People who know me might not be surprised to find that I have an opinion on this! You can read it at the Musicbrick website.
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I’m not saying you should all but Joe’s record, but you shouldn’t all buy RATM just to stop him having a Christmas number 1
Personally I would have preferred the Muppets doing Bohemian Rhapsody as the campaign song of choice, but anything that causes grief to that smug, self-satisfied, self-absorbed cancerous twat Simon Cowell and his own corner of the humiliation television industry is OK by me – everything is manipulated from the timing of the show to the timing of the release of stocks to the stores. Quite how BARB does not treat XF sales as promotional items is beyond me..
The pop industry has spawned a lot of dreck over the year, but nothing quite this cynical
And also, RATM embarrassed Nicky Campbell yesterday morning. Anyone who does that gets my vote.
The entire industry is cynical – especially at this time of the year – but at least smug Simon is up front about it. No matter which track you buy, the industry wins. Neither RATM nor McEldry would have sold as many copies as they have without the Facebook campaign, so I wonder if it was started by an industry insider.
Now there’s a conspiracy plot for you: Cowell says, “Buy the RATM record!” he is, after all, a shareholder of Sony.
Cowell says, “Buy the RATM record!” he is, after all, a shareholder of Sony.
Ah yes, the old belittle with faint praise approach.
To quote me: “but nothing quite this cynical.”
When Whassinames singing lessons move on to interpretation maybe my view will change. But for a show that purports to seek the “X” factor it is remarkably good at zeroing in on the ultra-bland technicians: “Why?” factor.
I just have a vision of Cowell wondering how to increase X factor sales. I know, he thinks to himself, start a campaign AGAINST Joe McEldry and get the sympathy sales!!!!!
If Cowell didn’t dream up the idea, he must at least wish he did. People from both sides of the fence are carrying out multiple downloads, it seems. And the RATM side are playing into the hands of the Master. Probably, the McEldry track has sold tens of thousands more than it otherwise would have, and Cowell makes even more dosh. As a plan to topple the AntiChistmas, it seems to have failed miserably.
Me? I’m buying neither: the Cyrus version of The Climb is far better than McEldry’s, and my daughter plays it all the time. And RATM are soooo passé!
As a plan to topple the AntiChistmas, it seems to have failed miserably.
It wasn’t winnable in the first place – that’s rather the point.
Stocks are released to concentrate sales. It is manipulation of the market. The only other time it has been overturned this century was in 2003 by Gary Jules.
It wasn’t winnable in the first place – that’s rather the point.
Remind me, what was the point?
That the abuse of market power is exactly that – and in any other industry would be slammed. Image your chances of getting published if this thinking ever gets seriously applied to publishing (and gawd knows they are trying).
Defending the cynical by saying “it was always cynical” isn’t a defence.
In the 60s, pirate radio smashed the EMI-Decca duopoly.
In the 70s, punk put a torch to an incredibly complacent business. We lived off the vibrancy of that for years.
In the 80s Stock, Aitken & Waterman tried to engineer an Autotuned Rick Astley to the Xmas no 1 spot – they got properly mocked and ended up recommending we all bought Nat King Cole instead.
But now apparently we all have to fall in line and go “OOOOOHHHH! SHINY” and, to paraphrase a certain Rupert Giles, listen to music sung by people chosen for there ability to dance.
If wassiname wants to pursue his dream he can do a few nights in the Horn, find out if he has what it takes and hope an A&R person turns up.
“… everything is manipulated from the timing of the show to the timing of the release of stocks to the stores. Quite how BARB does not treat XF sales as promotional items is beyond me.”
All records/CDs/music downloads are promotional items – be it promoting a band, a brand or an artiste. Bon Jovi have said they have no objection to illegal downloads of their music as they make their money form live performance – many other large bands have similar views. In days gone by bands toured to promote albums – not so much these days. And let’s face it, it would be silly to release a record in the summer in the hope it would be the Xmas No 1. Think of all the bands in the past who have cynically released special Xmas records.
“…abuse of market power is exactly that – and in any other industry would be slammed.”
Same applies to the movie industry. Releasing block buster movies just before school holidays, or withholding a Harry Potter (Ep 6) movie because the makers thought it would struggle against some strong competition. It’s all manipulation.
“Defending the cynical by saying “it was always cynical” isn’t a defence.”
No, but it is a long standing fact.
“In the 70s, punk put a torch to an incredibly complacent business. We lived off the vibrancy of that for years.”
A rather romanticized view, me thinks. And what happened? Led Zep, Genesis and many other bands against which Punk was rebelling continued to sell out stadiums and chalk up mega sales. And if we look at the punk survivors, they all wanted a career in the music biz more than they wanted record companies to collapse. There was massive exploitation and manipulation in punk – Malcolm McClaren was far worse than Cowell. Look at what happened with the Sex Pistols: out went the competent but boring bassist Glenn Matlock and in came Sid Vicious – a disturbed self abuser who drew headlines (THINKS: tag line for movie: He needed treatment: they gave him contract). He wasn’t there for his musical abilities, he was there to shock, grab headlines and sell records – he isn’t actually heard on Never Mind the Bollocks – Steve Jones plays bass and guitar on all songs on that album (now he is was a very accomplished musician). Punk was a cleverly disguised sham. Lots of record companies made lots of money from it. And John Lydon appears n TV commercials.
“If wassiname wants to pursue his dream he can do a few nights in the Horn, find out if he has what it takes and hope an A&R person turns up.”
Alternatively, he can appear on national TV, singing live in front of millions and see if they like him and vote for him. Oh, they did. Assuming that there was a lot of multiple voting going on, and we reduce the ten million votes the final received to five million, and over 60% were for Joe McEldry, we have over 3 million people voting for him. The public spoke. Rather loudly.
As I type, it’s Sunday and the Xmas number 1 is RATM. I can’t get excited by this, nor would I be if it was young Joe. I just think the whole Rage Against the X factor was daft: all it did was play into the hands of those it was aimed against. The company wins. I’m afraid.
Anyone who really wants to rage against the machine should never sign to a major label and should only buy music produced by ethically sourced musicians from replenishable stocks.
I should start the Fair Trade record label!
Anyone who really wants to rage against the machine should never sign to a major label
What a stupid statement. Seriously, idiotic a truly epic scale.
Malcolm McClaren was far worse than Cowell
Only if you believe Malcolm McClaren.
Lots of record companies made lots of money from it.
Of course they did. Why is this a bad thing?
we have over 3 million people voting for him. The public spoke. Rather loudly.
And a million idiots voted for the BNP. Your point?
All you are seeing is the consequence of weeks of media manipulation (do you think a single story that appeared in the red tops wasn’t a PR plant? The Tabs are too scared of being cut of from easy copy to not toe the line). This is a public that actually believes there was an EU directive requiring straight bananas.
But none of that is particularly relevant. The problem is still Cowell: here is someone who understands the music biz better than anyone else, who knows how to whip up the mentality of the Coliseum, to control the message and to control the supply chain to get what he wants.
But he knows jack-shit about music. So in a show called the X Factor we get bland pap (seriously, think about about it : when even in your own argument you concede that Miley Cyrus – Miley bloody Cyrus – is better…).
And then there are hideous artificial events like the “surprise” when Susan Boyle turned out to be a singer (The Coliseum, remember): no mention of the first round of auditions on which all of the judge’s (but especially Cowell) would have been very fully briefed.
In the 60s there was the The Monkees – the quintessential “manufactured” band, all four jobbing actors. But they could never have dominated in the way a compliant media allows Cowell – and at least we got some memorable music out of them
When you have a compliant media, a massively over-weight recording company and a TV industry that was quite happy to fiddle its phone votes until they got caught something very unhealthy is happening.
Of course, when people fall hook-line-sinker for the spin Cowell’s PRs put on a small, but in the end rather successful, fan-led act of rebellion that hardly helps.
I’m getting a tad bored with this now, but here goes:
“What a stupid statement. Seriously, idiotic a truly epic scale.”
I didn’t realise we were verging on personal insults here, and I’m sure you’ll provide a reasoned argument in due course…
If a band/singer/musician wants to demonstrate against all that is ill in the music industry, why marry into it by signing up to a major label? Why not independently release their music, or go with an ethically managed company? The reason is usually that as far as the performer(s) are concerned, they actually do want success, they want affirmation in the form of a contract, and are willing to sacrifice their principles to get it. They may well start their slip into the devil’s domain with thoughts of changing it from within, but when did that ever happen? I am sure that the original intention of punk was to kick the record companies where it hurts, but that initial movement was soon swept aside by those who saw it as a way into the establishment.
If you recall my opening argument on Musicbrick, I mentioned that the record industry is there to make money: it’s a business. I see nothing wrong with record companies making an awful lot of money out of punk, nor punk musicians making money themselves, but at least be honest about it. Punk was not a magical musical saviour of all that is righteous: it was a trend that produced some damned good bands (and some bloody awful ones), but those who are still around hardly kept to the original punk ideals.
“And a million idiots voted for the BNP. Your point?”
I don’t think you can viably liken 1 million BNP votes to a young lad succeeding in a talent show. At the risk of treading into politics here, many of those votes for the BNP were a protest against the ineptitude of mainstream politicians. I wonder what the 3+ million votes for McEldrey could have been a protest about? (Maybe it was a protest against Strictly Come Dancing!)
It has long been established that the British public have an insatiable appetite for bland and uninspired pop music (I cite 50+ years of Cliff Richard as evidence, your honour), but what is bland and uninspired to me might be greatly at odds with what is bland and uninspired to another.
“The problem is still Cowell”
I am not a Simon Cowell fan by any stretch, and I wouldn’t invite him out for dinner (however, if he’s paying, I’d be tempted to book a posh restaurant) but most of the arguments against him and the X Factor amount to three things only:
1: It’s not fair;
2: It’s not fair, and
3: He’s so smug
That is to say, it’s not fair he has so much control, and it’s not fair that he unleashes bland pop onto the public. And he is very smug about it all,
Well boo-hoo! These arguments smack of jealousy. He had an idea, it worked, he added a few more bland performers to an already bland market, and the public bought it. You can ridicule the public all you want. But Cowell is giving them nothing that they don’t already want – he didn’t create the market, but he did respond to it in grand fashion. No one is knocking on doors, pointing guns and saying: “Watch X factor, vote Joe, buy his record or the kid gets it!”
You view seems to be that the public needs protection from Cowell. I suppose it would be in the spirit of New Labour to legislate against him, to protect the public from themselves, or at least to set up a Competition Commission enquiry (by the way, why is there only ONE Competition Commission, eh?) to look at the control he exerts over TV and the record industry et cetera, but I can’t see it happening, somehow.