After the success of the Christmas No.1, Rage Against the Machine, anti-X-Factor facebook campaign, a lot of copycat campaigns have sprung up attempting to achieve the same effect, and get specifically unknown music into the charts. The most ambitious of them has got to be ‘Storm The Charts’, which intends to place an indie musician at each slot of the UK Top 40. Currently the mainstream charts are devoid of ‘interesting’ music not becuase music fans don’t buy music, but because their tastes are far more varied than those of the people that buy chart music; those who are swayed by the marketing methods of the Big 4, and what’s pumped (pimped) through the TV on a Saturday night. Bringing disparate fans together for high profile campaigns is only a short term ‘statement’ trying to get the attention of the industry and asking them to pay more attention to smaller artists, but it’s hard to see how the major labels can defocus their marketing budgets and make the same kind of impact for a wider range of smaller acts. Nevertheless, it’s something we’d like to see happen, and if enough noise is made, then it might further persuade the industry that the broadening of music consumption that is apparent online should be mirrored in the mainstream. This would have the knock on effect of encouraging them in their efforts to monetise content online, and mean that we’re all more likely to see viable legal alternatives to the file-sharing that’s so widely prevalent, and widely blamed for causing the steep decline in physical sales.

If you’re interested in participating in the campaign, however Quixotic it may seem, you can get more details by clicking onto, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=231943888357 – the main Facebook group, or www.myspace.com/stormthecharts.