How The Battle For The Christmas Number One Spot Has Changed

Get to the nineties and things start well with the aforementioned Queen classic winning once again due to a re-release, however succeeding that in 1993 the world said hello to the Mr. Blobby song, followed by East 17 in 1994. The comparison in decades is one that bears no bounds in how catastrophic the downfall in quality is.

But why did the competition change? Well the short answer would be that the invention and introduction of the compact disc was one that changed the nature of how music was bought. By making music much more accessible it was now a fact that the purchase of a Christmas single by and large was now aimed firmly at children, or at young teens/tweens who prior to the '90s were in many regards left out of the charts by the simple nature of the vinyl format being one that a young child couldn't be trusted with. Fast forward to the '80s and the invention of cheaper physical media in tapes through to cd's in the nineties meant that a younger and younger generation now had sway over the charts.

In accordance the game changed drastically, reflected by the vast increase in novelty and manufactured pop records aimed firmly at the demographic now firmly cultivated by 'Smash Hits' magazine. An example of the dominance seen here is exemplified by the fact the Spice Girls succeeded in landing as the victor three times in a row, followed the year after by Bob The Builder. Whilst this change is by no means a bad thing as it exposes a generation to music at a younger age (and let's be honest who didn't like the Spice Girls) it nevertheless has diminished what before was seen as a position of prestige throughout the record industry. The erosion of viability is one created by families purchasing these novelty/manufactured records as presents for the younger members of their family, as opposed to the 30 years prior where they would have bought a record for themselves. 

Now we've passed through the '00s a perhaps more disturbing trend has cropped up in the form of the X Factor putting out what by all means can only be defined as the "disposable pop star". In ten years alone Syco have been responsible for a huge six Christmas number ones, albeit each with a different figure of pop. Out of those, two have disappeared pretty much of the face of the earth - anyone remember Leon Jackson? No thought not. Whilst in the past we've seen decades pretty much dominated by certain big figures and rightly so, the latest developement has seen music evolve like fast food: quickly devoured and just as easily shat out.

Accommodating the reality that the X Factor is squarely aimed at the Christmas number one through its date of closing, alongside the winning acts differing drastically each year, two things become abundantly clear: one that the spot is dominated by an increasingly fickle market and two that the spot is no longer as prestigious as it once was.