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1990 on BBC Four (January 2018)

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JB
JasonB
Mariah Carey was robbed from the Christmas number one slot. Instead we have some nobody singing about sausage rolls again for a third year in a row. Yes, i get it's for "a good cause" blah blah blah but the question is how do these charities survive during the rest of the year? Seems like all you need to do these days to get a Christmas number one is record a song, stick a charities name on it and it rakes in millions for them at Christmas.
Last edited by JasonB on 23 December 2020 10:01am
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BA
Bail Moderator
Mariah Carey was robbed from the Christmas number one slot. Instead we have some nobody singing about sausage rolls again for a third year in a row. Yes, i get it's for "a good cause" blah blah blah but the question is how do these charities survive during the of the year? Seems like all you need to do these days to get a Christmas number one is record a song, stick a charities name on it and it rakes in millions for them at Christmas.

What single part of that is a bad thing? Millions for Charity at Christmas, yup I'm ok with that.

Charities have universally suffered this year with lack of funds raised this year with the pandemic. I'd much prefer (and have) given my 99p to Sausage Rolls for charity than give some singer who wants another mansion to rerelease their song for another £1 million. Let Mariah give her profits to charity and she'd be number 1 if she cared about that.

Oh, I'm off topic? Ok I'll warn myself Smile
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JB
JasonB
Bail posted:
Mariah Carey was robbed from the Christmas number one slot. Instead we have some nobody singing about sausage rolls again for a third year in a row. Yes, i get it's for "a good cause" blah blah blah but the question is how do these charities survive during the of the year? Seems like all you need to do these days to get a Christmas number one is record a song, stick a charities name on it and it rakes in millions for them at Christmas.

What single part of that is a bad thing? Millions for Charity at Christmas, yup I'm ok with that.

Charities have universally suffered this year with lack of funds raised this year with the pandemic. I'd much prefer (and have) given my 99p to Sausage Rolls for charity than give some singer who wants another mansion to rerelease their song for another £1 million. Let Mariah give her profits to charity and she'd be number 1 if she cared about that.

Oh, I'm off topic? Ok I'll warn myself Smile


I'm recording my Christmas parody for next year as we speak. Wink

The Charity thing is ok, i'd rather have a song that doesn't feature Sausage Rolls every now and again.
AN
Andrew Founding member
Despite being for charity it is a bit boring that it’s basically the same gag three years running.

You’ll get Clara and Fearne saying “here is your Christmas number one, Merry Christmas” and then they play a song that I would guess the vast majority of viewers haven’t actually heard before. Does it actually get radio air play?
JB
JasonB
Despite being for charity it is a bit boring that it’s basically the same gag three years running.

You’ll get Clara and Fearne saying “here is your Christmas number one, Merry Christmas” and then they play a song that I would guess the vast majority of viewers haven’t actually heard before. Does it actually get radio air play?


Having looked at the likes of Capital and Heart FM's recently played list there's not a sign of it anywhere.
JO
Joe
I find this quite tedious, to be honest - 'as long as they're doing it for charity, it doesn't matter if the song is awful'. No, it does, that's not an excuse. I think I'm just a bit sick of charity records after this year, and they often play on your emotional vulnerability in order to sell more copies. I just hope he doesn't do 'Sausage Roll With It' or whatever next year, but he probably will. Even the Spice Girls could only manage three Christmas number ones.

And about the whole 'sticking it to the music industry' thing - well, this is just as boring as when all the X Factor winners would get to number one, only the songs are somehow less funny than they were back then.

The entire chart needs a rethink to be honest - streams have pretty much killed it dead, to the point where rules like ACR (Accelerated Chart Ratio, ie. the Sheeran rule) are mandated in order to make it more exciting.

I can completely understand you not enjoying the charity singles themselves (I also don't tend to like them) but I really don't understand in this day and age why you'd object so much to them doing well. You can pull up literally any song you fancy* on Spotify, YouTube, iTunes and others, and not necessarily need to pay for the privilege. You can totally ignore the chart if you fancy.

I've never quite got the way some treat the singles chart as sacred. It is what it is – a way to see what's trending, popular and indeed the opposite. It's really just a bit of fun, ultimately. We all know it's not perfect – especially these days – as a measure of those things, but by and large it does actually reflect what's being talked about and played by people. The chart has never claimed to be a measure of quality, sincerity, musical competence or any of those things. It's just… what people are listening to. If the intention of those people is to support a charity, then great. As others have said, they need that support more than ever.

To reassure you, we are not as far as I know sending a copy of the UK top 40 singles to a distant alien civilisation every week and describing it as 'the best music we have to offer'. On the other hand, it is treated with respect in my view. Give a listen to Scott Mills on Radio 1 each Friday – he clearly cares about the chart and knows about his stuff, but also enjoys it. I think that's probably where the balance should lie.

*not quite literally any
ME
mediachris

Remember too that they're charity songs - raising money for the Trussell Trust. They aren't taking it that seriously, the songs are silly and not that great and they know that, but they raise a heck of lot of money and awareness. A lot of it is the 'sucking it to the music industry' thing too. What's surprising is how they've managed to do it 3 times in a row.

I find this quite tedious, to be honest - 'as long as they're doing it for charity, it doesn't matter if the song is awful'. No, it does, that's not an excuse. I think I'm just a bit sick of charity records after this year, and they often play on your emotional vulnerability in order to sell more copies. I just hope he doesn't do 'Sausage Roll With It' or whatever next year, but he probably will. Even the Spice Girls could only manage three Christmas number ones.

And about the whole 'sticking it to the music industry' thing - well, this is just as boring as when all the X Factor winners would get to number one, only the songs are somehow less funny than they were back then.

The entire chart needs a rethink to be honest - streams have pretty much killed it dead, to the point where rules like ACR (Accelerated Chart Ratio, ie. the Sheeran rule) are mandated in order to make it more exciting.

I have to agree with your comments about LadBaby and the charts. I find it tedious that they're pretty much guaranteed the Christmas Number 1 again this year.

I have streamed the song once as I actually hadn't heard it - it's good enough and catchy enough. However, my opinion on LB is this. They make enough money from their videos on YouTube and Facebook, brand endorsements etc - they should've saved the bother of recording a song and just donated a lump sum of their earnings (or sausage rolls) to the charity instead. This is just PR for them as usual whether they're genuine or not.
MA
Markymark

Remember too that they're charity songs - raising money for the Trussell Trust. They aren't taking it that seriously, the songs are silly and not that great and they know that, but they raise a heck of lot of money and awareness. A lot of it is the 'sucking it to the music industry' thing too. What's surprising is how they've managed to do it 3 times in a row.

I find this quite tedious, to be honest - 'as long as they're doing it for charity, it doesn't matter if the song is awful'. No, it does, that's not an excuse. I think I'm just a bit sick of charity records after this year, and they often play on your emotional vulnerability in order to sell more copies. I just hope he doesn't do 'Sausage Roll With It' or whatever next year, but he probably will. Even the Spice Girls could only manage three Christmas number ones.

And about the whole 'sticking it to the music industry' thing - well, this is just as boring as when all the X Factor winners would get to number one, only the songs are somehow less funny than they were back then.

The entire chart needs a rethink to be honest - streams have pretty much killed it dead, to the point where rules like ACR (Accelerated Chart Ratio, ie. the Sheeran rule) are mandated in order to make it more exciting.

I have to agree with your comments about LadBaby and the charts. I find it tedious that they're pretty much guaranteed the Christmas Number 1 again this year.

I have streamed the song once as I actually hadn't heard it - it's good enough and catchy enough..


I've just streamed both the songs, BJIAFC is the really catchy one. Anyway, glad to see satire isn't quite dead.
SO
Soupnzi
Yep credit to them for raising charity cash etc etc etc, but- musically- it’s completely devoid of any wit whatsoever...and the sausage roll joke expired about two years ago. I find this dismal couple’s 3 year assault on the charts more dispiriting than anything in the Cowell area.
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BU
buster
Coming back to the Christmas chart and if they do the full top 10 then there is a problematic track at no 8 in the current midweek chart. Even heavily censored, title isn’t exactly family friendly.

https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart-update/


Amusingly the title on iTunes is censored (well, the c-word anyway) but the graphic of the artwork has it in its full uncensored glory. The Official Charts website have noticed that as it's been replaced by a generic graphic of an up/down arrow.
JA
JAS84
That's the logo of the charts company.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Mariah Carey was robbed from the Christmas number one slot. Instead we have some nobody singing about sausage rolls again for a third year in a row.


Your complaint is that something new and at least partially original has got number 1 ahead of a 26 year old re-entry that wasn't good enough to get number 1 the first time around?

I mean if you want to argue about Mr Blobby beating Take That a year before (with no charity benefit IIRC) then you might have a point.

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