Green Day fans launch campaign to get 'American Idiot' to No.1 for Donald Trump’s UK visit

[Second favourite son]

31 minutes ago, neverdone2000 said:

What’s the chart status of the song as of now? I keep seeing different things.

Officially, hard to tell - the last update was on Tuesday, and the next will be the final announcement.

2 minutes ago, Christian's Inferno! said:

Well England lost. So that looks good for American Idiot getting to No. 1

Still doubt it’ll overturn Three Lions this late on

[Montclare]

Only time in my life I ever paid attention to a soccer score.

[emenius]

http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/green-days-american-idiot-continues-to-climb-this-weeks-official-singles-chart-ahead-of-president-trumps-uk-visit__23358/

Official chart update today and unfortunately it’s only at number 20 at the moment. Surprising given how well it appears to be doing on iTunes/Amazon/Google Play, but I guess streaming must have a much bigger influence on chart placings these days. Sad.

[Hermione]

It's done much better than I expected for a relatively small campaign. I think just the fact it's been reported in the press as re-entering the charts means it did its job, obviously actually getting to number one would be even better but the point has still been successfully made.

[tomdsjames]

1 hour ago, Hermione said:

It's done much better than I expected for a relatively small campaign. I think just the fact it's been reported in the press as re-entering the charts means it did its job, obviously actually getting to number one would be even better but the point has still been successfully made.

The Official Charts are somewhat surprised it’s managed to hold onto the Top 20 considering it’s impacted by ACR (new rule that came in last year for any track that’s already had 10 weeks in the chart, the streaming ratio is increased from 150:1 to 300:1 meaning the song requires 300 streams to count as a sale.)

[jengd]

My iTunes account says it's still no 3, I notice plays are up fair bit on YouTube, wish I'd noted the number at the beginning of the week but I think it's almost 500,000 up.  Not just me playing is 20 times a day then!

 

[Billie Joes Eyelids]

8 hours ago, Hermione said:

It's done much better than I expected for a relatively small campaign. I think just the fact it's been reported in the press as re-entering the charts means it did its job, obviously actually getting to number one would be even better but the point has still been successfully made.

I totally agree. People on social media keep saying it’s “number 1” or “climbing the charts”, and headlines say the same. So the point is being made and the song/band are getting loads of attention no matter where it ends up. 

[Second favourite son]

Trump’s landed, with less than 9 hours now left until this week’s sales period closes - last chance to get buying those live/deluxe/other live/not deluxe versions of AI from your favourite retailer, then from all the other retailers, then ignoring the fact that you’ve just bought them all and streaming it on ethically questionable services like Spotify and YouTube (other services which leave small independent musicians out of pocket are also available).  Yay!

[Beerjeezus]

I may be tempted to moan about meaningless activism but you know what? This is in fact pretty funny and I hope it works out.

[Billie Hoe]

10 minutes ago, Jane Lannister said:

I may be tempted to moan about meaningless activism but you know what? This is in fact pretty funny and I hope it works out.

^ This.

It's super pointless but it's also incredibly petty and creative as well which is why I love it so much lol... It's nothing more than a big "go fuck yourself" to Trump meant to do nothing but piss him off a little, and when you manage to do that, I salute you. 

In Billie's words: "I hope you hear the guitar solo to American Idiot in your dreams while you sleep with your big mac you gutless turd."  

I do hope that Green Day pick up on it and donate the money they get through this to a charity  

[Beerjeezus]

1 minute ago, Billie Hoe said:

^ This.

It's super pointless but it's also incredibly petty and creative as well which is why I love it so much lol... It's nothing more than a big "go fuck yourself" to Trump meant to do nothing but piss him off a little, and when you manage to do that, I salute you. 

I do hope that Green Day pick up on it and donate the money they get through this to a charity  

Haha yeah. It's petty but funny

Agreed! It would be really cool if the money went to an anti-Trump cause

[pacejunkie punk]

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/britain-greets-donald-trump-with-green-day-american-idiot

^^^ Nice plug. Also quote:

“The band’s vocalist and lyricist, Billie Joe Armstrong, sings in a burly, nasal voice that’s often tinged with a deep longing.”

😍

 

[pouty bitch]

Just realised that various versions of AI are at numbers 1, 2, 6, and 19 on Amazon. We're still at numbers 1 and 25 on Google Play, and 3 and 24 on iTunes. This looks promising. I don't think we'll get number one, but considering that this time last week I didn't think we'd get anywhere near the top 40, I'll be happy whatever happens. With that said, we only have 15 minutes left and I'm currently watching/streaming AI back-to-back on multiple different devices.

[Second favourite son]

I've had the YouTube video on loop at 2x speed, and for some reason the loop stopped.  So I switched tabs to reset it and came across Billie running at 2,896,345 mph after the car in the Holiday video  

3 hours ago, Jane Lannister said:

Agreed! It would be really cool if the money went to an anti-Trump cause

Not even necessarily an anti-Trump cause, but one that aims to fund social projects/tackle issues that his policies neglect.  I'd rather see a charity work to make real change on the ground rather than simply oppose a politician (not that that couldn't be useful too).

[pouty bitch]

And now, we wait...

[Beerjeezus]

11 minutes ago, Second favourite son said:

I've had the YouTube video on loop at 2x speed, and for some reason the loop stopped.  So I switched tabs to reset it and came across Billie running at 2,896,345 mph after the car in the Holiday video  

Not even necessarily an anti-Trump cause, but one that aims to fund social projects/tackle issues that his policies neglect.  I'd rather see a charity work to make real change on the ground rather than simply oppose a politician (not that that couldn't be useful too).

That had to be quite a sight

Yes, I agree 100%. Proceeds from the last Longshot show are going to help undocumented children at Mexican border which I think is a good cause and it would be nice if they chose something similar for this.

[Second favourite son]

For anyone wondering, charts will be announced in full here at 17:45 UK time, or you can listen to Scott Mills on BBC Radio 1 running through the whole Top 40 from 16:00-17:45 on their player here.

1 minute ago, Jane Lannister said:

Yes, I agree 100%. Proceeds from the last Longshot show are going to help undocumented children at Mexican border which I think is a good cause and it would be nice if they chose something similar for this.

Yeah, something like that or the project that Turn It Around is donating to would be awesome!

[pacejunkie punk]

Sarah posted an instastory saying it was no. 1 in the UK. Is it?

[pouty bitch]

7 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

Sarah posted an instastory saying it was no. 1 in the UK. Is it?

We won't know until tomorrow. I'm assuming she's seen a headline and misinterpreted it or something.

[gaslight13]

So what time on Friday does Billboard update the charts?

[Second favourite son]

8 hours ago, gaslight13 said:

So what time on Friday does Billboard update the charts?

 

9 hours ago, Second favourite son said:

For anyone wondering, charts will be announced in full here at 17:45 UK time, or you can listen to Scott Mills on BBC Radio 1 running through the whole Top 40 from 16:00-17:45 on their player here.

 

[Second favourite son]

25th - not too shabby!

[pouty bitch]

It's at number 25.

[RedundantIdiot]

Number 25 is decent considering that the campaign didn't have the biggest promotion. Hopefully the sight of Trump in the UK and the sight of AI in the charts might persuade a few people to buy it to keep it in the chart for a week or two 

Update- it was the second most downloaded track of the week according to the official charts http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/green-days-american-idiot-back-in-the-top-40-as-president-trump-visits-uk__23386/

[Second favourite son]

With the way streaming works, the odds of it doing much better - especially in a week with this much football - was slim to say the least.  It takes a ridiculous number of streams for such an old song to even be on the same level as an average new one.