Liverpool got beat by bottom club Portsmouth,Man Utd got hammered 3-0 by Fulham,but without doubt the best result of the weekend was Rage Against The Machine beating Joe McElderry to the Christmas number one.
Simon Cowell thinks he can just release any old crap and the public will buy it,and 450.000 mugs did,but it wasn’t enough as over half a million people downloaded the RATM single to secure the number one spot.
Will Cowell be just as lazy next year and put out a bland cover version? Or will he make an effort and source some quality song writers to release an original song? My bet is he won’t learn from this,he will go with the safe/lazy option.
There is already talk of another campaign next year,with even some suggesting Joe McElderry “The Climb” as the chosen track,to topple Simons new X-factor winner in 2010,though that would be funny,the money would all go to Cowell,so perhaps not a good idea after all.
I quite like this idea.. quoted from digitalspy.co.uk
The temptation might be to pour a lot of time and effort into creating a catchy anti-X Factor anthem, but the smartest counter-move would be to release something short, cheap and throwaway that isn’t even a proper song at all. I propose a track called Simon Cowell: Shit for Ears, which consists of a couple of eight-year-olds droning the phrase “Simon Cowell, sh*t for ears” four times in a row in the most deliberately tuneless manner possible. It should last only about 15 seconds or so. Quick enough to register; brief enough not to outstay its welcome.
Cowell has no interest in music,only money,which is why his stranglehold on the charts for 3 months of the year is a bad thing,which is why campaigns like this one are important.
Of course he will take this on his big square chin and laugh it off,but you just know inside he won’t be laughing.
The shift in power from the TV to the internet is an interesting one,a 3 month prime time advert on ITV for the X-Factor winner with 19 million people watching the X-factor final,and Joe still couldn’t secure the Christmas number 1.
For the first time since X-Factor began releasing the winners single a week before Christmas,and so ensuring an X-factor number 1 regardless of who sang it or weather the song was any good or not,there may be an Xmas number 1 single that isn’t from the X-factor show.
A campaign started on facebook to stop x-factor and Simon Cowell dominating what was once a competitive Christmas market to claim the Christmas number 1,may well succeed, the Facebook group,rage against the machine – RATM started out small,but within a week had grown to nearly half a million members,the story was soon taken up by the media.
Last year a similar campaign was started on facebook,using Jeff Buckley’s version of ‘Hallelujah’ to try and topple Alexandra Burkes version of the song to number one,unfortunately that time ,the sales were no where near enough to stop Cowell and X-Factor.
This year the campaign seems to have more momentum,with Cowells total domination of the single and album charts throughout the 3 month run of X-factor,its clear a large section of the public have had enough.
The songs.
Joe McElderry – The Climb (Miley Cyrus cover version)
Simon Cowell and X-factor have a full 12 months between each show,12 months to write an original track,yet year in year out they just take a popular song and cover it,and this year is no exception,a song by Miley Cyrus which charted this year,is being used as the winners song,no wonder people are fed up,feed the dumbest of dogs enough crap and eventually they will bite the hand that feeds.
Rage Against The Machine – Killing in the name
Is the first single from their debut self titled album first released in 1992.
The song was obviously chosen because of the name of the band,rage against the (Cowell) machine,the band themselves were not connected to the campaign,but have since been made aware of it and are donating all album sales resulting from the publicity to charity,plus collecting donations for the charity group shelter when people download their single
What does Simon Cowell have to say..
“It’s stupid – a cynical campaign aimed at me which is going to spoil the party.”
He said the contestants would suffer not him, and added: “It’s incredibly dismissive of people who watch and enjoy the show. It treats them as if they are stupid.”
He says that like the X-Factor winner has a divine right to have the Christmas number 1 single,the Christmas number 1 single battle is a British tradition that was seasonally fought out between rival bands/singers and novelty acts,but since the X-factor,the yearly “Who will be number 1 at Christmas?” has all but finished as we hand over the Christmas number one crown to the latest X-factor winner singing another bland cover version.
Cowell also treats the public as if they are stupid every week on X-Factor,slating Jedward for weeks then saving them over someone who could actually hold a note or two in Lucie Jones.
“If you take me out of the equation, you have a teenager with his first single being attacked by a huge hate mob on Facebook. It almost feels like a little kid being bullied. It feels like a spiteful campaign aimed at an 18-year-old who won a talent competition.
“It’s David versus Goliath and it’s not fair on Joe. It’s getting out of hand.”
TV’s biggest bully calls the facebook campaigners bullies? David v Goliath? I don’t think he even sees the irony in that comment,the whole campaign is based on the fact that he and X-factor are the Goliath’s,and the David’s of the music industry don’t get a look in.
What does Cheryl Cole (The Nations sweetheart) have to say..
“I would be devastated to see Joe lose out. He put his heart and soul into every single week of The X Factor.
“I cannot bear to see him lose to a mean campaign that has nothing to do with his efforts.
“If that song, or should I say campaign, by an American group is our Christmas No1 I’ll be gutted for him and our charts.”
Joe put his heart and soul into singing a bland Miley Cyrus cover version?
So she doesn’t want an American group topping the Christmas charts but shes quite happy for an American song topping the charts,as long as its sung by little geordie Joe of course.
Gutted for the charts? The UK charts are being ruined by Simon Cowell,not by some facebook campaign.
Lets hope by Sunday its Rage Against The Machine that is number one,and not Little Geordie Joe,lets also hope that this campaign is just the start,the UK music scene has been one of the UK’s greatest exports,with some great bands and singers showing their talent off to the rest of the world,now the only thing we seem to sell are the likes of Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle. Its a sad indictment of the music industry when someone like Susan Boyle can release an album of cover versions and looks on course to be the biggest selling album of the year in both the UK and the USA.
When Simon Cowell took over our TV’s and airwaves that really was the day the music died.
After weeks of saying how bad the twins are,and threatening to leave the country if they win,and reminding us that “This is a singing competition” Simon gets the chance to vote off the twins ( JEdward ™ ).
The scene was set,JEdward ™ and Lucie Jones were in the bottom 2,surely JEdward ™ were going home? Especially after the previous nights fake praise from Cowell,he gambled that once he stopped knocking them the public would stop voting for them,its worked before and it worked again,so now we just have to sit back and watch as they make their final performance. Just to reassure us,Simon tells us before the sing off that he will forget all past performances and judge them both on this one song.
Lucie sings Whitney Houstons One moment in time,while JEdward ™ sing Robbie Williams Rock DJ (again). Lucie sang well,while JEdward ™ jumped around like a couple of kids high on E numbers,this one was in the bag for Lucie,wasn’t it?
Louis voted for his act,JEdward ™,and Danni for hers,Lucie,Cheryl voted to send home JEdward ™,so inevitably it was left to Simon,Simon the arch enemy of JEdward ™,Simon the champion for the art of singing.If Simon votes to send home JEdward ™,they are gone,but if he votes Lucie ,it goes to deadlock.
He hums he ahhhs,suddenly its not looking good for Lucie,Simon forgets what he said all of five minutes ago about judging it on this “one” performance and sends it to Deadlock!!! (Knowing full well who has the least votes)
Lucie starts to cry,she knows her fate.and predictably Dermot opens the envelope to reveal her name,Lucie is gone and JEdward ™ are saved.
Cowell didn’t save them because as he said “Who would i like to see again next week? JEdward ™” He saved them for the ratings,for the controversy,for the publicity,and for the extra cash that all that generates for Cowell PLC.
While i accept its an entertainment show,it shouldn’t be entertainment at the contestants expense,it wasn’t fair on Lucie or JEdward ™,he reduces a girl to tears on national TV and subjects JEdward ™ to the inevitable backlash and even more abuse than they get already,but its all ok in Cowells world,as long as he gets more column inches in the press.
if i had to choose only one now,it would be Scott Bruton as he seems to tick all the x-factor boxes
Being in the bottom two with Daniel he knew he never stood a chance,not because Daniel was a better singer,but because he knew,Daniel was about to play the “dead wife ” card,although i can understand why Daniel sang the song he sang,and i believe his motives for doing so were genuine,surely he must of known that to do so in the sing off would be unfair on the person he was up against,no matter how badly he sang,or how well Scott sang,he was always going to go through on sentiment alone.
With Louis in tears,Scott never stood a chance,not that he would of gone on to win the show,as he is clearly one of the weaker singers,and he never really had a story/selling point for the producers to get their teeth and VT’s into.
The fairest thing to have done would of been to let it go to deadlock,and let the public decide it.
