This past Christmas saw one of the strangest chart battles in the UK to reach top of the charts for the coveted Christmas single. In the battle, we saw X-Factor winner Joe McElderry go head-to-head with Rage Against the Machine. In what was one of the strangest chart battles I have ever encountered, we saw ‘Killing in the Name Of’ claim the number one spot! This all started by a Facebook campaign which, by the end of its movement, had over 1 million followers.
What was surprising about this campaign was that although everyone seemed to feel passionate about the movement and was happy to join the group, the number of people that actually bought the single was considerably less than supported the cause. Of the 1 million people who were signed up to Facebook’s group and the countless of other supporters who aren’t on the social networking website but had heard about the campaign through one of its well publicised news stories, we saw just over 500,000 sales of the single. Half a million sales of a single is, of course, a monumental achievement and as such, was a deserved number one. However, that’s not actually half of the group that were campaigning so strongly for its chart success. Within the group, there would also have been likeminded people who purchased the track several times (I bought it 3 times from itunes using a Leona Lewis free downloads voucher….the irony! and once off Amazon at 29p!) If we consider the fact that everyone bought the single the legal 3 times from one retailer at the cheap price of less than a pint in Weatherspoons, the campaign was only actually won by just over 150,000 people. It is, of course, a monumental victory for those that started the campaign to choose such a tough battle going against Simon Cowell and the X-Factor juggernaut with a track that couldn’t be played on National radio due to swearing.
However, this has sparked a new movement with a new campaign that has come to light. Next month there is now a “The Smiths How Soon Is Now? For No 1 Meat Is Murder 25th Anniversary” campaign. Will this receive the same support that Rage received? Will the legendary British band have the same eagerness to support the campaign as Rage attained? Probably not with Morrissey and Marr not talking to each other and both still being heavily involved in music (Moz is solo and Marr is in the Cribs and Modest Mouse.) However, former drummer Mike Joyce has supported the campaign. If we look at last week’s sales, the number one single in the country was bought 87,000 times. At the moment, the Smiths Facebook group has nearly 11,000 members. If the Rage figures are anything to go by, they will need their group to grow heavily and everyone to support the song if its to see the number 1 spot that week.
By some great coincidence, there has also been a campaign to get Girls Aloud previous single ‘Untouchable’ to achieve top 10 status, supported by 9,000 strong. They want to see the only single the girl band released that didn’t make the top 10 achieve a spot in the second week of February’s charts. Have we reached the stage where online campaigns are going to become diluted? I wouldn’t be surprised if we also saw them abused by record companies trying to push a catalogue artist on the general public. I will be very intrigued to see if Girls Aloud can turn every single they have released into a top 10 success and if the Smith’s can mark their first ever UK top 10 hit!
Lastly, I have just found out that there is another campaign to get the Sex Pistol’s ‘God Save the Queen’ to number 1 for her majesty’s birthday. This campaign was started due to the chart excluding the track in 1977 where it would have reached number 1 for the Queen’s silver jubilee celebrations. This campaign has been backed by RATM’s founder and has already received great support with over 30,000 members already signed up. With her birthday being the 12th June, it looks like the most likely campaign to succeed. However, my support goes out to all of this online movements; I hope they are all successful to prove that the general public music buying population can still have their voice heard should they want to...
...and not have below-standard crap shoved down their throat!
The Smiths Facebook Campaign
Girls Aloud Facebook Campaign
Sex Pistols Facebook Campaign
Sex pistols - god save the queen (video)
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Cheers Jen for editing my crap grammar!
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