Chart Attack: Matt Cardle Trounces Rubberbandits for Xmas No. 1

The X Factor has taken the top of the Christmas charts ever year since it kicked off seven (that's right SEVEN) years ago. Last year's much ballyhooed Rage Against The Machine Vs Joe McElderry battle meant the UK broke the cycle but here in Ireland we've kept it X Factor friendly every year. I'm not getting into the ridiculous nature of that chart battle or this year's attempts at an "alternative number one" in the UK (I'd be here all day!) but this year Ireland has had a more interesting chart battle on it's hands.

Limerick based comedy duo the Rubberbandits have built up a steady profile over the last few years and saw that truly start to take off in 2010 with their regular appearances on RTE's Republic of Telly and plenty of live shows, including playing at the Electric Picnic. It was Horse Outside though, that has sent them nuclear. 

A truly hilarious pop tune with an even funnier video it's not hard to see why the video has now amassed more than 3 million hits. The campaign to get them to number one does have the usual smug "like, the X Factor is so manufactured" nonsense behind but it also shows people who genuinely like a song, buying it and hoping it does well. 

Sadly, Chart Track released the official info for the sales in Ireland today and Matt Cardle, this year's X Factor winner, has still managed to snag the top spot.

In reality it's not surprising. The X Factor was getting close to 700,000 viewers per week over here. If you sell a couple of thousand singles in the Irish chart you can do very well. So even if a tiny chunk of the show's audience buy the winner's tune, it will of course go on to do big things.

All that aside, Matt's figures are truly staggering. According to Chart Track, Cardle came within 500 sales of beating the figures of Elton John's Candle In The Wind in 1997. Unbelievable. The CD single was what did it for Matt in end it seems, as noted by Chart Track:

"the sales of ‘Where We Collide’ were split 91% CD and 9% download, handing Matt Cardle the accolade of best-selling CD single in Ireland over a week ever"

In their defense the Rubberbandits put up a decent fight, beating their own download record and setting a new record for digital sales in a week.  Though as Chart Track notes their total sales were only half of Cardle's final haul. Given that Matt would have done close to 55,000 this week (unbelievable figures for Ireland) we could probably guess that the Rubberbandits did about 20,000 (this is my estimate and I could be totally wrong) which at any other time of year would be enough to put them on top by a huge margin.

There is an argument here that Limerick's finest should have taken the top spot, with that many hits on YouTube indicating there was a huge interest in the track. However a quick glance at the video's YouTube stats show a huge amount of views in the US, UK and Australia an audience that can't buy the song and affect the chart position here. Also, numerous viewings of the video could be down to repeat watches, shrinking the number of potential buyers again. Also people watching a video online does not always follow through to them buying it. The Rubberbandits appeal to an older audience who are less likely to download a single or buy one physically. The physical single of Horse Outside was always going to struggle against the X Factor. There was no way a relatively small Irish band would be able to print, distribute and sell the same amount of singles as one of the biggest record companies in the world. 

Ultimately, the Rubberbandits have increased their audience a huge amount, knocked out one of the funniest pop tunes of the year and become a national talking point. Matt Cardle's chances at sustaining a decent pop career are probably not good. Despite the largest audience for the show ever this year Cardle still failed to match highs set by the likes of Alexandra and Leona with their singles in the first week. Joe McElderry has struggled to maintain an audience despite a surprisingly decent debut album while runner up Olly Murs has managed two hit singles.

Whatever happens, we'll always have the Horse Outside video and more importantly, that amazing Liveline appearance to look back on whenever we look back on 2010.

Beat that Cardle!

Why This X Factor Against the Machine Stuff Is Missing The Point

So... where to start?

At this point it might be old news that Rage Against The Machine have wound up at top of the UK Singles chart for that much heralded Christmas number one (they'll likely end up doing the same thing in the Irish chart this week coming). Joe McElderry has gotten his pop career off to an interesting start at the least.

There has been plenty of discussion about how this is a "victory" for "real music" and shown that silly Simon Cowell who is boss. I'm not quite sure to start with this and I've already had a few sneaky rants here and there about the stupidity of of it all. But surely now that it about to become old hat why not blog about? That is just how on the button I truly am!

First of all get the gist on the story here without much of the inherently snobby writing that has marred much of the newspaper coverage of this (more on that later).

It is nice that some interest has been sparked in the charts after the dullness of X Factor claiming the top so many years in a row. I love pop music and am always interested in the charts because it is always great to see what isn't and isn't selling. I've never liked "campaigns" to get a certain song to chart. The chart should work off of people buying songs they like and want to spend their money not what they are told to buy. This has underpinned my problem with this RATM business.

The RATM side argued that X Factor fans were "sheep" buying the song because Simon Cowell et all had manipulated the charts every year for the last 4. This is just ignoring the fact that obviously hundreds of thousands of people bought the song they liked by a singer they had watch on tv for a few months and grown to love. Of course. But if you see on Facebook that someone tells you to download a song to make a point you do. "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" indeed.

To get too worked up about how blind people were to go along with this is missing the point. And the fact that the band will donate their profits to charity is nice and almost (almost) takes the sting out of the fact that BOTH The X Factor track and RATM are on Sony and therefore they've doubled their end of Xmas single sales. Nice one.

The real disappointment about this is how it boiled down to people pointing fingers at Simon Cowell as some kind of Grinch figure out to ruin the music world for everyone. Of particular interest is the NME cover story where many musicians lambast Simon for what they see as ruining the music industry.

But surely Simon is not to blame? Ultimately he is a businessman selling a product. And people are buying. Simon at least is getting people to get out and buy music. and with things the way they are for the music business someone who can knock that? Many will moan that the music is awful/cover versions/not credible but at the very least people are willing to buy it and that has to count for something.

Also for all the blathering on that the X Factor dominates, in reality it is merely reflecting the tastes of those who are consuming popular music. Plenty of artists performed on the results show this year and didn't have it reflect in their sales. Janet Jackson is a great example. Her single didn't dent the top 40 despite a high profile slot on the results show the same night as Lady Gaga who who climbed to number one following her performance. Gaga was already enyjoing huge success with "Bad Romance" before her appearance and this performance was clearly the last part of a huge push for the song. X Factor is offering up the platform and the final bit of promotion to tie in with the radio play and public interest in acts they obviously like. Its why Alexandra Burke and JLS have connected with the public with post show releases and become successful and Leon Jackson and Eoghan Quigg haven't. The fact too that the show clears well past 15-16 million viewers at the moment and the winner clears around the 500,000-200,000 (depending on their popularity) in sales in the first week suggest there is a huge chunk who never go on to buy the winner's single and shows that just because people watch the show does not mean they will buy the song which is the main crux of the RATM argument against the series.

Instead of getting worked up about one successful music business man and the hit TV show he oversees it would be much more interesting to look at other things going on with popular music and the record industry. Why is radio so insisting on playlisting and not supporting new artists or follow up singles by acts who have one hit? Why is that somebody like BBC Radio 1 can effectively make or break an artist with a flick of a playlist? Why is that nobody is bothering to make a comprehensive fast paced music TV show with a broad range of genres? Why do we still insist of calling one form of music real and the other manufactured? How about realising that anyone releasing music commercially in any way is playing into the same system? It is about time we looked at how little value we place on music instead of giving someone who can still find profit in the system. Jealousy is never a good look.

And ALSO, why can't we have proper pop tunes with a festive feel? Many hate the "manufactured pop" of the 90s but its hard to argue with tracks like 2 Become 1 and Too Much from the Spice Girls or Stay Another Day from East 17. Genuinely huge pop acts who remind you of their success in a given year with great pop songs that are both festive but stand on their own. It would be great to see the X Factor do something like this or even take on an original track. The best track to come out of any reality TV show this decade is still Sound of the Underground by Girls Aloud. Surf guiter, distorted bass and a big chorus it is a proper piece of superstar pop and not the typical "here comes the key change ballad".

Sigh. All I know is that this should have been Christmas number one: