Discuss.

All for RATM #1. The X Factor has changed Christmas #1 from a good competition - I always liked to find out the competitors, make sure to buy my favourite, then the Sunday night before Christmas, I'd sit listening to the radio and find out who'd won - to a deadset win from a TV star. Bring back the race! (:

I'm not really going to nuclear.

I'd just rather they picked a song that wasn't on the same record label as Xfactor, preferably one on an independent label because I believe record labels tend to be, in general, quite unethical. I'll still, inevitably, check to see if it wins out or not, and it would be quite neat if it happens. It's just, well, my stance on major labels is pretty much set in stone. I think the overall gesture of "stopping Simon Cowell from getting the #1 single at Christmas" is thoroughly pointless because if you want to avoid the Christmas #1 it's very easy and trust me, if you want to ignore Xfactor it's very easy too. And buying a single that means that Simon Cowell and his chums at Sony BMG get all the Xfactor money and then a big fat pile more from thousands of sales of Killing In The Name is the sort of short-sightedness that the internet seems to be responsible for.

It's hard trying to find great older independent labels admittedly, they all end up bought out by one of the 4 majors, which is why the record industry is so fucking depressing. But take Radiohead for example. They are currently signed to XL, an independent label. So pick one of their new songs, that's one that everyone likes.

Of course I think if you are going to be buying a single for the purpose of sticking two fingers up at the pop charts you'd be better picking something that is more or less an escape from the classic song-structure of pop music. Such as Big Church (Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért) by Sunn O)))

I think you're looking too far into this, it was just a little bit of fun and taking the piss out of Simon Cowell - which can only be a good thing.

Actually, I'm not sure he is making money, he's A&R for his division of Sony, not Epic. Not sure how the corporate structure works, but you know.

People do look at things more deeply than face value, because if you go beyond the money concerns this carries a consumer choice message. Lets say there's a million downloads at less than £1 - that's significantly less than £1,000,000, to a corporation - but the thing is, lets say you stole an album as a gesture, that doesn't get recorded... It will be recorded that this song was almost christmas number one by internet word of mouth alone. That's going to make any corporation re-assess their marketing strategy at the very least.

That's all information that's not on the surface either.

Funniest thing I've heard in a long time, nice to know there are still some proper rockstars ;)

Well, it happened.

Simon is an idiot. I'm glad this happened.

FUCK YEEEEAAAAH!!!

Me too! Simon, is such an idiot, he thinks that we don't know that all he wants is the money, he doesn't and has never cared about talent.