PoOPlist » Christmas Singles

It worked! – RATMachine beats X Factor winner UK Xmas #1

Mark Zip — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:48:01 +0000

Further to my last post, the winners have been declared and “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” is the Christmas refrain on the top of the UK charts. The Grauniad (look it up) has a good round-up of the news and reaction: Rage Against the Machine beats X Factor’s Joe to Christmas No 1 | Music | guardian.co.uk

One item of particular interest is that claim that RATM won on downloads alone. It makes sense, given that the campaign for RATM and against the X factor winner was launched and mostly conducted online. Also, it’s unlikely that the sort of folks who would buy a syrupy pop nugget cover of a Miley Cyrus tune for a Christmas gift would do it in an online format.

Shock! Rage Against the Machine swearing on BBC Radio 5 live

Mark Zip — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:57:52 +0000

The UK Christmas Number One Single tradition has lead to all sorts of silly stuff over the years (Oasis vs. Blur for one), but the last few years have been dominated by awful, treacly pop songs spewing from the “winners” (or “indentured servants”, take your pick) of Simon Cowell’s X-Factor TV show. In the last few weeks a strong campaign has developed to make Rage Against the Machine the number one single this christmas. The campaign is specifically targeted at the Cowell machine, so the choice of RATM is particularly apt. The song the campaign has chosen is “Killing in the Name” , with its multiple repetitions of ”Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me”.

Some idiot producer decided that it would be a good idea to devote a section to the campaign on the national breakfast/pop/talk/morning radio show on the BBC Talk/Sports channel Radio 5.

via YouTube - Rage Against the Machine on BBC Radio 5 live – Killing in the Name .

Nice to hear Tom, Zack and the band are just as articulate and fierce as ever… And how did the producers at the beeb possibly believe that the band would NOT swear!!!!!!?????? What is the beeb gonna do, ban RATM from the airwaves?

The bookies have suspended action on the Christmas single line because the Rage track appears to be ahead by more than 10 percent. And, yes, the song was released in 1992.

How’s this for a Christmas single…

Mark Zip — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 17:26:00 +0000

Malcolm Middleton used to be in Arab Strap. He’s released solo record and one of the songs on it, We’re All Going To Die, is about to be released as a “Christmas Single” in the UK.

The “Christmas Single” is a long-lived and somewhat odd little artifact of the UK charts.

Basically, it comes from the fact that the UK market is so small that if a (not always huge) number of people all buy a single on the same day, and for a couple of days afterwards, the song stands a very good chance of getting into the official charts. Once it’s on the charts, of course, the pop radio stations must play it and thenit is on its way.

This is one of the main reasons why the UK charts move so much more quickly than the US charts. It is also the reason that underground dance music has a much better chance of reaching the charts in the UK than in the US. If every DJ in the land buys a record on the same day it gets into the charts.

And so to the “Christmas Single”. It used to be that if a single was Number One at Christmas, it could expect to have a nice bump in sales as every parent and granny would buy it for the kiddies’ stockings. This lead to a series of “Christmas Single Wars”, set up by record companies and the music press. Blur vs. Oasis was a famous one. In recent years the media feeding frenzy has expanded to include

Then there are the charity singles. The most famous, of course, is “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, but there are a raft of others. Pick your charity or cause and there is bound to be a Christmas single for it. Autism, Child Poverty etc etc.

Here’s the site: http://www.wereallgoingtodie.co.uk/