As it turns out, I was halfway through editing this post when I read Charlie Brooker’s column about the Christmas number 1. As per usual, he does a far better job than I could about putting thoughts onto e-paper (DAMN YOU BROOKER), but I may as well still post my slant.
Yesterday afternoon, me and the wife did a very rare thing for us: we sat on the sofa and listened to the radio. I can’t remember the last time we did that; we’re very much more a tv-and-video-games couple. But because of the competition for the Christmas chart, we sat there and bounced up and down with glee as Rage Against The Machine claimed the number one spot.
I’ve heard a lot of reasons why people thought it was a stupid idea: the Christmas number one has always been about cheesy pop; they’re both signed to Sony so Cowell sees the cash anyway; and most bizarrely, that the people buying a song which contains the lyrics “I won’t do what you tell me” are somehow being told what to do. Oh, the beautiful not-irony.
For me, it wasn’t about the type of music the X-Factor produces; I’m not a fan, I don’t think it’s particularly interesting, but at least it finds people who can hold a tune without the aid of a vocoder. I’m not (quite) even enough of a music snob to be anti-pop, per se. On the other hand, I definitely am cynical enough to think that the major labels are all facets of the same Big Bad Music Industry, so the fact that the money was going to Sony regardless was pretty incidental to me (only something released on an indie would make a difference). And as far as being told what to do, there’s a difference between a suggestion and an order, and you won’t get far in life contradicting every suggestion you’re given (“Don’t jump off that cliff!” “FUCK YOU I WON’T DO WHAT YOU AAAAAAAAARRRGH!”).
What it was about, for me, was breaking the predictability of the Christmas number one. X-Factor’s dominance has come to be regarded as such a forgone conclusion that no-one else even makes a credible effort to compete any more – I won’t say I ran out to buy Mr. Blobby or Bob the Builder, but at least there was an element of surprise, and maybe even a little excitement about the announcement. I think that even the X-Factor were getting a little complacent – last year’s may have been a cover, but at least it was a cover of a decent song with a history; this year they were covering a 6-month-old Miley Cyrus song. Miley Bloody Cyrus. You’d think they would at least pretend they were trying.
I feel a little sorry for the lad Joe. For a long time, the implicit prize of the show has been the Christmas number one, and he must have bought into that, having been drip-fed it for the last n weeks. What we have this year is a reminder that the prize is a chance to compete for the top slot, not to have it handed you on a plate. I think it’s telling that the vast majority of the texts and tweets that were read out supporting him were of the form “he’s so sweet / nice / cute” – very few praising the song or his performance of it.
Overall, I’m really chuffed. I think in some ways you could read too much into it. The X-Factor won’t go away overnight, in fact it’ll probably be bigger next year because of this. Conversely, I do think that this is the crossover event for the general public’s awareness of the influence of Twitter, Facebook and the like. Previous storms like Trafigura or Mandelson’s “Web War” were undoubtedly more important, and probably better supported by the community; however, they didn’t have the same visibility to the general public. I’m not sure whether this new awareness will be a good thing or a bad thing, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens in a post-Rage world.