Have you noticed that when it comes to the end of November, you hear the same annual Christmas songs? Wham, Band Aid, the X Factor winners? Why is it no-one brings out a new Christmas song?
We have The X Factor to thank for this. Since 2006 The X Factor winners have topped the charts with their unoriginal covers by adding in a mediocre choir to portray a Christmasy sound. Simon Cowell is the man behind all of this. I’m not saying Simon Cowell is a reptilian from The Illuminati or a brainwashed victim to Scientology, but if there was no statistics or theories would this be a conspiracy?
Christmas songs have been around for centuries. From the 13th century chants to Carol singing at the church in the 1880’s. But the 21st century
has seemed to die down on the festivities as we overplay the Christmas hits from a decade ago. Is Christmas dying? Plagued by our laziness?
The Pogues released ‘Fairytale of New York’ back in 1987 not even reaching the UK singles chart. Since 2005 it has been within the top twenty of the UK chart and rewarded platinum in the UK in 2013. Then in 2015 the song sold 1.18 million copies in the UK alone. You might want to get comfy as I’m just getting started.
Mariah Carey released ‘All I want for Christmas’ in 1994 and over the years has sold over 14 million copies and earned $50 million in royalties in 2013. The song has also peaked at number 2 in the UK chart singles from 1994-2016.With big sales and lots of airplay you’d think producing a Christmas song would be a goldmine, but no-one has done this for the past four years who isn’t a contestant on some reality competition show.
Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, Alexandra Burke, Matt Cardle, Little Mix, Sam Bailey and Ben Haenow have all competed in The X Factor since 2006 and reached number 1 on the week of Christmas. Only being defeated twice over the ten years by Rage Against The Machine and Justice Collection. Regardless that the winning songs are not their original songs, Leona Lewis broke the world record for 50,000 digital downloads in 30 minutes and spent 4 weeks in The UK singles chart. Following a year behind is Leon Jackson ‘When You Believe’ which sold over 400,000 copies, and this is the same for all other X Factor winners who received a 1 million contract with Simon Cowell’s’ ‘Syco Music.’ It’s all in the name.
So why is it that no new Christmas songs are breaking the charts? Some of you would argue it’s a tradition, but we don’t listen to ‘Amazing Grace’ every Easter. Maybe the musicians have become lazy as they know the number 1 spot is saved for Simon Cowell and his winning minion. Or are we denying the fact that Christmas music is dying?
