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Artist News
RATM win Christmas chart battle
By CMU Editorial | Published on Sunday 20 December 2009
So, in the end the anti-X brigade won one of the fiercest chart battles in recent years by quite some margin. The decidedly un-Christmassy (unless, I suppose, you interpret the story of Christ as that of one man’s fight against an oppressive establishment, which you might) ‘Killing In The Name’ from Rage Against The Machine takes the coveted Christmas Number One slot for 2009 after outselling second place Joe ‘X-Factor winner’ McElderry by some 50,000 units. Of course the 1992 RATM track beat the X-Factor winner thanks to the much reported Facebook-led campaign by rock fans across the UK to stop the Simon Cowell factory from scoring its fifth consecutive festive chart topper.
According to the Official Charts Company, the RATM track sold over 500,000 units this week thanks to the Facebook campaign, making it the first download-only Christmas number one, and meaning it has scored more download sales in one week than any other one track has before. Not bad for a seventeen year old shouty rock assault with more than its fair share of lyrical ‘fucks’.
McElderry’s cover of the rather tedious Miley Cyrus song ‘The Climb’ sold 450,000 copies to take second place. The RATM buyers were, of course, making a stand against the ‘X-Factor’ and its perceived power over the charts, rather than trying to show any ill feeling towards Joe himself, who can presumably still expect as good a chance at a full-on pop career as any previous winner of the talent show once attention is turned to his debut album in the New Year. If Team Cowell had a sense of humour they’d include a cheesy pop version of ‘Killing In The Name’ as a hidden track on that long player. I’m not sure they do though.
RATM were ahead from the word go in this chart battle, having a nearly 24 hour head start, with McElderry’s track not available to download until after the talent show’s final last Sunday evening. However, Joe had a CD release on the high street too, which was expected to provide a boost as the weekend approached. And it did, by Friday afternoon sales of the two tracks were very close, and reports on Saturday morning put McElderry ahead. RATM, though, enjoyed a last minute flurry of extra downloads.
Had Joe equalled first week sales of last year’s ‘X-Factor’ winner Alexandra Burke – who sold 575,000 copies of her ‘Hallelujah’ cover – he’d have won the battle. But despite all the media hoo haa about the chart race he failed to match Burke’s sales. Some might say the snowy weather, keeping some more casual pop fans away from the high street, may have had an impact (so, divine intervention in RATM’s favour). Though Cowell’s choice of one of the dullest songs ever written is more likely to blame.
Either way, of course, Cowell’s business partners Sony Music win big time, releasing, as they did, both records, and therefore enjoying over 950,000 sales out of this chart battle. With McElderry still hot property, while Cowell may have had his ego a little bashed by this defeat, he’s still quids in, of course. And while the social networking phenomenon, that really came of age in 2009, was responsible for this defeat, it also helped turn his other talent acquisition of the year – Susan Boyle – into an overnight global megastar, so on balance I think the internet has been kind to Cowell this year.
Commenting on this week’s chart race, the boss of the OCC Martin Talbot told CMU: “Congratulations to Rage Against The Machine on their number one – as we have seen in recent years, beating any ‘X-Factor’ winner in the race for the Christmas number one is no mean achievement. The popular support we have seen for the record this week has been truly amazing – and handed them two all-time records”.
He continued: “But congratulations too should also go to Joe McElderry. In taking the number two spot, he has still achieved one of the highest weekly sales of any single this year – in almost any other year, 450,000 copies would have given him the Christmas number one. Through this week, these two tracks have accounted for more than 950,000 single sales, a fact which is truly remarkable”.
RATM said yesterday that if they topped the Christmas chart they’d play a free gig in the UK to celebrate. Details of that will presumably follow. Quotes from both sides are flowing in regards the result of this race – we’ll have more on those here on the News-Blog tomorrow.
