It's probably a bit late to voice my opinion on the whole Christmas number one fiasco of 2009. If anyone was too busy living in a cave at the end of the year, metal band Rage Against the Machine grabbed the number one spot leaving poor Joe McEldreee of X Factor fame dwindling at number two with a horrendously bland cover of Miley Cyrus' The Climb.
As you may have gathered from my last post, I'm an X factor fanatic. However, this does not mean that I would prefer a regurgitated, predictably monotonous single to clinch the overly coveted Christmas 2009 number one slot. I like Joe McElderry, he's a sweet boy and he's got a good voice. I feel a bit sorry for Joe in that he now has the stigma of being 'the only X-factor winner not to have a Christmas number one'. But.... it shouldn't be like that in the first place.
What I got out of AAAALLLL the coverage/hooplah about this 'chart battle' is... the X factor winner should not automatically get a number one. It shouldn't be expected. Which is why I was very pleased that RATM fans (or anti-X factor peeps.. there are a lot of them!) bought the single and pushed it to the top of the charts. I also don't give a monkeys whose bank account the money cher-chinged in to or how the two record labels were somehow intertwined. What I found fascinating about it was how a social network site (Facebook) was the platform on which thousands of people joined together to fight the X factor and what it represents. Moreover, RATM pipped Joe to the post on downloads alone. Even with the added advantage of physical CD sales and discounted online single sales, Geordie Joe came up the rear (no alternative meaning intended).
It's a shame that the chart system is going down the pan, nobody seems to care anymore. A number one single isn't as cherished as it once was. RATM vs Joe McElderry made it interesting again, I wonder if that's the last time? Maybe this event also shows that the X Factor isn't such as huge media giant sucking up and shitting out all that's good in music. It just shows that if enough people care then something can be done. It's just a sad fact that music isn't the number one priority anymore. Xboxes and all that are getting in the way.
Just to clarify.. I do love X Factor, as an entertainment programme, not necessarily a music one. I enjoy watching bad auditions and then following the genuinely talented people because I enjoy watching good singers. As for John and Edward, they weren't the best singers but I was so happy they stayed in the competition as long as they did. They were the most entertaining out of the rest of them and didn't deserve half of the flack that people gave them (and still are). They were just two dillusional lads from Ireland who want to fulfil their aspirations of singing like the Backstreet Boys so they auditioned for this programme. It was the four judges who allowed them to progress through bootcamp, Louis Walsh put them through to the final twelve and the public kept them in until whichever week they were booted out. None of it was their fault and there was genuine hate circulating around the press, the internet, the streets! Poor lads.
Anyway, enough ranting about John and Edward. I think I've vented some steam on the X factor subject. Everything worked out in the end: Rage Against the Machine got Christmas number one, Joe managed to get a number one the next week and Jedward are releasing a single (with Vanilla Ice.... oh dear).
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