so far… We’re a charitable lot, us anti-Cowells!!!
Steve
Everyone is entitled to their own opion, but i felt i had to call you on the remark
“I think Peter Kay did it the right way by trying to mix it up without being malicious and also being charitable, which is much more than be can said for the Rage Against crowd.”
The RATM campaign has raised £38,680.66 so far for Shelter, and we’re not done yet.
check out http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas/ if you want to join in
Lisa, perhaps it would be advised to check your facts before voicing an ill-informed opion?
I just thought i’d let you know that their is a charity fundraiser along with the backing of “Rage Against The Machine” for Christmas #1.
The website is: http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas/
And its raised nearly £40,000 for “Shelter” so far.
So please don’t assume that this campaign is malicious, and particularly don’t say that it’s not charitable. I suggest you do some research before you write an article in the future.
That is utter nonsense. The RATM group are donating to shelter.
http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
Perhaps you should do some more research.
NOT CHARITABLE – I suggest you do your research next time Lisa. RATM for xmas n01 have raised over £30,000 and Tom Morello of RATM has pledged to give some of the earning to a British music charity. Really this was very poor journalism.
Have you actually been onto the facebook group? The generosity of the people in the group has led to nearly £40,000 being raised for the charity Shelter, these people are doing this of there own accord, is that not charitable enough? Also Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine has specified that he will donate ALL royalties he receives from the sales to charity, again is this not charitable?
As for fixing the christmas charts, we are trying to show Simon Cowell he isn’t the only one that can do it and that he doesn’t have an autoatic right to the number 1 with the X factor winner.
Lisa, you should have done a little research before writing your blog!! The “RATM Crowd” as you called us have raised nearly £39,000 for shelter since starting this campaign. http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas So yes we’re being charitable too!!!
Lisa
You are wrong to accuse the RATM group of being uncharitable. The founders of the group set up this link http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas and asked everybody to donate to Shelter (a charity for the homeless who do a lot of work at Christmas). Almost £40,000 raised so far.
Also why should the X factor winner automatically get the number one slot. How is buying other music “spoiling his fun” and “malicious meddling”?
Lisa, in reference to your closing thoughts – “I think Peter Kay did it the right way by trying to mix it up without being malicious and also being charitable, which is much more than be can said for the Rage Against crowd.”
…you have completely failed to notice that the ‘rage against the machine crowd’ have been using the facebook group as a platform to promote the charity Shelter and have raised over 30,000 pounds in the process. In addition to that Rage’s guitarist Tom Morello (who isn’t involved in the campaign) has vowed to give his cut of the single sales to a UK based charity.
Please do yourself a favour and do some thorough research before publishing an article
Hi Lisa,
If you going to blog – then please be accurate.
Rage against the machines campaign has actually raised over £30,000.00 as I type this for the homeless charity SHELTER! All raised through direct donation from the members of the Rage Against The Machines For Xmas No.1 Facebook site.
Unlike dearest Joe’s sales which are going directly into his pocket! So maybe a little rewrite may be in order, if you want to be taken seriously.
Regards
Mark
Just to put something straight the RATM campaign is also linked to a charity shelter and had raised £30,000 at last count. The lead singer of RATM is also going to give profit from the sale to the UK charity Youth Music. its not just a senseless campaign.
How can you say the rage campaign isn’t charitable!?! the rage campaign has raised over £38,000 for a homeless charity! you say it makes the charts not interesting when you know who’s going to win, well then i didnt see it coming last year when the winner of the x-factor won again for the 5th time in a row! and yes we are sick of the x-factor but its not a personal stab at joe, its unfair that it has to be him but otherwise how else will it be known that a rising group of the population don’t want this dribble on tv!
make sure you know your facts before slating this group!
I find this article to be misinformed and flawed, atleast do some background research before you decide to write an article like this in the future.
For your Information the “Rage Against Crowd” have been donating to a charitable cause.
http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas/ ——–£38k+ raised so far for shelter.
Check it out.
Hi Lisa
I recognise that you wrote this blog before the RATM charity was set up. However, we have since donated nearly £40,000 on top of the money we’ve paid for the music. You can see for yourself here – http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
In addition, there is no way we can fix the number one spot. X factor is too strong. We have 800,000 members, they have 20 million viewers! All we want is to introduce some unpredictability to the chart. We want RATM to top the chart for 1 year – not dominate for four plus. Hopefully our campaign will encourage other major artists to release for this special week next year.
Kind regards
Paul
I can see clearly from this article that you know nothing about the rage against the machine group. You talk about the Peter Kay single being charitable and its more than can be said for the rage against crowd. I think before you insult three quarters of a million people you should read a little into what you talk about. at the time of writing the group has raised £38,719.66 for the charity shelter. We have also received support from Tom Morello (the Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave Guitarist for those who don’t know much about music) who has stated he is going to donate all his earnings from the track to the charity Youth Music.
For someone with such strong opinions at least learn the facts before you slander a large group of people!
I would just like to point out that the RATM group has so far donated over £35,000. to Shelter, a chariety for the homeless and also a member of Rage has said he will make sure profits from the single will be donated to a chariety called Youth Music, in the UK.
The music you like is still there to listen to if you wish. I hope that you are keeping with the christmas spirit and also donating to a good cause .. you can donate here: http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas to Shelter.
Thanks.
To be honest I have a lot of points to raise regarding this article but I will distill them to those which I feel most strongly about.
Firstly, the people buying ‘killing in the name’ are doing so for a vast variety of reasons. Not just to fight against the producers of x-factor but also, for example, to put the type of music they enjoy at the top of the charts as opposed to the sort that the x-factor produces. Everyone is different!
Secondly I believe you have misinterpreted the meaning of the song hallelujah. Common misconception. The song is actually about an orgasm, such as my limited authority of knowledge on the song would lead me to know. Which would mean celebratory style etc. would be appropriate. The real gripe people had is that she simply wasn’t as good as either of the other two versions.
Also, the rage against the machine campaign has already raised around £40k in money for charity. That before Morello’s donation.
So before you open your mouth on a subject, gain a bit of knowledge first.
The Rage Against The Machine site has raised over £32000 for Shelter, a charity for the homeless. Not all RATM fans are miserable
“and also being charitable, which is much more than be can said for the Rage Against crowd.”
I think this comment is slighty unfaif. So far the Rage Against crowd has raised over £35k for shelter. Is this not Charitable?
The Rage Against X Factor campaign isn’t worthwhile because it’s not charitable? Is that what you’re saying?
That’s blatantly not true.
* The facebook group organising the campaign is encouraging people who download the single to also donate to Shelter, the homelessness charity. So far, around £38,000 has been raised in this way (http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas)
* RATM guitarist Tom Morello has pledged to donate his share of the proceeds to Youth Music, a charity that helps disadvantaged kids create music (http://musicispower.youthmusic.org.uk/blog/87/rageagainstthemachineabigthankyoutotommorello/)
* At least one download site is pledging to donate its proceeds from sales of the single to Shelter (http://twitter.com/comparedownload)
Seems fairly charitable to me.
Oh and something else: you seem to think that an ‘ordinary joe’ doesn’t deserve to have his Christmas no 1 interfered with. I don’t quite understand why anyone ‘deserves’ to have a no 1 in the first place. the pop charts are just a popularity contest, and it seems only fair that people who are fed up with x factor toss rubbishing up the charts every year should have their say by, y’know, buying something else.
So far, the Rage Against the X Factor group has raised nearly £40,000 for homeless charity SHELTER, and RATM themselves are donating a large portion of their earnings from this campaign towards Youth Music, a UK charity to help kids on their way to making music of their own when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it. Uncharitable? I think not.
Hmm… so we’re not being charitable eh? What about the £38,+++ we’ve raised for Shelter so far with the Rage Against… campaign?
You really should do your research before spouting off. The ‘Rage Against the Machine’ Campaign is actively fundraising for the charity Shelter, which gives a roof and a warm meal to homeless people. The current total is £39′264, almost £40k. That is a lot of money and has been raised by the RATM fans alone with almost no media coverage and constant promotion of the single, like X-Factor has had. So climb down off your high horse.
You’ll find the Justgiving page here: http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
I think you’re missing the point there. While sure, it would be nice to get a good, comedy Christmas song to number one so that it becomes enjoyable again, but in all honesty, it isn’t going to work is it? You’re not going to find a comedy Christmas song that enough people will like enough to topple the X-Factor off the tops spot; it’ll just return to the same old “X-Factor is guaranteed number one, whos going to be number 2?” routine. The RATM song has enough popularity, backing and relevance (to the cause) to actually make a dent. And calling the RATM ‘the least Christmassy song ever’ isn’t exactly an insult when none of the previous X-Factor winner’s songs have had even the remotest thing to do with Christmas, especially since 3/4 of them were covers. The only relevance to Christmas they have is that people like you are calling it a ‘tradition’ to have an X-Factor number one.
And besides, you seem to think that we are being malicious by merely competing with the X-Factor single. Why should the winner be given the number one on a silver platter? What’s wrong with actually competing? WHat makes Joe so deserving of the number 1 slot? The fact that he won a glorified fame-factory talent show and had to endure all that gruelling celebrity and success that was handed to him with little or no work on his part? Shame. The X-Factor shouldn’t be treated as a sure-fire number 1 single generator, and we’re voicing our opinions on this through our purchases.
And finally, you might like to know that we have raised nearly £40,000 for the homeless charity Shelter, from completely voluntary donations by generous members. To me, the fact that these members have gone and purposefully donated on average £8-£10 per person, is more charitable than a few pence from each of Joe’s single purchases which most people see as secondary to actually getting the single. And on top of that Rage Against The Machine are noted for their charitable efforts and support to many causes across the globe, and guitarist Tom Morello has said on BBC radio that he will be donating part of any royalties he gets from this to Youth Music, a UK charity for kids.
Perhaps you should do a little more research before you publish diatribe like this online.
The whole campaign is in support of shelter a homeless charity – http://www.justgiving.co.uk/ratm4xmas
Lets be clear about one thing. I wasn’t misinformed, I just lightly touched on the Rage Against campaign because I don’t think its worth giving it any more publicity than it already has and didn’t go into detail. I think there are better ways of raising money for charity, the movement has only pledged to donate proceeds because of pressure from critics.
To say the campaign is “charitable” is a bit misleading. The Rage Against the X Factor campaign was NOT launched as a charitable campaign, its initial purpose was far from charitable and those who got the campaign to the point it is now didn’t do so because it was for a good cause. Before it gained the steam it has there was no intent for this to be charitable. The fact is that the organisers have as an afterthought set up a charitable contribution because they had egg on their faces. This does not a charitable movement make. Lets call a spade a spade here, the Rage Against the X Factor campaign was NEVER started as an attempt to raise money.
I am glad Tom Morello has gotten on board and set this thing on the right path, I appreciate everything he has done as an activist, but once again, he didn’t get involved until after this thing has started. I am glad this campaign has taken a turn toward something positive, but it was certainly not the original intent.
Oh, and to whoever says that Hallelujah is about an orgasm needs to do their research about Leonard Cohen. His original version has nothing to do with an orgasm, and I think Jeff Buckley if he were alive today would probably agree that his version is about things much deeper than an orgasm.
Why can’t you admit you were wrong? Anyway, even if the campaign wasn’t charitable, it would still be perfectly valid. Joe does not automatically deserve the number one spot. You say the campaign organizers “had egg on their face” as if they have something to be ashamed of because they are trying to bring more balance to the charts. Your ignorance and blind acceptance that the X-factor winner deserves number one is exactly the kind of thing they’re fighting against.
I never said there was anything invalid about the campaign.
Please point out one place where I said that the X Factor winner automatically deserves the top spot? Where in the article did I say this?
There is nothing automatic about the charts, the reason the X Factor contestants have won the top spot every year is because British people are buying the single. Its as simple as that, there is no conspiracy.
If you don’t believe the X-factor winner automatically deserves the Number 1 spot, what exactly are you complaining about? The Facebook campaign has far less resources than X-factor so you can’t be saying it is somehow unfair for Rage Against the Machine to be supported by them.
In your article you said the Rage against the Machine campaign “spoils the fun” for the X-factor winner, which implies that competition for the No.1 spot against the X-factor is somehow wrong. Please clarify that statement if that is not what you meant.
I think if someone launched a facebook campaign against you when you had done nothing wrong it would probably spoil your fun a bit too.
All I was saying is that the winner of the X Factor doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment. However, I also said in my article that “It takes the fun out of the Christmas number one if you already know who its going to be.” So I understand where the Rage Against the X Factor people are coming from on that point.
“the movement has only pledged to donate proceeds because of pressure from critics.” What is your source for this? As someone who has been a member of the group since it had lest than 10,000 people in it (minuscule by Facebook standards) and read pretty much every bit of media on it, positive and negative, I’ve not come across one criticism that implies this. The donation page was set up because members suggested it would be a good idea.
I never implied the cause was charitable, I said that the act of the members donating money directly to a charity was more ‘charitable’ to me than having the charity side of things being a nice little by product of purchasing Joe’s single. There may well indeed be better ways to donate to charity but at the moment, Shelter is benefiting massively from the publicity this campaign is attaining, which to me is better than a well-meant campaign that raises less. The charitable donation wasn’t set up right away because how were the creators to know that in a few weeks there’d be 800,000 people in the group? It’s A FACEBOOK GROUP, that was started for a bit of fun, and gain popularity, at which point, the creators said “we can make a charity donation page”. I don’t see the problem with that.
Of course Tom Morello didn’t get involved until the project was well underway! He’s in America, the UK number 1 isn’t a massive news story over there UNTIL the group brought it to his attention. What a ridiculous notion to think that he snoops around facebook on the off chance a group is made to get his band to number 1 in the uk!
The original intent was to get Rage to number one, for reasons as many as there are members of the group; for the fun of it, to get X-Factor off number 1, to protest against the ‘monopoly’ on the xmas number one, and along the way they made some money for charity. What is the problem.
Alex, first of all considering that the campaign was specifically to sell enough singles to reach the top of the charts, there was always the intent of having tens of thousands of people get on board and so there was always the intent that this would raise revenue.
The people who started this campaign had no control over what the money would be used for, as they don’t own the music or collect the funds. When supporters went onto iTunes and bought the single they didn’t do it with the knowledge that their money would be going to charity, its a matter of intent.
Lisa, once agan you are missing the point!! At no time has it been suggested by buying the download that money will be going to charity!! The charity donations have been given by the poeple themselves to the RATM4XMAS page on just giving. they now how much they’ve donated and who it’s donated to. Has my dad would say “some people should engage their brain before opening their mouth”!! Other words look at our facebook site and get your facts right and then come back and try and slate us!!!!
Fiona, I think it is you who is missing my point and your post here only further reinforces mine that the charity bit of this is completely unrelated to the real intent of this whole campaign. Did you really just suggest that I use facebook to look for facts?
When researching a Facebook group I would think that Facbook might be a good place to start!
I need to post again just to comment on this
“The X Factor has also donated a hefty sum to various charities over the past several seasons, and not just as an afterthought.”
That’s because they have a budget of £7.5 million PER EPISODE, with the end result of a great deal of publicity. A Facebook group does not.
Thank you Matt! It is blatantly obvious that you haven’t looked at the site or what we’re doing. You’ve formed an uninformed opinion without looking at the group itself. And at no time have i said that the charity part was related to the intent of this group. This is something the group members decided to do whilst downloading the track. And to be perfectly honest this is not a point you can argue as your first blog stated we were being uncharitable, which comes back to the point that if you’d looked at the site before spouting you might have actually got your facts right before going off about something you know nothing about!
I actually found out about Rage Against the X Factor from facebook when a friend of mine posted it on his wall, so I most definitely DID check out the group. The group page has changed many times since I first saw it so I didn’t really trust much of what I saw on there. Sorry, I don’t take anything I read on a facebook group at face value since its just a free for all with no auditing process at all I and don’t consider it a very reliable source of accurate information.
“The fact is that the organisers have as an afterthought set up a charitable contribution because they had egg on their faces.”
Lisa, the charitable side of the ratm4xmas campaign was not an afterthought – the first donation was on the 6th, before 99% of us even knew there was a campaign.
Here’s the first page of donations:
http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas?pid=2174849&dtpn=212&ShortUrl=ratm4xmas#DonationTable
I’m sure the 800k supporters have many different reasons for wanting RATM to be xmas no. 1. Personally I hope it will encourage more musical diversity if XFactor is not guaranteed the no. 1 spot, and give a chance to artists that do not have the benefit of a 12-week multi-million marketing campaign. For example Tim Minchin’s Christmas song “White Wine in the Sun” is one which I’m sure a lot of people would buy if they had heard of it, yet it’s nowhere in the charts as it doesn’t get any mainstream media exposure.
Perhaps next year there will be an abundance of good songs vying for the no1 spot, with a realistic chance of success – I hope so.
Ian, I see there that the first donation was made on the 6th of December, but the Rage Against the X Factor campaign was launched weeks before that and according to this article by December 4th already had 45,000 members.
http://www.nme.com/news/rage-against-the-machine/48727
Also notice in this article there is no mention made of any charity affiliation.
Which means Lisa, that the first donations were made way before the first single/download was bought. Remember downloading did not start until the 13th of December. You really are on to a loser, why can’t you admit that even though you don’t like the song, the group really isn’t as bad as you say?
That is a pretty weak argument, the fact remains that before anyone ever even considered linking up with a charity, 45,000 people had already basically pledged to buy the single purely to stick it to Simon Cowell. Given how many people did buy the single on the 13th I think its fair to assume that most of the pre-charity crowd followed through on that pledge and for them charity WAS an afterthought. I am not going to make generalisations about the entire group that has jumped on the bandwagon to support this very recently, I think people have decided to support it for a variety of reasons, but when I look at the original surge of support it had nothing to do with charity and that is the point I have been trying to make.
I don’t dislike the song, I just said its not Christmasy. I listened to Rage back in the 90s and am a fan of Tom Morello.
I’m sure that chariety is probably secondary on the minds of those buying Joe’s record too. All the money that is donated to shelter by fans of ratm is because people are making a consciencous effort to give without getting anything for it??
plus there are already enough christmas related songs in the world..surely we don’t need another!!
What is christmasy about The Climb?
I bet Ollie is glad he didn’t win I’m sure a grown man doesn’t want to be famous singing Hannah Montanna lol
What is christmasy about The Climb?
I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but if you were to learn the history behind the NSPCC and the part they played in shipping thousands upon thousands of innocent children to distant lands minus their true surnames and date of births, sending them to a life of abuse of the worst kind then I for one would fully support and respect those who raise funds for shelter, as for the NSPCC they are little more than a commercial enterprise and referral agency for the already public funded Social Services.
wow alot of people not agreeing.
Well i agree and i love joe! I think it’s getting abit too serious thought. It’s not going to make a difference to anyone’s life apart from Joe and Rage against the machine but i see why people don’t want another x factor win (i still love joe) i just think if you wins it will affect his career more. I think a song should be bought if you like it and not of you want to stop another person winning (my opinion). Except the song is a bit pants (the climb). Oh well! GO JOE!
That’s about right for an American, not getting all their facts right before they say stuff. Go see what the rage group is about spend 15 mins in the group and see the money being raised, just a thought lisa.
Oh Lisa, just give in – 95% of the readers of this article know you are stuck in a hole, and digging deeper to justify your original unresearched tale.
Smile, bow, put your hands up, have a laugh and accept the original article was lacking in some important details and we promise to leave you alone
Sure look at the hits you got from this – marvelous really.
Peace and Love
Mark
Lisa, you are completely missing the point.
You are now arguing about something that has nothing to do with the original reason for the group.
The group was formed, no doubt, for many reasons. I doubt at all if it was started for charitable reasons. However, it is now persuading people to donate their money, as it is christmas after all.
I’m glad it is malicious. The pop scene in the UK has been completely overwhelmed in business and moneymaking. As sting put it (if you remember the band ‘The Police’) it is ‘killing a generation of its self expression’ if you happened to see the ONE show recently, which I doubt.
This is a view mirrored by many well respected musicians.
You are naive to think that ‘oh, people are buying it, it is not a conspiracy’. No it is not a conspiracy, but in standard business terms, for every 1 pound spent on marketing, you get 1.5 back in sales. Simon Cowell is quite simply a money making machine, a business man concerned with one thing only. The whole show places ordinary people on pedestals, making them appear godlike to anyone watching.
He is not only killing the music scene in the UK, he is taking advantage of young inexperienced people:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/2778291/X-Factor-star-blasts-rival-Rages-riffage.html
Who are not old enough to comprehend what they are doing, or have the experience to know the effects it could possibly have on youth. Being told to pose for the cameras, and do what he’s told. He doesn’t even know who the lead singer of RATM is. So why is he taking part in those staged shots? Complete ignorance on his part and yours.
If you want to get places in the world, you should be told that you have to work damned hard to get there. Not that after 3 months on a show you are now a popstar.
Which, let us be frank, he is not. He is on there because hes a good looking lad (which you basically HAVE to be to get anywhere[granted a few exceptions]), he can sing, and doesn’t have a braincell between his ears. He has not written the music, he is spouting out lift music covers of original tracks by hard working artists.
This program teaches the younger generations the completely wrong attitudes to life.
I don’t care about christmas number one, I just hate Simon Cowell. He’s an idiot, and it is scary to think how much music he owns in the top 100 chart. Why don’t you take a look.
Well Wot Can A Say It’s Xmas And Billy Macks – Ad Put Money On Christmas Is All Around Us By Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) For Xmas No1 – http://bit.ly/HFOob Joe McElderry v Rage Against The Machine’s Killing
Katy, I appreciate that you feel strongly about this, but I feel strongly about this as well and no I will not be amending my article. I agree that the competition will definitely increase money for the charities involved and I really don’t think my article is going to hinder that. More importantly, I don’t think it would be even remotely accurate to slap the label of “charitable” on any group that thinks they can justify their actions by just linking up with a charity.
A few points:
At first the group was set up without a thought of charity – this is true. Who would have thought this group would have got anywhere near as many members when it was first set up. It was just a bit of fun. When it started to look like a serious option, charity donations were set up. Plus, if you knew anything about RATM, you would know that they’d definitely donate proceeds from an effort like this to charity. They’ve donated millions and raised money and awareness for many different causes throughout their career.
Charity is secondary in fans of both Joe and RATM when buying the single.
Some people want to stick it to Simon Cowell. What is wrong with wanting to stick it to Simon Cowell? He doesn’t care about Joe’s career? He just doesn’t want to be humiliated. What use is his X-Factor Sy-Co empire if it doesn’t guaranree a xmas number 1? The guy’s made a fortune out of humiliating hundreds of people on national TV. He lectures people on what good music is. What the hell does he know? The Robson & Jerome, Teletubbies and Mr Blobby songs were ALL his idea!
A TV show running for weeks on end just to get a single to number 1 is hardly a level playing field so what is the difference?
Who cares about this nobody’s career? If he was good enough, he would have made it on his own merit. If he does get to number 1, he’ll be forgotten about in the blink of an eye anyway like every recent male X-Factor winner.
Why do you care about him anyway? You’ve been sucked in by Simon Cowell’s slick multi-million pound machine. Do you shed a tear when you see his “journey” in the montages in his promotional video? Get a grip.
I think the reaction to your article says it all. You haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about.