Over the past few years what it means to get to Christmas Number 1 has changed, the definition of it is somewhat loose and varies constantly. Before looking back at the significance of the number one throughout chart history, I am going to ask you to look back to 2005. Yeah, that's right, 2005, a year that gave us Elvis Presley re-issues, Crazy Frog ringtones and that Audio Bullys remix of 'Shot You Down'. Christmas Number 1 that year, courtesy of the X Factor, was Shane Ward's 'That's My Goal'. The main competition and near threat, was a song that you might remember. It was Number 1 the previous week. I am talking about the re-release of 'The JCB Song' by folk duo Nizlopi. Whilst this song was a quaint novelty, I would have prefered it to get to Number 1 - at least this was a song written by the people that performed it, and they were signed to a small independant label.
Looking back it is easy to say that the festive Number 1 spot has seen a lot of variety. At least Number 1's from The Human League, Pink Floyd & Queen had musical value, while Mud & Slade suceeded with songs that had an obvious Christmas theme. By the time we got to the 90's the quality had started to decline somewhat, The Spice Girls bagged the Number 1 spot for three years running, and then Westlife topped the festive charts in '99. With the exceptions of 'Mad World' and perhaps 'Killing in the Name', the 00's were very much an embarrasment in the the name of music (well, chart music at least). I always thought that 'Mad World' just wasn't happy enough to be a christmas song. As for Rage Against the Machine, well i'll come to that in a moment. Before that can be discussed, there is another more importance influence here. One man came along and murdered popular music, he gave people dreams of arena or even stadium success, only to be found in the bargain bucket at tesco six months later, next to the CD cases of Chas & Dave and copies of 'Now That's What I Call Music [whatever]'. I am, of course, talking about Simon Cowell of Sony records. He has monopolised the charts and killed songs that you once knew and loved.
The significance of the talent show is slowly fading away. It has been rumoured that this years X Factor will be the last series of the show, but even if it does go, it will only be replaced with the same talent show format, under a different name. In 2009, a facebook campaign was started and succeeded in getting Rage Against the Machine the Christmas #1 in the UK, beating the X Factor's 'The Climb' by several thousand copies. Don't celebrate too soon though - what seemed like a minor victory for recording artists, was actually relatively meaningless. The campaign was to stop Simon Cowell (and Sony) getting their hands on the number one, so we obviously succeeded when Rage Against the Machine (and Sony) beat them. Last year, despite several attempts at the number from various groups including Cage Against the Machine and 'Surfin Bird' (which was featured in a certain animated series), the X Factor's Matt Cardle still got the #1. The fact that I had to look up the name of the winner says it all really. Nobody really knows what the christmas number 1 will be this year, but the fact that there are no major competitors means it will probably be another hit for the Simon Cowell Factor. No matter what song achieves the Christmas Number 1, it won't prove anything. If I were to ask you what was number one last week, odds are that you won't know, and that is exactly my point, no one cares about the UK Singles Chart, be that at Christmas or any other time of the year.
Words: Zach Roddis
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