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Hallelujah for idots.
I’m not a fan of reality T.V., karaoke or staying in on a Saturday night. So I’ve never been much of a fan of shows like the X-Factor. To be honest they usually pass me by.
However, this years X Factor winner, Alexandra Burke, sang a version of the song Hallelujah, made famous by dead popstar Jeff Buckley, as her final round entry into the competition. Her warbling of the lyrics seemed to seal the deal and she walked away with a £1million record deal.
Now Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah has been around for ages. I remember people harping on about it when I was stoned in high school. I didn’t think much of it then and I don’t think much of it now. Not that he’s got a bad voice or I don’t like the song, far from it, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. What a lot of people don’t know, or forget, is that it was written by Leonard Cohen, not Buckley. It is essentially a cover version, making it all the more depressing when you realize that this is his best known work. This is Jeff's own final round entry into the pop world.
However it hasn’t stopped shoe-gazing lefties around the world being suddenly united in hatred at the X Factor, at Miss Burke and everything they stood. Like every angry shoe-gazing mob in the world they retreated to their bedrooms and found solace in the internet.
Mass mobilization of indie chat rooms resulted in a plan to overthrow the mighty X Factor! Bring down this heinous cover! Destroy Alexandra Burke!
I received no less than two text messages telling me to download the original Jeff Buckley version.
If we download another 7000 Jeff’s will be at number two in the charts! Read one message.
This is amazing; we have the power to make a difference! Gushed one deluded individual.
The resulting Buckley/Burke battle is split into two camps. The Burka’s are your Saturday night, stay at home, Ant and Dec takeaway mob who probably download ring tones subscribe to Heat. The Buckaroos are self righteous, NME reading individuals who own skinny jeans and harp on about human rights while shopping in Primark.
Now what makes me giggle with glee is that the Buckaroo’s are doing their best to fight the Burka’s by legally downloading copies of Hallelujah just to beat the so called insipid version by this X Factor winner.
Let’s stop and take a minute to think about what is actually going on here:
Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah was written by Leonard Cohen who lost the rights to it a little over two years ago when Sony BMG bumped it for a cool $10.
Sony BMG own the publishing rights.
Burke’s version is licensed to Universal for publishing by Sony BMG.
What we have here is an amazing money printing scam by the majors. And guess what? They’re using iTunes to do it… and you said they were behind in the times.
By stirring the hornet’s nest of, supposedly, opposed music fans the majors have once again shown that they hold all the cards.
Well done to them, I say. They’ve proven beyond reasonable doubt that, as a marketing tool, the X Factor and shows like it work. It creates passion and inspiration in everyone. It insights conversation, reaction and most of all it drives record sales.
It’s not the Burke fans who are the mass media idiots. It’s the shoe-gazing indie morons who have jumped on this hype and filled the coffers of the very thing they think they’re standing against.
The labels don’t care who wins, as long as they do.
Genius.
As for me, selling a cover of a cover by a dead guy by a talent show winner is the epitome of flogging a dead horse.
impressedHowever, this years X Factor winner, Alexandra Burke, sang a version of the song Hallelujah, made famous by dead popstar Jeff Buckley, as her final round entry into the competition. Her warbling of the lyrics seemed to seal the deal and she walked away with a £1million record deal.
Now Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah has been around for ages. I remember people harping on about it when I was stoned in high school. I didn’t think much of it then and I don’t think much of it now. Not that he’s got a bad voice or I don’t like the song, far from it, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. What a lot of people don’t know, or forget, is that it was written by Leonard Cohen, not Buckley. It is essentially a cover version, making it all the more depressing when you realize that this is his best known work. This is Jeff's own final round entry into the pop world.
However it hasn’t stopped shoe-gazing lefties around the world being suddenly united in hatred at the X Factor, at Miss Burke and everything they stood. Like every angry shoe-gazing mob in the world they retreated to their bedrooms and found solace in the internet.
Mass mobilization of indie chat rooms resulted in a plan to overthrow the mighty X Factor! Bring down this heinous cover! Destroy Alexandra Burke!
I received no less than two text messages telling me to download the original Jeff Buckley version.
If we download another 7000 Jeff’s will be at number two in the charts! Read one message.
This is amazing; we have the power to make a difference! Gushed one deluded individual.
The resulting Buckley/Burke battle is split into two camps. The Burka’s are your Saturday night, stay at home, Ant and Dec takeaway mob who probably download ring tones subscribe to Heat. The Buckaroos are self righteous, NME reading individuals who own skinny jeans and harp on about human rights while shopping in Primark.
Now what makes me giggle with glee is that the Buckaroo’s are doing their best to fight the Burka’s by legally downloading copies of Hallelujah just to beat the so called insipid version by this X Factor winner.
Let’s stop and take a minute to think about what is actually going on here:
Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah was written by Leonard Cohen who lost the rights to it a little over two years ago when Sony BMG bumped it for a cool $10.
Sony BMG own the publishing rights.
Burke’s version is licensed to Universal for publishing by Sony BMG.
What we have here is an amazing money printing scam by the majors. And guess what? They’re using iTunes to do it… and you said they were behind in the times.
By stirring the hornet’s nest of, supposedly, opposed music fans the majors have once again shown that they hold all the cards.
Well done to them, I say. They’ve proven beyond reasonable doubt that, as a marketing tool, the X Factor and shows like it work. It creates passion and inspiration in everyone. It insights conversation, reaction and most of all it drives record sales.
It’s not the Burke fans who are the mass media idiots. It’s the shoe-gazing indie morons who have jumped on this hype and filled the coffers of the very thing they think they’re standing against.
The labels don’t care who wins, as long as they do.
Genius.
As for me, selling a cover of a cover by a dead guy by a talent show winner is the epitome of flogging a dead horse.