So, a people led facebook campaign resulted in Rage Against The Machine gaining this years Christmas No. 1 - well done!
I have been thinking a lot about this X Factor v’s the people debate which has had my mind racing at a number of levels:
1) I have enjoyed the irony of Simon Cowell dictating that we should buy Joe’s single verses a couple of facebook dictating that the public should buy Rage Against the Machine’s single, to ensure that this get’s to Christmas No. 1. I am not being cynical but shouldnt the message be - buy whatever you damn well please?
2) It is a shame that Joe McElderry did not get his Christmas No. 1, this would have undoubtedly been the lads dream but clearly he is in the innocent guy who got caught up in the X Fator verses Facebook crossfire - nevertheless, Joe will still do well, he will have massive marketing machine behind them and looks set to tackle America anyway, so for him, it’s all good.
3) Rage Against The Machine are signed to Sony, so, from Sony’s point of view - who better to compete with, for Christmas No. 1 than yourself!
Nevertheless, I completely and utterly admire what Jon ann Tracy Morter, the couple who set up the campaign have done and there is a seriously exiting tension between the corporate world of TV and the grassroots world of the online, a tension that TV channels really need to get their heads around. To me, this is an exciting move towards ‘what could be possible’, it is not simply people power but audience engagement with regards to how we create, develop and nurutre new forms of cross platform multi-media content and, as you can imagine, this gets my pulse racing and my heart-beating!
