I'm a bit sick of these campaigns and this year there's likely to be so many out there that the chart will either be littered with confusing new entries or none of them will chart at all.

 

I'll back pretty much anything over X-Factor, it is a multi-million pound 'campaign' to get an old song to number one after all in itself. But I'd far rather they moved the X-Factor final back one week so they can release it the week after the Christmas chart. It'd also let them put the final on TV on Christmas Day and grab huge ratings.

 

As for backing campaigns - just do what you always did, buy songs you like.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11909886

 

Stars stay silent in X Factor protest

By Ian Youngs Entertainment reporter, BBC News

 

 

An anti-X Factor "supergroup" has recorded its entry in the race for this year's Christmas number one - the sound of silence.

 

Madness star Suggs and dance acts Orbital and Pendulum were among those who did nothing in a recording studio.

 

They were recreating composer John Cage's experimental work 4'33" - the sound of musicians not playing.

 

They hope to emulate Rage Against the Machine, who beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry to number one last year.

 

Dozens of musicians were present and the campaign - dubbed Cage Against the Machine - currently has 62,000 Facebook fans.

 

Guillemots frontman Fyfe Dangerfield, Unkle's James Lavelle, Scroobius Pip and Dan Le Sac also took part in the unconventional session.

 

They were joined by members of The Kooks and Heaven 17 at Dean Street Studios in London.

 

Paul Epworth, who won the Brit Award for best producer this year, was at the controls to record the four-minute, 33-second "performance".

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine caused a major chart upset last Christmas

 

Xfm DJ Eddy Temple-Morris, who helped organise the event, said: "You could hear the odd click of a camera shutter or a creak.

 

"There were people who were seriously into it, like Matty from The Infadels, who had his guitar and was poised to do a massive power chord, but it just never happened.

 

"There were people swaying, or putting their lighters up in the air, or headbanging and pretending that they could hear some music and really getting into it.

 

"It was an emotional, unusual, quite beautiful thing to have so many people in a room and be silent."

 

Pete Doherty was among those previously named on the line-up who did not turn up.

 

According to Mr Temple-Morris, Billy Bragg participated on speaker phone from his tour bus while singer-songwriter Imogen Heap recorded her part earlier in the day.

 

The single will raise money for five charities, including Calm, a service for young men at risk of suicide, and the British Tinnitus Association.

 

Youth Music, Nordoff Robbins music therapy and Sound & Music, a charity promoting challenging new music and sound art, will also benefit from the proceeds.

 

The song is 5/1 to be Christmas number one, according to bookmaker William Hill.

 

But it is still a relative outsider compared with the eventual X Factor winner, who is 4/7 favourite.

'Cruel' spectacle

 

Temple-Morris said 4'33" was chosen because it was the "most avant garde piece of music ever made".

 

He said he objected to The X Factor because he believes it humiliates contestants who do not make the grade.

 

"It's really cruel, I think, taking people and giving them false hope," he said.

 

The show, he continued, was guilty of "putting them on that stage and basically laughing at them like the village idiot in medieval times".

 

Cage Against the Machine follows the success of another silent "song" that recently made the charts.

 

The Royal British Legion's 2 Minute Silence, released in the form of a silent video featuring Prime Minister David Cameron, actor David Tennant and Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, reached number 20 in November.

When I 1st read about this I was under the impression it was all these artists doing a Simon & Garfunkel cover but the reality is actually quite silly. I'm all for the anti-xfactor number one but not this...

I love the idea of Billy Bragg taking part over the phone :lol:

62,000 followers on fbk isnt enough.rage had 800k did they not?

Around this time last year RATM has like over 200k likers/fans on FB, I think?

 

Seriously, I think this campaign will fail.

 

I don't care if there are like a thousand to take part in this "silence".

Edited December 6, 201014 yr by FM11

Why couldn't the artists involved just give their backing to the original campaign rather than recording a new version which will confuse people as to which version (this or John Cage's) they should be buying, and whilst it's all in aid of charity, it defeats the purpose and will only split sales.

Edited December 7, 201014 yr by Alcohol_Prone

I think someone said there was a problem with the original version being chart-eligible

I wonder what this version will be credited to?

This 'Silence' Campaign is too stupid for words, (or lack of words!).

 

Even if it made No.1 at Christmas, it would simply make the No.2 Hit,

the No.1 Hit. Radio 1 etc. will not play a silent No.1 Single. They will simply

play the No.2 Hit, as the final Single in the Top 40, (etc.), & announce what

is No.1 - and that's it. (And if it were at No.2, they'd play the No.3 Hit, announce

the No.2 Hit, (maybe play a few seconds of it), & then move swiftly on to the

No.1 Hit).

 

It is just pointless.....

 

I think that Simon Cowell is dreadful, but campaigns like this are equally awful.

 

Bruce Forsyth said, 'If Simon Cowell had 100 Love Bites, would 99 of them be self inflicted?'

(No! - All 100 of them would be self inflicted!).

Edited December 7, 201014 yr by zeus555

Radio 1 etc. will not play a silent No.1 Single.

 

I'm sure they would :P They played the entirety of the 2 Minute Silence track which was #20 a few weeks back

That was for charity / rememberance

That was for charity / rememberance

 

So? It's still a silent single.

Completely different reasons behind it though

Completely different reasons behind it though

 

...which makes precisely what difference? :P

That was for charity / rememberance

I'm sure the proceeds to this will go to charity, just as they did with 'Killing in the Name' last year...

...which makes precisely what difference? :P

LOL Bray, they played it during the 2 minute silence... everyone knew that the two-minute silence would occur at that time so they didn't change stations, think there was something wrong with the radio etc. 'cause that was mentioned. However, if you turn on the radio to 4' 33" then you hear nothing, which this time will be unannounced so people will change the station or turn the radio off etc. Also, at the 2 minute silence, no-one would be like WTF because they just think it's the two minute silence, but if they turn on to hear the most avant-garde piece of music ever without there being a solid reason like remembrance then they'll just get laughed at.

Edited December 7, 201014 yr by .::. It's Lewis

 

Is this going to work though, given that the Royal British Legion has already done it.

 

 

Is this going to work though, given that the Royal British Legion has already done it.

 

That only got to #20.

 

I can't see this working anyway.

 

They may as well go to a Farm. Put gags on about 15 Lambs.

Record the silence for 4 minutes, & release it as 'The Silence

Of The Lambs'. (Putting 'Ba Ba Black Sheep' on the 'B' Side,

would make it all even more of a Novelty Hit! As a special treat,

the Lambs can 'Baa' on that one!) :P