PR and the Social Web

It’s one of the joys of the Social Web that people now and then, through social networks, are able to overcome the ambitions of media barons.  It sickened me when Simon Cowell and his acolytes for years dominated the nation’s Christmas music fayre.

I was  foursquare behind the struggle to have Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s climactic masterpiece Hallelujah on the top spot ahead of the X-Factor version, but the public was split and that allowed the Burke cover to prevail.  Last year it was different we were united in our Rage Against the Machine.

This year the crowd may face another split.  The obvious choice is the original Biffy Clyro version of Matt Cardle’s anodyne exhortation of the sanitized and renamed ‘Many of Horror’.  I’m fan of Biffy Clyro (really, I’ve seen them four times including once in Pontypridd), although I’d take ‘Blackened Sky’ or ‘The Vertigo of Bliss’ over ‘Only Revolutions’ every time.

There has also been a groundswell behind Surfin’ Bird by The Trashmen, a slightly grating ditty popularised by Family Guy.   However if we are going to do it again there is a clear front-runner,  John Cage’s 4’33.  Composed in 1952 the musical score instructs the performer(s) not to play the instrument during the entire duration of the piece.

A Facebook page is in place to promote a new recording of 4’33 by Cage Against the Machine which includes Suggs and Imogen Heap amongst others.  Let’s make December 25 a silent night.  Join the group and more importantly, buy the single.

If you’ve had to sit through the X Factor this year I’m sure that you’ll agree; silence is golden.