The Climb
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Artist:
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Joe McEldry - Myley Cyrus
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Genre:
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Pop
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Decade:
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2000 - Present
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Title:
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The Climb
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Author:
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Kevin
Bennett
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Rage Against the Xmas Factor Spoiler CampaignIt’s December 2009: Joe McEldry has won the X factor and has released his single “The Climb” – hit earlier in the year for Miley Cyrus (AKA Hannah Montana). There’s a public backlash, and a Facebook group is set up to encourage people to buy an aged Nu Metal track by the wonderfully named Rage Against the Machine as a protest against Simon Cowell and his music industry dominance. This year I did something I thought I’d never do: I watched the X Factor. I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have volunteered to sit down to see it, but my kids were watching the auditions and it was a hoot. Later in the series, I realised that there was actually a pool of talent that was getting the opportunity to ‘get noticed’. I enjoyed it, and wished that in my hey-day as a wannabe rock star, someone had given me the opportunity to shine – as it happens, I would have barely achieved a dull lustre, but that’s not the point. Joe McEldry did shine: he has a great voice and comes across as a nice guy with a balanced outlook on his success. I gather the real reasons for the protest is that many people think they are taking a stand against the powerful impresarios of the industry giants, a bit like the anti-globalisation protesters make a stand against mega-corps. Also, there is a feeling that X Factor winners are not real musicians, because they were a) Winners of a talent show, and b) They don’t write their own material. Cobblers to those arguments! Firsly, what machine are people raging against? Could it be the SONY machine they are probably listening to? Or the SONY corporation, owners of the EPIC record label to which RATM are signed? Do these people honestly think that RATM would still exist if the machine didn’t allow them to? RATM are money spinners, like all other successful bands. Maybe they should now be called Rage Within the Machine. Next, if we write-off the winners as frauds, "’cos they don’t write their own songs, MAAAN", what do we do with all those other singers who don’t write? What about the Motown era – if ever there was a machine operating behind the scenes, there it was: a pool of writers cynically turning out songs for a pool of singers. Barbara Streisand, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Dione Warwick and Luciano Paverotti are/were all great singers, but when did they ever compose a song, eh? Are they frauds? No: they’re singers. Without them there would be many unemployed song-writers who have no interest or no ability in singing. So get real, people, the music industry is just that – an industry. It’s there to make money. I’m not saying you should all but Joe’s record, but you shouldn’t all buy RATM just to stop him having a Christmas number 1! PS - I much prefer Miley Cyrus's version to Joe's - hence the choice of video. ========================== [EDIT - several hours after original post: I linked to this brick from a group blog that I sometimes post onto. There is an interesting conversation taking place there about the X Factor/Cowell logistics of recording warfare. See http://blog.verulamwriterscircle.org.uk/?p=696#comments - you may need to copy and paste the link into your browser address bar to access it.]
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