Way back in 2006, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker eliminated any doubt as to his feelings of the global political climate with the release of his song C*nts Are Still Running The World.
Now, with 2020 on our doorstep, the song feels more relevant than ever. The United Kingdom has overwhelmingly voted in an ultra-conservative government whose campaign played largely on the population’s weariness of the political battles the Tories themselves had started. Across the Atlantic, there is a President of the United States who is about to face impeachment charges for using his powerful and trusted office to benefit his personal political campaigns, and whose popularity appears to be unimpeded as a result. And in Australia, we have a Prime Minister who despite representing an electorate in a city that last week had record-breakingly poor air quality due to unprecedented bushfires which a wide variety of experts explicitly stated were climate-related, is focusing on his anti-gay “religious freedom” bill, and his “ensuring integrity” bill aimed at destroying labour unions and workplace protections.
Those of you with even one vaguely progressive bone in your body are probably getting well acquainted with the feeling of political exacerbation. Well, here’s a cathartic, if a somewhat symbolic activity that might make you feel better: Get Jarvis Cocker’s C*nts Are Still Running The World to number one in the UK this Christmas.
The campaign was started on Facebook by user Darcie Schoenman Molina. At the time of publication, the group has 8,500 members and enthusiasm is growing.
Here’s a few pointers:
If you’re going to buy the single, you’ll need to buy it from a British source. Using iTunes, this means you’ll need a UK credit card. Same with 7 Digital.
If you can’t afford to buy the song for 99p, you can also stream the song via Spotify 100 times. If you are not in the UK, you’ll need a VPN to make it look like you’re streaming from the UK.
For it to count towards next week’s singles chart, you must make your purchase or stream the song before this Thursday, December 19! Put it in your diary!
Wait, what’s a Christmas No. 1?
For decades music fans have looked to the UK Christmas number one single with the excitement of a kid on Christmas morning. Traditionally music sales tend to swell over December and peak the week before Christmas making the number one single over the Christmas period particularly significant.
If you’re looking for inspiration, a similar campaign was successfully waged in 2009 to get Rage Against The Machine’s 1991 single Killing In The Name to the top of the charts. This made them the first band to have a UK number one single from downloads alone, as well as making that song the most downloaded song in a single week in UK history.
Check out the song here:
…but keep in mind that watching this does not count towards the UK number one! Get out there and make your vote count!
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