Yesterday the UK version of X Factor came to an end, with the victory of Matt Cardle. Well, big deal.

This morning my attention was brought to the fact that he will release a single for Christmas, which is destined to reach the top of the UK single’s chart, like in the past years. Even bigger deal. Well no, I’m joking.

The *problem* is that this single is a cover, Many of Horror, called When We Collide in this specific occasion. The original song is by Scottish trio Biffy Clyro, one of my favourite bands (see these stats). Reason to be happy right? Wrong.

What I terribly fear is that this event somehow sets them in the olympus of mainstream music - pop music. I’m glad for them and for their success, but I worry that their music will change - will have to change - to suit the new commercial standards.

I used to get excited when a song from one of my favourite bands was used in a commercial, video game, or any other way that recognised its greatness, but I’m not happy anymore because too many times that was a scary signal of the band becoming *too* popular and their music less memorable.

Clear examples of that:

• Lostprophets: the last album is pure pop with lots of easy to remember melodies and no character. Liberation Transmission set the ground for it
• My Chemical Romance: wow, the new album is the perfect pop example. Since ‘emo’ is cool they came up with super easy melodies, those you remember after the first listen, and lots of na na na - oh oh oh - la la la.

There are many more examples, but my lunch break is over and I have to go back to work :)

I feared that Muse were also going down this perverse mainstream = shabby music route, but luckily they haven’t let me down yet, probably because they are a one of a kind band and they’re very jealous of retaining ownership of their music. That being said, The Resistance is their less memorable album so far, in my opinion. But the fact that it’s not commercial (except for the obscene Undisclosed Desires) is a good reassurance.

So in the end, long life to my favourite bands, hoping that they’ll stay small and great rather than big and shallow.