The final countdown
February 2, 2010 at 1:12 pm | Posted in music | 2 CommentsTags: charlotte hatherley, charts, fireflies, george ergatoudis, midweek update, owl city, radio 1, the postal service, top 10
I don’t follow the charts. I love music, really I do – but I genuinely have no idea who is currently number one in the UK.
Actually, that’s now a lie, because I’ve just checked the BBC Radio 1 website. I now know that it’s ‘Fireflies’ by Owl City:
Come to think of it, I’ve definitely heard this before – I remember thinking at first (as I still do) that it sounded unbelievably like The Postal Service. It threw me: to some degree, it still does. It seems I am not the only one to feel this way. It is also one of just three songs in the top 10 (two of which are versions of the same song) which I have even heard.
Digression aside: time to get back to the point. For the first time in 40 years, Radio 1 are planning to air a mid-week chart update. It’s going to “encourage fans to go out and support their favourite acts, because for the first time they’ll really be able to really see the difference they make in the weekly chart battle and then tune in on Sundays to find out who has won,” according to the station’s head of music, George Ergatoudis.
Ah, of course. Because everybody cares about the chart positions of their favourite acts these days to the extent of following the race with eager, beady-eyed fascination. I can honestly say that, Christmas 2009 aside, I haven’t cared about chart placings since I was about 16. That was five years ago.
Don’t get me wrong: I can remember the days of giddily counting down to a song’s release, of making a point of going to the shop on a Monday to buy it on all formats (even vinyl, weirdly: I have never owned a record player) and of listening to the radio on a Sunday night to see how it had done. But these are not those days.
Okay, so singles sales were on the up in 2009. But mid-week chart positions? Does anyone really care that much?
This is probably one of the last singles I ever bought:
Rage, rage against the dying of the light
December 14, 2009 at 3:37 pm | Posted in music | 1 CommentTags: charts, christmas, facebook, joe mcelderry, killing in the name, number one, rage against the machine, x factor
So, it was Joe. The little one with the bland voice. Actually, that latter point could be applied to any of the X Factor finalists bar Jedward (who, from the truly miniscule amount of the series that I saw, I still maintain should have won on subversion value alone). But anyway, it was Joe who won.
So he’s guaranteed the Christmas number one with his so-inoffensive-that-it-actually-becomes-a-little-bit-offensive cover of Miley Cyrus’s ‘The Climb’, right? That’s the way things go these days: win the X Factor; score the Christmas chart-topper. Right?
It’s pretty much old news that a Facebook campaign has been started up to get ‘nineties rap-metal classic ‘Killing in the Name’ by Rage Against the Machine to number one instead of Simon Cowell’s winner. Hell, not even the concept is new – there was a similar (and ultimately doomed) campaign last year to get Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’ (why not the original Cohen version?, was always my thought) to the top spot rather than Alexandra Burke.
I’d still quite like it to happen, though, if I’m being honest. I don’t even like ‘Killing in the Name’ (Rage… are one of those “seminal” bands whose appeal has always passed me by), but I really, really don’t like X Factor.
There’s been a pretty broad spectrum of reaction it this year, though. Simon Cowell has dismissed the campaign as “stupid”, claiming that not having a Christmas number one will hardly ruin his life. he’s got a bit of a point, actually – it is a little bit like the kind of thing a stroppy teenager would do after being sent to their room; even the “fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!” lyrics have that ring to them.
Other people have pointed out that Rage Against the Machine are – like Cowell’s acts – contracted to Sony, and so getting them to number one would hardly be a gesture of defiance towards The Man.
Facebook have, without giving their reasons for doing so, closed the group down this morning – by the point they did so, it had around 750,000 members. Not that it did a lot of good, seeing as another, “back-up”, group has sprung up in its absence, currently numbering over 85,000 members after not very long online at all.
The thing that’s surprised me most, though? The fact that on Saturday, bookies slashed the odds of ‘Killing in the Name’ getting to number one this Sunday down to just 3-1. People are actually beginning to think upon the idea with some credulity.
So, will it happen? Let’s be honest, probably not. But it’s still fun – if somewhat childish – to try, eh?
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