Hallelujah?

It really is a wonder that we at Next Goal Wins haven't actually commented on the X Factor at all, in any form whatsoever on this here blog, seeing as both myself and Chris are both completely fascinated by it and spend our Saturday evenings texting one another with a healthy dose of irreverence but with an underlying sense of respect for the sociological phenomenon that Simon Cowell's creation has become.

So whilst Saturday night's losers (the slightly outdated JLS (did you just say "boyband"?) and the physical incarnation of High School Musical himself - Eggnog Quigg) were left to protest later to Holly Willoughby on Xtra Factor with regards to the fact that this wasn't the end, it was the beginning for them, the victor - Alexandra Burke - somewhat touchingly cried her way through her winner's song, her bid for Christmas number 1; a rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

Despite the musical heresy that is the tone-up key-change occurring within Burke's version, it has to be said that it is in fact a fairly harmless version of the classic, in the respect that its not hideously bad. I wouldn't choose to listen to it, but if it came on the radio, I probably wouldn't change stations. And you can say what you want about the concept of the X Factor, but you can't deny the fact that actually Alexandra Burke has a stunning voice.

Which is just one of the reasons why it infuriates me slightly that I've been invited six times on facebook, today alone, to the group "Jeff Buckley for Xmas no 1!"

Now, whilst Jeff Buckley is of course an important figure in the history of 90's popular(ish) music, and whilst the thought of anything toppling the monopoly that the X Factor have had on the Christmas number one spot since Shayne Ward's 2005 effort "That's My Goal" is a pleasant one, its safe to say that nothing can stop the Cowell-juggernaut this Christmas...Alexandra has already shifted 80,000 digital units, and its not even Tuesday yet.

So the facebook group does beg the question, why bother? You're not going to beat Alexandra, and let's face it nothing incredibly important, or good, has been bore of a movement started on a facebook group. Just a host of stupid people getting tattoos of crap, or ruining their children's lives by naming them after fictional characters purely because there are X amount of strangers who have the technological ability to click on a small blue box that says "Confirm" on it. People who start facebook groups of this nature are either utter idiots, or worse still, understand the idiotic nature of such a venture but still think it will be funny.

You will not change the world with a facebook group. So stop trying, and go outside.

But this isn't my biggest issue with the campaign to get Buckley to number one, no that illustrious honour is given to the sheer fact that this crusade is bore mainly of musical snobbery. And worse still, it's bore of seemingly ill-informed musical snobbery.

It just seems downright mean-spirited to look down upon the perceived musical peasantry, those who like or appreciate pop music (which ostensibly is some sort of crime), or who were simply thankful for the chance to sit down in front of the T.V and relax with their family on a Saturday night, and as such will listen to Alexandra's version; this mean-spirit is all the more accentuated when we realise that actually at the very heart of the "Jeff Factor" drive, is the simple fact that some music snobs can't handle the fact that Alexandra has covered a classic song in a differing style to the original. Well, get over yourselves because Jeff Buckley did the exact same thing to the song as Alexandra has done; he covered it.

So where the hell is the "Get Leonard Cohen to Christmas number 1!" facebook group? And what about the "Let's get any one of the estimated 170 other cover versions of Hallelujah, including versions by little known artists such as Bob Dylan, KD Lang, Rufus Wainwright and John Cale to Christmas number one baby yeah!"

Nowhere, because Jeff Buckley wrote the song, right? Idiots.

So please in future, before starting facebook-centric campaigns to get certain songs to number one in the charts, read up on your popular music history and realise how silly you sound to everybody else.

And then stop creating the facebook group.
And.
Go.
Outside.


Gareth!