Fixing the charts is all the Rage

Is anyone really surprised that somebody finally took it upon themselves to engineer the result of the Christmas number one against X Factor? I doubt it.

For those moronic Luddites out there who live under a rock or draw their entire opinion base from a glossy magazine, a bloke started a FaceBook campaign to get Rage Against The Machine's festive ditty "Killing in the name" to number one, ahead of the perennial dirge-fest that Cowell's bitches barf into the charts.

Personally, I couldn't give a shit. The Mrs was apoplectic with anger at the result; not because she is a Factor fan, but instead that such a non-Yuletide tune made it to number one. She has a point, but as long as Cowell has been having a go at kids who can't sing, the number one spot has ceased to be a meaningful achievement. If he had any real confidence in the 'winner', or he wasn't considering his bank balance, he would release the record at a different time of the year. Of course, he's not in it to discover the next Buble or Rhianna (God help us); he's in it to make shitloads of cash.

That a normal bloke can start a FaceBook page urging people to download a record which gathers enough momentum to actually get to number one is as impressive as it is sad. Like I said, Mr Blobby aside, the Christmas number one was at one time seen as a genuine achievement, but the writing was on the wall when certain Irish 'boy' bands started engineering the release dates of their records to ensure they had a clear run at the top spot.

I've said before that including downloads is a daft idea, unless you only count those of records currently on new release. The ability to download your favourite tracks from yesterdecade is ace, but it's ridiculous that they should count towards a Hit Parade placing, meaning FaceBook stunts like this will be all the rage (geddit?) in the coming years.

At the end of the day, the chart is a dead concept. Yes, it's a sad day for music and genuine music acts when they realise that this once-great gauge of your musical standing is now as much use as Cliff Richard's johnny drawer, but think of it this way: it puts people like Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates out of a job. Christmas or not, that ain't no bad thing.