I know you're just kidding around but I hafta point out the obvious distinction: the dictation coming from the internet is given by people who have no vested interest in you following it, whereas the X factor's dictatorial hold over who gets the entire country's pocket change makes their recommendation of an artist they support and helped create feel distinctly insincere and greedy. They also have a long history of choosing particularly insipid, bland and emotionally hollow artists with no originality, so there was an aesthetic judgement motivating the Rage agenda. I say that at least 50 times a day. Mostly in response to youtube comment feeds, although livejournal, IMDb and newspaper sites are also horrific trainwrecks of ignorance and stupidity.
Should have seen some of the things on twitter as well, you think those are bad.... Will see if I can dig out any of the ones I replied to.
Has nobody mentioned that both RATM and Joe McElderry are both on Sony-owned labels? It's viral marketing, I tells ya.
But no one has told anyone they have to buy it. It's still a free country, and you can still vote with your wallet. Everyone can still say "No, f*** it, I ain't buying that contrived piece of manufactured crap." Which would be the sensible thing to do. Those sad folk who buy X-Factor singles year on year will keep doing it, these are people that are easily brainwashed and influenced (read: 13-year old girls). No one has changed anything; Simon Cowell hasn't earned any less money than he would have if this entire campaign hadn't got off the ground. If anything it's done the opposite, and it's just helped pad the wallet of some Sony executive so he can get more caviar in this Christmas because people were buying multiple copies of the same song.
No, he's not earned any less money, but believe it or not, the people who bought RATM have never bought an xfactor single before, so them not doing it again, will also make no difference. We're also looking at £500k extra revenue, which for a company like Sony is a pittance, they also only get a fraction of it. Once you turn that figure into actual extra profits, it's a tiny blip on Sony's radar. In the music industry the Christmas number one is the daddy of all number ones, it's a pretty big deal, sure, it's not making them any less money, but it's gonna be pissing him off, and that makes it worth the 60p I paid. We've sent Cowell a message that he and his show aren't as popular as he'd like to think, and if you can think of a better way of doing that, other than not buying the single (which has been done since Pop Idol to zero effect), I'd like to hear it.
Can't we just enjoy this as an entertaining piece of emergent humour, rather than playing the cynic's game of pointing out that the rich are still rich and there's nothing the peons can do about it? I mean, you could show up at people's weddings and go "yeah, well, statistically you're almost certain to break up before you die, making your vows falsehoods, making your newly formed establishment built on falsehoods", but we don't because it's depressing and miserable /me hates cynicism
You best keep your wedding plans top secret then, because don't think for a second that I wouldn't My cynical hat is nice and comfy so I like to wear it whenever I can.
I noticed it, hence my cynical explanation above. I can almost imagine the thought process of all the die-hard RATM fans, collectively sticking it to the man: Fan: F*** YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME! Anonymous Internet Mob: Buy this single right now! Fan: YES! I WILL BUY IT 10 TIMES!! Although the above dialogue seems cartoonish, when I was reading about the whole charade I found a few instances where the band (or some sponsoring organization) had to tell people to stop buying multiple copies of the RATM single, because that technique would not skew the results as hoped. To me, it just shows that the ultra-nonconformist-anti-establishment crowd is as easily influenced by media suggestion as any supposed shallow-ignorant-pop-following X-Factor fan; they're just the other side of the same coin. In the end, this little bidding war has Sony laughing all the way to the bank.
I think you might be missing the point somewhat, it was never about sticking it to the man, or a "**** you I won't do what you tell me" mentality. It was just a collection of people who didn't want the x factor to be christmas number one, again. Obviously the song choice does imply an element of wanna-be anarchist, and maybe that's what the facebook group creators' were going for, but for me, and the vast majority of people who bought the single, we would have bought anything to stop it being X factor again. Incidentally that's reason I refused to buy more than one copy, I wanted Rage to get the number one as legitimately as possible.
meh, I dont care about beating simon, but beating xfactor is nice I actually like how much them shows help people!
Also, more people need to focus on the fact that the band are donating all the proceeds they get (however small a cut that is) to the homeless charity. After I found that out I bought another copy.
Not only that, but many of the people who bought the rage single also raised nearly £85,000 for charity: http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
Indeed. Just to clear up, the organisers of the campaign are donating to Shelter, which is the homelessness charity, and the band are going to donate to Shelter and a charity called Youth Music; Youth Music aim to get less fortunate young people into music, by giving them free access to instruments, organising events, etc. A fitting tribute, given the aims of the campaign. You may call me pedantic if you wish - I welcome your criticisms and abuse