Christmas Number 1?

All I want for Christmas is Cowell not to get the number one spot again.

Hopefully the moderators won't take the view that this is adevrtising as I'm not trying to promote anything for my own benefit, more for the good of the music industry in general.

Yesterday was the start of the race for the Christmas number one.Not that it's really considered much of a race these days. Since the advent of X Factor it's pretty much considered a foregone conclusion that whoever wins that show will get the Christmas number one spot and I reckon that's just wrong. Even yesterday, just after whoever the latest winner is was announced the papers were reprting that he was looking forward to the Christmas number one spot.

What bugs me the most about it is that record companies really aren't keen on promoting bands these days. It costs them a fortune to promote a band so in general the big companies are only interested in promoting acts that they view as cash cows, that means aiming at certain demographics and ignoring actual quality of music. X Factor, and all the other shows of that ilk, is even more cynical than that. The format of their TV show means that rather than actually have to shell out on promoting the artist themselves they can make the public do that and turn a tidy profit while doing so. If you are in any doubt about the cynical nature of it look at what happens to previous winners... As soon as teh goodwill of the three month TV advert that is X Factior wears off and it looks like Cowell will have to spend some of his own money on developing and promoting the artist he drops them like a mistakenly picked up pair of hipsters. Steve Brookstein anyone? I only actually know the name because there was a report in a paper saying that, when this year's final was on TV, he was playing a gig to fifty people at a pizza restraunt. This was the first winner only three years ago.

To be honest I wouldn't even mind the kind of bland drudgery these shows put forward in the name of music, but in an era where the bad decisions made by major labels mean they are feeling the crunch the more this sort of thing is given support the less they are going to be interested in developing and supporting proper bands.

Maybe I'm being melodramatic, but while the music industry is acting like this we're unlikely ever to see another act like the Beatles or the Stones.

I'm sure the winers are nice enough people but it's not like they'll make much money out of it anyway. They always make a big issue of the million pound recording contract, but given that they'll have to pay for production out of that contract and teh fact that they aren't writing their own material how much money are they likely to see? Not a lot I reckon.

Now I normally wouldn't be bothered about the singles chart these days, paricularly the Christmas one, but this year I'd love to see Cowell and his cronies given a bloodied nose. When combined with the fact that one of my favourite artists at the moment has launched a campaign to go for the number one spot I'll actually get off my arse and buy the Malcolm Middleton single We're all going to die.

Ok, on the surface it sounds a bit depressing, but the last verse is the real message of the song.

When you can't sleep at night
and there's no one to hold you
remember I'm going through the same
We've got to laugh into the dark
We're all one in a million
We're alive, we exist,
we took part inthe game

If you live in the UK, get out there and buy a single this year. Not necissarily that one just anything other than the X Factor single.