The Age Of Rage
ChartBloggers, you join me at a sombre moment. This has not been a good weekend for me, and to be frank, reality TV is to blame. You see, I have backed the wrong horse, I've put my money where my mouth is, and it has all backfired horribly.
Yes, I had Ricky Whittle in the Strictly Come Dancing office sweepstake, and even though he is CLEARLY a better dancer than Chris Hollins, the public vote did not reflect this. OH UNIMAGINABLE WOE! There's now a gap in my pocket where there could be SIXTEEN WHOLE POUNDS, and it is all thanks to THE PEOPLE.
In other news, the X Factor has managed the incredible feat of dominating the No.1 AND No.2 Christmas chart positions, with record-breaking sales for both Rage Against The Machine (in the red corner) and Joe McElderry (in the blue). This is quite a tricky situation to navigate, emotionally speaking, especially when a people bought the Rage single for a huge variety of different reasons, and are making a lot of different claims as to what has actually happened.
So, here's a roundup of where I am with the whole thing, because I suspect I'm not the only one who's not sure which way is up at the moment:
If this was a straight musical fight between 'Killing In The Name Of' and 'The Climb', there's no doubt who the worthy winner should be. 'The Climb' is bad even when judged against other X Factor winner songs, 'Killing In The Name Of' is an astonishing song by anyone's standards.
So, it doesn't look like Simon Cowell has much of an idea about what to do with the male winners of his own show. This might be because he's from the Westlife school of dreamboat balladeers, and that's quite an old school, or possibly because the most exciting and vibrant pop stars of the moment are all women. Leona and Alexandra have had a lot more scope to show off the range of their talents than Joe will have. The fact that they're better singers helps too.
Now, the reason the X Factor always finishes at the Christmas chart is an expression of power, it's a way of saying "we can beat ANYONE with our fresh new talent, even SANTA".
This kind of hubris attracts pedestal-kickers, especially in Britain. As a nation, we have a tendency to be scamps. We threw burgers at David Blaine when he was starving himself in a perspex box for...reasons I can't recall right now. When he did the underwater endurance test, we'd have peed in the pool too. That's because it's funny to stick a pin in an inflated ego.
The question is, does the Rage campaign have any MORE to do with music than the SyCo side? Once you get past the fact that it's the right song for the job, and it's agreeably rebellious and sweary, I'd say probably not.
(The fact that Rage campaigner Jon Morter tried to run the same scheme last year with Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' is a bit of a red herring, in that it proves you have to have the right song in order to win, but it also proves that the winning is the chief consideration. Also, he didn't take the job Simon Cowell offered him.)
A better model for the last week's chart battle is - ironically enough - the voting system on the X Factor itself. We've got two acts going head to head in a public poll, with fans on either side casting multiple votes in order to try and make sure they win. It's about power again.
It's different from a normal chart, which is just a tally of the most popular songs people have bought to listen to themselves, or as a present for loved ones. I expect I'm being quite naive in asserting that last point - aggressive street teams spring to mind - but that's OK.
The biggest eye-opener has been how the band themselves have reacted to this new-found attention. After 20-odd years of campaigning and rocking in equal measure, and speaking out against corporate greed, censorship, sweatshops, tyrannical regimes, institutionalised racism and unjust war, a re-energised Rage suddenly find themselves rocking against TV's Simon Cowell and "sterile pop music", and having a whale of a time doing it.
It's almost as if, after years of railing against big things which haven't really changed all that much - through no fault of theirs - they're giddy with an unexpected victory. Suddenly, it's less about winning a popularity contest, and more about a mandate from The People. A mandate to make music better for everyone in 2010.
Frankly, I hope they succeed. I would love to see a new amazing music scene emerge from this situation, with a range of challenging artists coming up to rival the astonishingness of Lady GaGa herself. With the ultimate goal being a pop/rock landscape which is so vibrant and alive that it leaves a TV talent show that claims to be able to find and nurture stars feeling cheesy and out of touch.
By which I mean Los Campesinos! for Xmas No.1 2010!
But my worry is that the only thing that has actually happened is that people who would never vote in the show itself have now been drawn into voting ABOUT the show. Which doesn't feel that seismic a cultural shift after all. Let's see, shall we?
Hurrah! Boo! Happy Christmas!
Comment number 1.
At 21st Dec 2009, BloggingLiam wrote:"Rage Against The Machine couldn't fill Wembley now. I think Joe will."
Loius Walsh.
Fail!
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Comment number 2.
At 21st Dec 2009, DanRhyn wrote:Wow, huge fail by Mr Walsh there, I think the 100,000 people who saw Rage at Reading/Leeds last year would disagree, and plenty more besides.
But more importantly, Los Campesinos! 2010! Amazing! Shall we start up the facebook group now?
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Comment number 3.
At 22nd Dec 2009, Keith Fusco wrote:Rage could easily fill Wembley, IMO.
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Comment number 4.
At 22nd Dec 2009, harrythedog10 wrote:They should do a free gig at wembley now to prove they can, that would be awesome.
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Comment number 5.
At 22nd Dec 2009, mike_duke wrote:I agree that they could fill Wembley with a free gig, although I reckon that most bands would be able to. There's no way they will do somewhere that big though! Probably more likely to be outside in London.
Do you think that Rage could have filled Wembley for a concert if they hadn't had all the X factor publicity? I think probably they could have done one night but it wouldn't have been a crazy sell out!
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Comment number 6.
At 22nd Dec 2009, Keith Fusco wrote:But if they did that, they'd only say that they filled it because it was free.
But Louis never did mention costs.
I'd rather pay £30 to see Rage, than £30 to see that fella who won X Factor.
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Comment number 7.
At 22nd Dec 2009, flatknees wrote:-wembley is in dept, no free gigs happening there.
-people can make of the victory what they will.. in the end a great band gets more fans.
-joe mceldry has conducted himself poorly through out in my opinion. first of all saying he had not heard the song despite knowing he was against it for several days. when listening to it saying it was terrible and that RATM 'wouldn't get into boot camp of X factor'. then when he loses he changes his tune again. If you are going to slag somebody off, stick to it or properly make peace with them. don't lie and say your glad the battle was 'interesting'... he's just plastic.
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Comment number 8.
At 22nd Dec 2009, jonesybcfc wrote:joe mceldry has conducted himself poorly through out in my opinion. first of all saying he had not heard the song despite knowing he was against it for several days. when listening to it saying it was terrible and that RATM 'wouldn't get into boot camp of X factor'.
completely agree. a few years back my football team (Birmingham City) were promoted to the premier league and we were about to play our biggest rivals, Aston Villa. Their captain decided to come out and say he had never heard of any of our players. We won 3-0. I just dont see why people feel the need to do this before things are decided. Joe was losing all week, so really should have kept his mouth shut. His comments made me buy Rage a second time. Ho ho ho.
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Comment number 9.
At 22nd Dec 2009, kingshleppy wrote:flatknees, he's 18!!!!He's just been thrust into the flurry of fame and media attentionafter winning the x factor. As if that's not enough, he's had to face against an intense campaign set up with the sole intent of watching him fail. Rage Against the Machine had their time in the sun. Whatever about it all being about a middle finger up to Simon Cowell. it was Joe that had to suffer the humiliation of not knowing how to react to the hatred on what was essentially his first week as a professional singer in the spotlight.
Well done Joe, hopefully you'll be number 1 next week amd the "Rage" will be back in it's cage.
I'd also like to add that as far as Christmas Number 1's go regarding Christmas spirit, Killing in the Name has to be bottom of my list. Ans yes I've heard it. It's rubbish.
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Comment number 10.
At 23rd Dec 2009, flatknees wrote:ah kingshleppy you have missed the point like quite a few people. first of all the campaign was not against him, or even simon cowell, it was against the monotony of our xmas number 1 being x factor all the time. it was not a personal attack against joe as the same thing would have happened if olly had won. there are some people who do not like joe who are part of the group, but when you say that the opposing song is 'disgusting', people will take offense.
so he is 18.. so he is an adult, and been in the x factor factory line for 2 months.. there is no need to A: slag off the track that is running against you and B: keep changing your tune. 'hope it will be a good race.... i hate it, grannies wont like it..... i am just glad to be part of it'
i hope that your reasoning for not liking Rage against the machine is because they have interrupted the usual -superb- xmas number 1's... because you are missing out on one of the greatest bands in the world.
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Comment number 11.
At 25th Dec 2009, kingshleppy wrote:In your opinion. In my opinion I don't like them, it's allowed. I fear that you are also missing MY point. Even though the campaign was not directly against him or Simon Cowell, you cannot possibly argue that it would have a very soul destroying effect on Joe as it was him that was affected by the campaign, ya get me??
I don't even like Joe's song, but that's not really why I'm irked. It's because it really annoys me when people assume their taste in music somehow makes them more intelligent. And I know it happens with people that like every genre of music so I'm not really targeting anybody with that statement. I don't really know what I mean anymore, i guess it just bothers me to see who seem like nice, inoffensive people get put down as a result of something so simple as a campaign to change the long run of X Factor Number 1s.
And I wouldn't be writing the same thing if Olly won because he's that much older and so would be psychologically better equipped to handle the putdowns. Just because you reach 18 doesn't mean a switch is flipped that makes you better at dealing with criticism. The X Factor does not train thee contestants to deal with it either, that would take time and money.
Merry Christmas!!!!
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Comment number 12.
At 26th Dec 2009, spirit wrote:Merry Boxing Day .
You both make justifiable points that are natural given the circumstances of such " controversial " events .
I can certainly understand both opposing views , from both sides .
Joes seems diplomatic and I'm not sure how much his "quote " has been taken out of context , or the exact "persuasion " by the interviewer to set him up . If Joe has made a mistake , he is clever enough to learn from this .
However Joe should be Number 1 tomorrow , and then we may hear Rage complaining about his song , and WHY they wouldn't play it to their Grans !
Ha ha !
Joe to climb tomorrow ....
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Comment number 13.
At 27th Dec 2009, flatknees wrote:not necessarily intelligent, but surely someone who tries out as many genres of music as possible is wise. you never know what you may like until you properly listen to it.
i just see joe as a ken doll.
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