Simon Fairbairn – Aural Antidotes for a Prescribed Life

With the battle for the Christmas number 1 almost over, here are my top five reasons why Rage Against the Machine getting to the top spot would be so great:

1) Deflate Simon Cowell’s Arrogance

Here’s what he had to say about the X Factor winners and the Rage campaign:

“It does however change [the winner's] lives and we put this opportunity there so that the winner of The X Factor gets the chance of having a big hit record.

I think it’s quite a cynical campaign geared at me which is actually going to spoil the party for these three [contestants]. I also think it’s incredibly dismissive of the people who watch and enjoy the show… to treat our audiences as if they’re stupid and I don’t like that.”

First, the Facebook group have stated that it’s not a personal attack on Cowell, but on the music that he funds and promotes. The music that the X Factor contestants make is, generally, inauthentic and unoriginal and the organisers of the group are simply sick of it.

Cowell is the figurehead of the X Factor brand and if he’s choosing to take it personally then that’s just another indication that he thinks the whole musical world revolves around him.

Second, the idea that it will ’spoil the party’, as if the number one position was the winner’s birthright, irritates the hell out of me. The music charts are not there to be another advertising spot for the X Factor, they are there to showcase the most popular songs in a given week.

If the UK music-buying public decides that they’ve had enough of the X Factor money machine, then it is their right to select something else. A right that is simply being exercised here.

Finally, this ‘cynical campaign’ is a whole bunch less cynical than the X Factor, which, if anything, is a ‘cynical campaign’ against all of us. Joe McElderry’s assumed ascension to the Christmas number 1 has been met by genuine, heartfelt opposition – which is a lot less cynical than him getting there simply because that’s what’s ’supposed’ to happen next.

2) The Power of Social Media

This Facebook group – which now has the support of Bill Bailey, Stephen Fry, Dave Grohl and the band themselves – was started by a couple with an idea and some determination. That’s it.

The X Factor has been on television for months, has a huge marketing budget and gets a lot of free coverage from the press. The fact that a song first released 17 years ago by a band not know for its mainstream credentials is even in this fight is a testament to the power and potential of social media.

Once again, individuals can begin to shape our culture and make it less about who has the most money, and more about who has the best music.

Musicians everywhere should be very, very excited by this prospect.

3) It’s Not Going to Make Cowell Rich

There is also a lot of talk about the fact that Cowell owns a record company that is a subsidiary of Sony and that RATM are signed to Epic, also part of Sony. Many think that there is an irony in a lot of people buying music that will profit Cowell.

Let’s assume for a second that this campaign is all about the money.

Looking at last year’s high-stakes Christmas number 1 battle between Alexandra Burke and Jeff Buckley, Burke’s total sales (downloads and hard copies) were around the 576,000 mark.

Prices for the Rage single range from 29p to 99p for a single download – let’s make it easy and say it’s an average of 50p a download. Assuming that they shift a similar amount as Burke (say around 600,000 units) that translates to just £300,000.

So if Cowell owned Sony (he doesn’t) and he received 100% of this money (he won’t), it would still only be pocket change to him. Some estimates put his net worth at around £125 million. Even if he did receive it all, it would be like someone on a salary of £30,000 a year picking up an extra £30.

But he won’t get all of it. Once you take into account merchant fees, royalties, record company expenses and so on and, even allowing for extraneous things like increases in the sales of Rage’s back catalogue, I really don’t think that he’s going to come out of this that much better off financially than if the campaign had never existed in the first place.

4) It Makes the Charts Interesting Again

We’ve got a real battle on our hands. Finally, a song with some balls is getting some attention instead of all the insipid rubbish that we’re spoon fed daily. Whichever side you’re on, it’s been an interesting and exciting week.

That’s worth the entrance price alone.

5) Kicking against ‘the man’

To all those pointing out the ‘irony’ of being told to buy a song with the refrain ‘fuck you I won’t do what you tell me’, we get it. And we think you’re oh-so-smart for pointing it out. Critical and cynical by default – must be fun up there in your ivory tower.

Influences exist everywhere all the time. Advertising, government, television, newspapers, each other – everyone, everywhere is trying to tell us to do or say or believe in something. We choose what it is we listen to and how we respond.

This time, Cowell and the X Factor are saying ‘You’re going to make this the Christmas number 1, as you have done for the past 4 years’. That’s what we’re saying no to: the arrogance of a huge company with money to burn.

But the only way we can effectively do that is collectively. So, yes, individually we are ignoring the exact wording of the lyrics and doing what we’re told by a Facebook group but only because it adds up to something bigger and more profound.

Why This Really Matters

Honestly, the charts are an outdated concept for such a multi-dimensional world. They no longer reflect the hugely diverse tastes of the UK music-buying public. They are a protected beacon of an ancient time, dominated by an out of touch industry that doesn’t care one bit about music. The quicker it (and the record companies themselves) crumbles into dust, the better it will be for all of us.

What really matters and what all sides should take away from the campaign – is this:

Individuals have more power than ever before

Thanks to social media, if you have the right message and the right marketing strategy, you’re set. You don’t need a huge budget, you don’t need permission from the gatekeepers, you can just get out there and make big things happen.

We no longer have to sit there and have our culture defined for us. This is a beautiful thing.

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, and let me know (but let’s be nice – it’s only music, after all)

Spanish activists have created a nice manifesto for the rights of internet users everywhere in opposition to some dodgy-sounding laws that are being drawn up in Spain. The Digital Economy bill here in the UK is equally heinous with it’s lack of due process and potential punishments that affect more than just the infringer.

The Philosophies

The internet is a lot closer to actual, true democracy – low entry bar, mass participation, power and reach based on true merit (what you’ve done, not who your dad is or where you went to school) – than the capitalist democracy that we have here in the UK. The internet empowers the individual like no tool ever before and the only people that are really going to suffer in these modern times are the obsolete dinosaurs of another age who can’t (or won’t) understand what it’s all about: interpersonal connections.

It has provided us with more ways to connect with more people in more countries than any other medium in the history of the world. We have access to the entire sum of human knowledge. We have access to platforms where our views can be aired and discussed by a global audience (i.e. no Big Media deciding what’s important). The huge expense involved in manufacturing and distributing goods has come crashing down, putting production in reach of anyone with a dream and some determination.

Finally it is quite simply a vital service to a great many people, and any attempt to control access – for whatever reason – should be thrown out by any decent public representative.

Of course, it won’t be. What did the government do when faced with largest protest the UK has ever seen? Ignored us. Totally and utterly. They don’t represent our best interests. Never have.

Why is it that one issue that negatively affects a small minority of people (and it is arguable whether or not the effects of copyright infringement are even negative – some studies suggest that file sharing helps certain industries) has been given more weight than the rights and freedoms of everyone?

The Practicalities

Policing file sharing is going to be expensive, pushing up our connection bills as the ISPs are expected to bear some of the cost; difficult, with an impossibly large amount of data to sift through; and intrusive, as they will have to track and monitor each IP address we access.

I’m willing to concede that businesses may have some valid concerns when it comes to copyright infringement – though I won’t deny that my sympathy for them is incredibly slight – but this brute force approach is not the way to go about solving what, in reality, may turn out to be a minor problem.

For what it’s worth, you can sign the petition against the bill here – it’s at 30,000 signatures and counting – but I expect that this bill will be forced through however strong the public’s reaction.

My favourite Quality Street chocolate has always been the Caramel Swirl.

So, when I brought home a large tin today, I decided to take a look at how many of these delectable little treats I get in amongst the 1.1kg.

I found that I only got 5. Not sure if this was above or below the average, I created the bar chart below to investigate:

I was shocked to see that it was amongst the lowest of all the varieties!

Having only one tin, I can’t say if this is always the case or if I was just unlucky. Rest assured that if I get hold of another tin over the holiday season, I will certainly repeat the study to find out.