Could Joe McElderry have beat Rage Against The Machine if it wasn’t snowing?
Industry insiders have claimed that X Factor’s Joe McElderry may have won today’s chart battle against Rage Against The Machine, if it hadn’t been snowing.
Rage Against The Machine scooped the coveted Christmas number one after they sold 502,000 copies of their single ‘Killing In The Name Of’ whilst X Factor winner Joe McElderry only sold 450,000 copies of his single ‘The Climb.
However Gennaro Castaldo of HMV said: “Our snowy and adverse weather conditions definitely played a part in Joe’s loss.
“He was expected to get a lot of sales from people physically buying his single – but many stayed home because it was so chilly.
“Meanwhile, the majority of Rage Against The Machine’s sales were by download.”
Do you agree? Leave your comments below.
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It’s a shame weather conditions and a nasty campaign has to come inbetween his dreams
In my eye, Joe is always going to be no. 1
And let’s just give RATM their one hit wonder
Joe will have loads more no.1 singles
Lol @ Luke
. It’s so true as well, RATM are a huge influence in modern rock, have had massively successful albums. Leona Lewis and Alex Burke are both recent, and props to them at the moment, but Leon Jackson? Haven’t heard from him in a while… And Shayne Ward, I don’t even know anything he sings. Can’t remember who the second one was, don’t really care..
ratm one hit wonder? try triple platinum albums.
you make me laugh!
right but aint joe’s single also out on download as well?? and i’m sure it was also available to buy on cd online right?
i think its just a silly excuse. i wanted joe to win the xfactor but i wanted ratm to be no 1 and it was simply down to song choice. ratm had the better song. i hope joe does not become a one hit wonder and fade away like some of the xfactor winners.
haha im with you Luke.. what the hell no one does their research into other bands do they?
Come on seriously, its too cold outside!! What an excuse.
Look everyone knows the facts.. 19 million people watched Joe win the x factor. only 450k bothered to buy his “cover” of a Disney Miley Cyrus song.
Not everyone is into him, just like RATM isn’t everyones
cup of tea either.
All i can say is, Joe do something different artistically and maybe we will remember you in 2 years. Unlike poor Steve Brookstien and Leon Jackson, who got dumped by Sony.
Rage still has a strong influence after 20 years, and hopefully will do in another 20 years.
Theres followers and then theres leaders. Would u put $ down that this kid will be musically relevant in 20yrs like ratm? Not a chance. Nice to know theres still people out there who support originality over a nice voice.
I continue to read people saying 6 million votes were cast for Joe as “proof” of his popularity. Those 6 million votes at 35p a piece translates to 2.1 million pounds spent on that night. If the same amount was spent on Joe’s 99p single at iTunes (to use one store as an example), then he should have sold slightly more than 2.12 million, as opposed to the 450k sold on download and physical sales combined.
That leads me to believe that Joe’s popularity is vastly overstated, as multiple voting probably inflated the 6 million figure. Multiple downloads are curtailed for the charts which make it a better guage of true musical popularity.
Before vilifying those who participated in the effort to grab back our Christmas Number One, perhaps the overly aggressive Joe fans on this forum (I have no problems with the rational ones) should look in the mirror first when looking for someone to blame.
Then again if Mc Elderry was a real singer????
actually hmv were plugging ratm rather than joe and i bought the single
suck it
as much as i love joe blaming a lower numer of singles being sold on the weather is rediculous. i went out and bought his single on saturday even though it was rather ‘chilli’. anyway i just want to say i love joe! but fair play to RATM.
Come on! Thats absurd! I didn’t buy either of the singles but even I can see what a lie the above comment is! Joes single is downloadable – if they really wanted it that bad they would have downloaded it! Also, again, if they wanted it that bad they would have walked down to a shop and brought it…loads of people are doing their christmas shopping at the moment…how hard is it to pick up a copy at hmv? lets face it, he lost! end of!
i meant the blog article, not the comment above! oops!
what a lame excuse Joe fans i bought it a few times for all it was snowing and its much colder up here than the south so that’s just a lie like when most ppl who voted for Joe thought oh we voted for him to win but we don,t want him to get to number 1 that’s why some ppl didn,t buy it yet they voted for him to win that’s what i don,t get like cos even if just half of them bought then he would be number 1 but instead we have RATM as our Xmas number 1 so all you that moan about should of just went out and bought Joe song instead but yers never you turn coat fans that you are
Here we go trolling again! But this time you’re not so outraged about the RATM fans, you’re pissed at the so-called ‘Joe fans’ who didn’t bother to go out and buy his record.
Come on man! This should tell you that your radar for what works in pop music is WAY OFF!
You’ve been bawling me out on this site for over a week, but I backed the winner and you didn’t! The failure here was not Joe’s, but of his management for picking a sub-standard, cliche of a song to launch as his debut single. And seriously, I cringe to think of how much the RATM campaign encouraged more people to go out and buy the single.
Be honest – you bought extra copies of Joe’s single to ‘fight back’ against RATM. How many other people did that and he still didn’t win!!! I’m not gloating. OK, maybe I am a little. But I could have told you about how X Factor contestants are overrated. Good on X Factor does not equal good in the real world.
I will certainly not be listening to RATM it is absolutely awful, it isnt a song it is a shouting match and it was not a fair contest between Joe McKelderry and RATM because honest and decent people actually took the time to go and buy Joe’s CD The Climb, not downloading it from the internet, Joe deserved the number 1 xmas spot he worked hard for it and a few thousand people who went bonkers have stopped a decent lad getting what he deserved.
@Audrey Johnson- what a ridiculous thing to say.
You’re saying that RATM’s victory wasn’t fair on Joe- but let’s be clear on a few things. Joe’s single was not just for sale as a CD, but also available for download as well- and for a very cheap price of 29p as well might I add. If anything, RATM were disadvantageD because there were less ways to buy their song.
You say that the lad deserved to be Christmas number 1- I disagree with you. All he did was sing a cover of a mediocre song. He didn’t pick any of the lyrics, or the music…he didn’t even get to pick what the cover was! Little effort went into that song. However, he worked hard to win the X Factor and because he did he won a recording contract. That’s what he deserved.
Christmas number 1’s are for things which are unique, special and classics. The RATM song, and it’s campaign fitted all of the 3 above. ‘The Climb’ didn’t.
to be fair joe didnt pick the song.. he has to sing it, its in his contract. RATM re-released a song… a song they did b4. soo use your brain. they could have made a new song.. but they didnt. so any1 that says joe only sang and old song.. look at the,borin un-christmasy RATM. Diffrence is.. joe never sang it b4
go Joee., dont give up
tbh ratm didnt
tbh ratm didnt re-release that song. it was already available to dl. cos it was dl’d so many times it got to no 1. ppl should really get their facts straight xD merry christmas all xxx
RATM did not “re-release” the song. They had no part in the campaign, other than doing a single live playing in which they controversially kept in the swears, and deciding to give the profits made to charity.
Also, the song Killing in the Name was chosen due to it’s content about rebelling against the system (the system that was, in this case, the xfactor’s hold on the charts), rather than it’s Christmas appeal. May I also add that The Climb, a song about the somewhat cliché journey of life also has next to nothing to do with Christmas.
my comment is for arrogant Gerald McGarry (the above commenter). just leave joe alone, he’s an amazing singer and is just trying to have a career in singing so get off his back and stop critising, let him do what he wants to do with his life! why is everyone so cruel about him he did not start the chart battle againt RATM, some pathetic person on facebook did. he is just a really nice guy with a brilliant voice and a passion for singing people should be looking up to him if anything!
I’m arrogant? No, just opinionated. And I actually like Joe, I just don’t think he’ll be an amazing pop star. If Simon Cowell’s record label follow the same routine they’ve done for other male X Factor winners, then Joe’s musical career is in deep trouble already.
And I don’t have a lot of faith – look at Leon Jackson and Steve Brookstein (who I’ve spoken to) – they could tell you some horror stories about being the winner of X Factor. While you guys are high believing the hype that came from the X Factor, I’ve learned to wait and see how that translates into actual record sales next year. I suggest you listen to Joes version of Don’t Stop Believin’ and the Glee version back to back. You’ll see what I mean.
Gerard does have a point.. the male winners have not had much success, so i’m not hoping too much. joe is a sweet guy but i dont think he will have the success people hope he will have. but i hope i’m proved wrong. if he does then congrats to him. but i still think ratm has as much rights to be no 1 whether it was by chance or not.
that is one of the stupidest reasons ever ‘because of the snow’ if they really wanted joes cd they would have downloaded it like they did with rage against the machine.. they are only tryin to cover up that joe didnt get number 1 and i dont blame people for not buying that cd joe is an amazing singer but that was a bad song for him (in my opinion olly sang it better)..x
Joe didnt win number one spot because the song was crap they should of stuck to don’t stop believein rather than crappy cyrus’s the climb
i totally agree with the above commenter, i couldn’t of said it better myself
Mines with the French fries Mc Elderry.