I now the Christmas number one spot holds little or no relevance to you guys in the US but over here across the pond it does.
For four years in a row Simon Cowell’s Xcrement-Factor (equivalent American Idol) has tipped the top spot at Christmas and as a result we have to endure this shite over and over again on the TV and radio.
Anyway a facebook campaign has succeeded in getting RATM to the number one spot and I’m fuckin delighted! Not only because I love this band but it will wipe that smug camp grin clean off Cowell’s botoxed face!
I’m all for depriving Cowell of his “Christmas bonus”, but the cynic in me wonders how many of the people that got RATM to number one also submitted votes during the X-Factor live shows…
[quote]LarryDavid wrote:
Nothing more pathetic than a band fighting commercialism in music by having fans BUY THEIR SINGLE. That’ll stop commercialism, riiiight…
This sounds AS BAD as when Jay-Z released D.O.A. and some people decided that the richest rapper was gonna kill commercial hip hop.
Not trying to be rude you you, OP. Just my opinion. [/quote]
I see what you are saying but this was done by someone other than the band. As far as the band were concerned they didn’t have a clue and have since declared all profit from the sale of the single will go to charity.
I can see the irony in it all but from my perspective it was a finger to Cowell and his dominance of the music charts.
Either way SONY are laughing all the way to the bank! But at least RATM will grace our airwaves once again in contrast to the pappy drivel that bombards us every time we turn on the TV and radio
RATM being number one in the UK charts is nothing short of a christmas miracle.
The best thing is that they have said they’ll now play a free show to thank all the UK fans.
Hopefully the show will coincide with one of my trips back home from dirty Jersey.
[quote]worzel wrote:
I see what you are saying but this was done by someone other than the band. As far as the band were concerned they didn’t have a clue and have since declared all profit from the sale of the single will go to charity.
[b]I can see the irony in it all but from my perspective it was a finger to Cowell and his dominance of the music charts.
Either way SONY are laughing all the way to the bank![/b] But at least RATM will grace our airwaves once again in contrast to the pappy drivel that bombards us every time we turn on the TV and radio[/quote]
Good points.
I didn’t know they gave the money to charity. I’d only heard about the campaign and then them endorsing it. So yeah, I have to give them that. And I do think they’re a great band, I should have mentioned that earlier.
At least we can agree on the irony of a chart battle over commercial music :).
If Simon Cowell is really all about commercialism, this shouldn’t bother him at all. His X-Factor single would have sold as much anyway- it’s very unlikely that they share the same fanbase, and even if they did singles are cheap, and requesting airplay is free.
If he’s about the GLORY however, this will hurt for him. But then if he’s about the glory, there’s really nothing to attack in my opinion.
Most “pop” music guys are in it for the glory, not the money. People don’t get that and bash them for it [not directed at anyone in the thread, my impression is that the folks here know the distinction].
[quote]LarryDavid wrote:
And I just thought of this…
If Simon Cowell is really all about commercialism, this shouldn’t bother him at all. His X-Factor single would have sold as much anyway- it’s very unlikely that they share the same fanbase, and even if they did singles are cheap, and requesting airplay is free.
If he’s about the GLORY however, this will hurt for him. But then if he’s about the glory, there’s really nothing to attack in my opinion.
Most “pop” music guys are in it for the glory, not the money. People don’t get that and bash them for it [not directed at anyone in the thread, my impression is that the folks here know the distinction].[/quote]
You can be rest assured that Simon Cowell is majorly pissed off. He now has to sit through countless interviews and questions going over this again and again. The british tabloids will have a field day with this story and they will enjoy every minute of it. Slip up in England and the tabloids will rub your face in it! It’s par for the course and he knows it!
Simon Cowell is a smug arrogant git and he is proud of that fact because that is what made him. Him being an English man and knowing the relevance other English people have in getting the Christmas number one, that he failed to do, will be devastating to his ego because he holds himself in such high regard in these matters. I just wish I was there to see his face when he found out, priceless…
You can be rest assured that Simon Cowell is majorly pissed off. He now has to sit through countless interviews and questions going over this again and again. The british tabloids will have a field day with this story and they will enjoy every minute of it. Slip up in England and the tabloids will rub your face in it! It’s par for the course and he knows it!
[/quote]
Oh, I’ll bet he is really smarting from this. Every single facet of The X-Factor is geared towards getting that coveted number one spot. The whole series is just one big advertisement to guarantee that.
The end of the series is carefully timed so that the winner’s single can ride the wave of publicity generated by the live finals.
The main format of the show allows the public to vote for the person they would most like to see become a fully-fledged recording artist (thus eliminating the chances of introducing an untried act and running the risk of a flop). Usually this would mean that the public would be behind the winner and any of their releases, but Cowell didn’t anticipate a very large, RATM-shaped spanner being thrown into his finely honed pop machine…
[quote]belligerent wrote:
RATM are a bunch of loser pseudointellectuals that have consistently made kick ass music. [/quote]
fixed that for ya … but it’s hard to call a successful band “a bunch of losers” with a straight face … just saying them being as successful as they have been kind of contradicts the term “loser” you used to describe them … but yea, pseudointellectuals is up for debate … so you have that going for ya
[quote]belligerent wrote:
RATM are a bunch of loser pseudointellectuals that have consistently made kick ass music. [/quote]
fixed that for ya … but it’s hard to call a successful band “a bunch of losers” with a straight face … just saying them being as successful as they have been kind of contradicts the term “loser” you used to describe them … but yea, pseudointellectuals is up for debate … so you have that going for ya
[/quote]
they’re successful at being losers, not making kick-ass music
they’re successful at being losers, not making kick-ass music[/quote]
Whatever your opinion of RATM, they can hardly be called losers: Tom Morello is a Harvard graduate, one of the most innovative rock guitarists ever (emulating the mixing and scratching style of hip-hop DJs), and if that wasn’t enough, he had a cameo in Iron Man(fifty seconds into the clip):
