RATM for next weeks number 1 come on..........

although maybe not , be good though

If people put half as much time and energy into political campaigns instead of childish "chart wars", we might finally get some of the corruption out of the British Parliamentary system. Look at the fervour over political matters in the US; whether or not you are on the side of the particular cause, you have to respect the zeal of electorate. The best this cou country can manage is a couple of party poppers when Gordy makes an appearance (and they are probably on expenses!), whereas in the US, people CARE about their Presidential candidates.

When more people vote for the X-Factor than the General Election, you know the country is going down the crapper. And all those who complain about the state of this country and then DON'T vote, have absolutely no business voicing their opinion (particularly if they voted for X-Factor OR the RATM campaign, and not their politicians).

We have our priorities completely arse about face in the UK, and then we wonder why the country is "broken". Out of the 500,000 people who joined the dopey Facebook campaign, I'll be amazed if 10 belong to a political party. And if that makes me a boring old fart then so be it!

RATM haven't done anything though, they didn't even know this was happening until a short while ago.

If anything this years Xmas Number 1 has been the most manipulated ever, which is very ironic.

I'm not that bothered who is xmas number 1, but I am bothered about musical snobbery. I can't understand why one act is more creditable than another, especially when many bands have been manufactured down the years. The Beatles were even partly manufactured.

Its not about who plays their own instruments or writes their own song, its the music itself, people should be allowed to buy it if they like it. Unfortunately neither the number 1 or 2 song has been bought by people liking it, more because to get ne over on the other side. Its been a sad, sad week in the music industry in my opinion.

Well that, or that the current political systems are no longer appropriate for the age of television and the internet and would do better embracing ways to attract the electorate that are obviously out there... but hey, that's another argument for another board. Nice high horse though.

Yeah I agree with the manipulated comment, and when I said 'RATM have made...' i meant the whole FATM campaign, I was being lazy with typing

Well well, the power of the public really showed this week, probably the most interesting chart battle so far because otherwise it was rather predictable as we all knew X-Factor would get to NO.1 at christmas every year

....I wouldn't neccessarily say people were told to buy RATM, since they chose to buy it to rebel against Simon Cowell conciously (same with the X-Factor lot )

....Just heard the song, was expecting some heavy metal song but, its quite a good song surprisingly. nevertheless, will be downloading my copy this week online

....Lastly, well done to RATM for getting Xmas NO.1!! and to whoever bought it good on ya! high fives to you all because Cowell has been put in his place finally lol (and about darn time he was) ...never underestimate the power of the people or Facebook Simon Cowell! you know what they say All for one and one for all, this is the icing on the cake for this year! Roll on next years xmas chart battle xo

Actually given those figures thats quite shocking!

Actually makes you realise the appeal of the show is the competition- not the acts!

Although congratulations are in order for RATM, I think this whole thing stinks!

Granted I'm not a fan of Simon Cowell but, regardless of what the negative people say, Joe McElderry can at least sing, unlike the RATM morons. If that's the sort of music people like to hear, that's up to them but don't use it to start propaganda. Although I'm disappointed for Joe, I not that bothered in the fact he got beat. What bothers me is that mindless morons choice this pile of drivel to keep Joe off the top. From what I've heard the weather could have played a lot in helping RATM as well. Worst Christmas number 1 ever! All those 500,000+ who were involved in buying such tripe should be ashamed of yourselves. Big bunch of overgrown kids! Just shows the state of the country today. Proves even more how much the charts are fixed. As far as I'm concerned the downloads shouldn't count. Be interesting to see if RATM is still there next week though.

Good post I'm really curious about those thinking this is a good day for music... So you all thought Rage Against The Machine were a good band and this was a good song before this campaign? My guess is that a lot of people didn't even know the band before this week, let alone the song. This is just based on previous chart positions of course...And/or the level of their dislike for Simon Cowell

I'm the first to admit I hate this predictability of the xmas no.1 these days but it doesn't mean that much to me that I have to become a sheep and follow what someone says is 'real' music. Neither of the songs held any interest to me. This 'campaign' has only driven up the sales of Joe's single, so both Sony and Simon Cowell are laughing all the way to the bank with your money. Next year it would be nice if we could all get back to just buying/downloading the songs we actually like, you know, just like the old days

Were you under the impression that Zach de la Rocha was attempting to be some sort of tenor? The vocals fit the angst-ridden, revolutionary tone that the band's always been about, the internal voice in your head shouting at the world, which doesn't usually come across in a lovely singing voice. This is like when people dismiss rappers as "just a load of blokes talking". Vocals don't always have to be about a beautiful singing voice, sometimes it's about what you're trying to say with them. Give me Zach de la Rocha screaming about the messed up, realistic world we're living in with his angry, rough-around-the-edges "rapcore" voice over some kid singing lyrics that could be taken from literally hundreds of songs in the past.


Why do you say this? The majority of people nowadays aren't going to go out and buy a CD. Content on demand is the way things are heading and the way they will stay until the next big technological revolution comes around. That's why we now have the iPlayer, iTunes, Channel 4 and Five on YouTube and all this good stuff going on. If you cut out downloads you basically make the charts an irrelevant, unrepresentative sample of the public because you're cutting out the majority.

This is the single most stupidest thing I've ever read on the Internet. Oh yeah, the Beatles were definitely up there with the X Factor crowd, weren't they?

They spent years in Germany perfecting their musicianship before returning to the UK to find a deal. Yeah, Brian Epstein encouraged them to wear suits and adopt a style, but manufactured. Don't be so silly.

If you seriously compare The Beatles, whose musicianship and creatively is legend, to any of the dross that Simon Cowell & Co parades as talent, then you really do need to have a long sit down and think about how much you actually know about music.

errrmmm can you read? I didn't once compare the beatles to the X Factor winners. I was just making the point that people should not be snobs about music. I also said the Beatles were in part manufactured. I'm sorry but they were, Brian Epstein certainly gave them an image to appeal and peddled them around, if it werent for his hard work, they might not have been the phenomenon that they proved to be. The music wasn't of course manufactured. I don't know where you got me comparing the beatles to any X Factor winner??

If this makes Cowell not take next year's Xmas #1 for granted and means that he gives the winner an original song that is genuinely good, then I'd say this campaign means more than just RATM@#1.

It could well be good for UK pop music in general.

Could have fooled me

(Creativity surely?) Ohh yes, who can forget the wonderful ‘I am the Walrus’, (goo goo g'joob) or the haunting ‘Ob-La-Di’. Classics.

Just because you can't understand it, doesn't mean it ain't so. The rest of us CAN tell the difference between Mr Blobby and the Beatles, so I guess that's your loss, not ours.

Yep, I enjoyed them the first time around, brings back some great memories.

How are people being stopped from buying what they like

And as for the first sentence above, well that's your opinion, but personally I like an artist/band who I believe when they're performing and some camp geordie singing a Hannah Montana song just doesn't cut it.

Why do the people of the UK let TV programs and radio campaigns dictate who is top of the charts? Sorry but RAGE is just as bad as X Factor and you are all a bunch of sheep. Simon Cowell is your shepard and Chris Moyles drives his combine harvester through your crops.

I didn't understand what all the fuss was about with regard to X-Idol not getting to number1 for Christmas.
Surely the whole purpose of the show is that they become musical stars in the longterm, not just for Christmas. There is still the first album, the tour and then the slow disappearance (especially for the male winners) as something new comes along.
In other words, they get their 15 minutes of fame (subject to Syco's standard terms and conditions).
Well done to RATM though.

Manipulating the chart is just as bad as anything the X Factor does.

If people bought the RATM song because they liked it then fine, but that was not the case. People bought it to give one to Cowell and the X Factor. Out of spite basically.

If RATM were that good in the first place they would have been topping the charts 17 years ago. The fact is that facebook campaign could have used ANY song they wanted and got it to number one. Does that sound familiar? Oh yes it happens every year with the X Factor. Talk about ironic!

Whilst I'm not a supporter of the anti X Factor campaign as I couldn't really care less who is at no 1 at any time of the year, never mind at Xmas - I don't think it's true that this campaign would have worked with just any song.

People have tried similar campaigns in previous years but they never worked. The fact that this RATM song was chosen is a very big factor in why the campaign was successful imo.

Actually, it was far, far harder to top the chart 17 years ago than it is now.

It's not ironic, the only way to topple Cowell was to group together.

I'm glad it happened and I'm glad it upset some people too.

Is this really true though? No one know how many people voted for X-Factor, all we know is how many votes they received, but the two aren't the same.

I'm in no doubt, in fact I'm almost convinced, that 60% of x-Factor's votes are duplicate votes (people ringing more than once). The general election however can only give one vote per person.


For example, 20m votes were cast in the final. So at least 10.1m of them must have been for Joe and yet he only sold 450,000 copies. That's because people will happily ring in 3 or 4 times to vote but will only buy one CD.

So I would say only 450k "voted" for Joe whereas far more people turn out for elections.

Trust me, X-Factor does not get anywhere near 20m invidual, unique votes.

deleted

Wasn't Mr Blobby number 1 in 92 or 93?

The only reason it has upset me, is that people are mistakenly thinking people actually bought RATM because they liked it. The whole point of being number 1 is that people buy it because of that. People ended up buying either song to spite the other.