Chartjackers

Chartjackers
The word "chartjackers" written in a black, bold font within a large, cyan speech bubble against a bright yellow background.
Genre
Developed byAndy Mettam
Starring
Narrated byMistaJam
Opening theme"Put 'Em Under Pressure" by Republic of Ireland Football Squad
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes11 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerJonathan Davenport
ProducerAdam King
EditorWill Hodgson
Camera setupSingle-camera
Running time
  • 10× 5 minutes
  • 1× 30 minutes
Production companyHat Trick Productions
Original release
NetworkBBC Two
Release12 September (2009-09-12) –
21 November 2009 (2009-11-21)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Chartjackers is a British documentary series, produced by Hat Trick Productions and commissioned by BBC Switch. It documents the lives of four teenage video bloggers over the course of ten weeks, as they attempt to write, record and release a pop song for charity, with the goal to "sell an estimated 25,000 singles to achieve their dream of a number one single".[1] It premiered in the UK on 12 September 2009 on BBC Two, and ran for a single series of eleven weekly episodes. When first broadcast, the programme ran in real time: its first ten episodes documented the events of the previous seven days, while the final episode was an extended compilation that summarised all ten weeks.

The Chartjackers single was written entirely through crowdsourcing, with the song's title, lyrics, melody, singers, band, production, cover art and music video all being solicited from the global online community. The crowdsourcing took the format of the four bloggers—Alex Day, Johnny Haggart, Jimmy Hill and Charlie McDonnell—posting videos to a dedicated YouTube channel named ChartJackersProject, where they invited viewers to suggest various ideas for the final song. After receiving advice from industry experts such as Charlie Simpson and David and Carrie Grant, the completed Chartjackers single, entitled "I've Got Nothing", was released through the iTunes Store at the end of the ten-week period on 9 November. The track received mainly negative reviews from music critics and sold approximately 8,400 copies in the UK, earning it a peak position of number 36 on the UK Singles Chart.

Chartjackers garnered a viewing figures peak of almost half a million with its final episode and was critically panned by reviewers. Some commentators felt that the programme's concept was ridiculous and doomed from the start, others felt that the series showed a contempt for music and the general public, and other critics questioned whether the point of the project was to raise money for charity or for the four bloggers to promote themselves.[2][3][4] The show was nominated for a 2010 Broadcast Digital Award in the Best Multi-Platform Project category, but lost out to The Operation...Surgery Live.

  1. ^ "Episode 1". London: BBC Programmes. 12 September 2009. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference YouTube if you want to be a star was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Radio 1's Chart Blog was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Stephen Byrne was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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