So Rage Against The Machine held out for the number one slot, golf claps all round. Still for some reason I don’t particularly find myself wanting to join a celebratory flashmob this afternoon in Liverpool Street where me and several thousand others will spontaneously ‘rock out’ as T-Mobile’s camera’s unblinkingly watch on.
It wasn’t the wonderfully, unintentionally ironic choice of song or even the fact that both RATM’s ‘Killing In The Name’ and Joe whatever his name is’ cover of ‘The Climb’ were both properties of Sony. After all this campaign was never a protest against the label, and whilst I may be an instictive supporter of independent music the two albums I’m looking forward to most in 2010 will both be released via EMI (assuming they haven’t gone bust by then).
It certainly wasn’t that before The X Factor came along the Christmas number one slot was some bastion of pure pop, let’s face it from Cliff Richard to Mr Blobby, the Festive top pop spot has nearly always been a dumping ground for the wretched and novel, with a few sublime tracks proving the exception to the rule.
No, the only reason I’m not really jumping for joy at the result is that whatever people may see as far as I can see this really has sweet fuck all to do with music and more to do with the strange desire that many people seem to have to be part of ‘something’. Now call me an iconoclast or probably more accurately a misanthropic shit but since I realised I’d never get to see the original line-up of Queen play live together I’ve never really felt comfortable with these kind of mass group-think events.
Did this campaign tap into some hithertoo dormant longing for flag burning rap-metal in the British psyche? Pretty unlikely, rather it was based on creating exactly the same kind of ‘Diana moment’ as The X Factor provides, just one for people who probably wouldn’t buy Cowell’s latest karaoke poppet, but somewhat bizarrely still actually ‘care’ about the state of the top ten.
Getting RATM to number one was a victory for many people, the band, Sony, and of course the people behind the campaign who pulled off a quite spectacular stunt. What this wasn’t was a victory for people that love genuinely good music, for many of those who spent their money on Itunes or Amazon this will probably be their first and final music purchase of 2009.
Still I didn’t expect the campaign to actually succeed, so I’ve already been proved wrong once this month. Who knows perhaps this will inspire a new generation to actually dip into their pockets and support more alternative music and take a punt of band’s that don’t come backed with TV shows or novelty Facebook campaigns.
If just some of the people who so enthusiastically backed this camapign were to maybe just once a month take a look at Phonica, Piccadilly, or Rough Trade’s websites (or even better pop into your local record shop) I can guarantee that they’d find at least one thing genuinely new, fresh and exciting to spend their money on and then in twelve month’s time we won’t have to deny next year’s lantern jawed nobody their moment in the spotlight.
Now almost completely invalidating my entire rambling, not at all particularly coherent point by opening myself to easy accusations of bias is the fact that we have a single out today, the wonderful Olympic Village EP by Shock Defeat! (I’m also well aware the by jumping on this oh so zeitgeisty topic, I’ve probably reserved a place for myself in the circle of hell allocated to hypocrites and general moaners).
Straight up I can promise that none of the money made from this release will go to Shelter (actually I think we lose about 30p per 7″ sold…), I can’t see it’s release particularly disturbing Simon Cowell’s Bahamian holiday, unless a fellow guest decides to play it really loud, and it certainly won’t stop Joe Somethingberry finally getting his number one spot next week.
But it’s new, it sound great, and it looks lovely, you can buy the vinyl from here (as well as the usual places we just lose less if it’s sold direct) and if you buy the 7″ we’ll give you a free digital copy of the full 5 track EP. Because that’s how we roll.
You know it’s the ‘festive season’ when the entire female half of the office leaves to queue outside a dodgy ‘art space’ in Hackney for a leftover piece of Christopher Kane chow mein. (Today at 5pm)