For reasons I would need a large academic grant and three or four years to fully explain, my homeland of Britain is absolutely obsessed with the question of who is going to have the No. 1 single at Christmas. In recent times, however, this has become something of a one-horse race, with the lucrative honor going to whoever wins the hugely popular, Simon Cowell-adjudged X Factor reality show. Then, earlier this year, some impish, Cowell-hating types began a Facebook campaign to get Rage Against the Machine’s awesome, and awesomely foul-mouthed, 1992 single “Killing in the Name” topping the charts instead.
Last week, Simon Cowell described the campaign as “stupid.” But over the past few days the battle has gotten a lot hotter. On Sunday, an 18-year-old named Joe McElderry won this year’s X Factor and yesterday he released his Christmas single, a version of the Miley Cyrus single “The Climb.” Then, this morning, RATM appeared on BBC Radio Five Live. Guitarist Tom Morello described the effort to get them to number one as, “a real, completely grassroots campaign, started by real fans of music.” Meanwhile, another band member (frontman Zack de la Rocha, I’m 99.9 percent certain) described Simon Cowell as someone who “seems to have profited greatly off humiliating people on live television.”
The band then proceeded to play a version of “Killing in the Name” that included a flurry of F-bombs, to the obvious horror of the BBC presenters who yanked the performance and made clear they had told the band to keep matters radio-friendly (though, as the main offending lyric is, of course, “F— you, I won’t do what you tell me,” you would have thought the DJs might have seen this turn of events coming). You can hear the whole shebang below. Meanwhile, it seems the chart race itself remains extremely close.
What do you think about all this? Would you consider buying “Killing in the Name” or even buying it again, just to tick off Simon Cowell (and to help the homeless charity Shelter, which is benefiting from sales of the track)? Feel free to compare and contrast the respective singles by RATM and McElderry and send me your report. Maybe I’ll get that academic grant yet!
(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)
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Photo credit: Rage: Lucia Graca/Camera Press/Retna; Cowell: Steve Finn/Capital Pictures/Retna
HELL YEAH!!!
Simon Cowell backed Rage in the earliy 90′s, so I know for a fact that they are quite close. If I know them they are probably sharing a beer and a laugh over this right about now.
he also backed the teletubbies no.1 song and the power rangers single. so probably not
Stop reading the sun, Cowell’s obviously pooing nuggets about the money he’ll miss out on.
What money is he missing out on? The Joe McElderry single is going to sell just as much, no-one’s going to think “Oh, I’ll buy rage instead of x factor”…. those two audiences are pretty mutually exclusive.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!!!!!!! is freaking awesome!
You got it!!! go RAGE!
Im sick of X factor being xmas number 1. Simon Cowell couldnt even be bothered to release a original song its a cover version!! In 10 years time no one will remember the X Factor winners name but we will remember Rage Against the Machine! I really hope Rage are this years Xmas number 1.
The X-Factor winner’s song is always a cover …..!!!
Hell Yeah!! I love that song. I listen to it at work (on my ipod) whenver I’m having a bad day
Wait, so Brits really do obsess over the #1 Christmas single? I always thought that was just a plot device from the movie Love Actually. I adore the Brits. They’re so cheeky.
I always wondered about that subplot in Love Actually too. At least no one is threatening to get naked on live tv (yet). This is kind of hilarious–makes me wish I had a front row seat to the whole battle.
Yep – sad but true!! We’ve all grown up with huge chart battles at christmas time and participated in races to get our favourite act to number one at Christmas. It’s a long tradition…well, until Cowell came along and killed it.
Some people want the fun chart race back, some can’t stand Cowell, but I think most people are using this as a means of getting a point across that we’re sick of soulless pop and reality TV tunes dominating music.
There are so many great bands over here, but they’re struggling because they can’t get radio airplay ahead of pop stars with multi-million marketing campaigns.
Us Brits are nice and reserved until we have a point to make!!
The great thing about this battle is it has opened discussions about music and almost £50,000 has been raised for Shelter – a charity for homeless people. People are donating after downloading.
Nice point well made. It’s incredible that Cowell has the cheek to call this “cynical”, when what most people are doing is trying to bring the fun back to a Christmas tradition by picking an awesome song, with something to say, for a good cause that a large number of people will put their support behind and thrash a far inferior musical offering. Unlike what he does with the X Factor, which is make an absolute mint off of cheap cover versions bolstered by a sentimental (and manipulated) attachment to the lead singer. As for calling it stupid – given that a large number of Christmas number ones in the past were kid’s novelty tracks by the likes of Bob the Builder, I wonder if he isn’t taken the whole thing a tad too seriously?
I think it’s neat that the Brits do this. I’d wondered the same, because of Love Actually. Though I imagine I’d be pretty sick of it as well at this point, because I am not of the Cowell/Idol/X Factor/total crap school.
Sweet. Go Rage.
RAGE!
Good on them. Cowell is a pox upon modern life.
The X-Factor winner getting Christmas No.1 has been going on for far too long. The yearly barrage of cover versions is sickening and to make things worse they didn’t even look beyond the last 12 months for this years ‘effort’ (very loose term of the word). Year after year this annoys me and to be honest the choice of RATM song pretty much sums up my feelings about it completely. It would be great if Rage won it and then has the X-Factor idiot on stage with them to sing it live so that final hate filled mother f-er can be shouted in his face.
ha love the way zack held back at the end untill the last seconds, then came in like a bull in a china shop! You can almost hear the coffie / cereal being spat from the shocked DJ’s mouths.
Team RAGE!!!! All my British friends are buying “Killing in the Name” to stick it to the man. I totally approve!
Come on RATM!!
Gotta love the angsty freshness this song still has. It’s brilliant that Brits are taking their music back. GO RAGE!
I listen to British radio all day at work since I live in a Clear Channel-controlled city here in the US. I’ve heard some great stuff this year. I’d have to say the Brits have always had a good handle on their music and the wide variety that there is.
Mon The Rage