text: Will Rage Against The Machine beat The X Factor this Christmas?... so far it is » PharSide.co.uk - Wildly South African
  Home / AllSorts / Will Rage Against The Machine beat The X Factor this Christmas?… so far it is
  Posted by: Marky Warren in AllSorts December 14, 2009
  Over the past few weeks theres been alot of talk about the FaceBook Group, 'RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR CHRISTMAS NO.1!' that seems to have ruffled X-Factor's Simon Cowell's feathers a bit. The time has come to see if this campaign is going to work.. and so far, it is... take a look
  The group was created a few weeks ago by Tracy and Jon Morter who like many, seem to be a little bit more than fed up with the winner of the X-Factor sailing through to the UK Christmas number 1 slot, which it pretty much has done for the past few years. The last non X-Factor Christmas number 1 was back in 2004 where the Band Aid 20 released "Let Them Know It's Christmas" ever since then its been X-Factor winners such as Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson and Alexandra Burke respectively, and since this evenings X-Factor final won by Joe McElderry, many would already expect that the Christmas Number 1 spot is going to go to the X-Factor winner with his, as many would put it, "Glorified Karoke Cover", The Climb originally recently released by Miley Cirus. It's not surprising that many people are getting just a little hacked off that each year the X-Factor is timed to end on the Sunday of the Christmas Number 1 chart run up which has blatantly turned the whole thing into a manufactured money making racket blocking the way of more respected artists, which is basically the reason for the Facebook Group.
  The group now has over 700 000 members and urges its members to purchase Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name which was released back in 1992, from a list of download sites such as iTunes for around £1 from December 13th. If you listen the lyrics of the song you'll probably realise why they chose it to be the front runner.
  Its actually not the first time this has happened, last year Alexandra Burke released "Hallelujah" originally written by Leonard Cohen, however the masses responded by purchasing copies of the late Jeff Buckley's version of the song, which in my opinion is even better than Leonard Cohen's. Its actually one of my all time favorites. In the end Alexandra Burke hit Number 1 and Jeff Buckley sat at number 2 marking a first in chart history that the same song has claimed the top two spots similtaneously.
  Simon Cowell recently commented on the Facebook group as it being a direct attack at himself however if that was the case, then I think they wouldn't be using the "X-Factor" but rather Simon Cowell's name specifically in their campaign.
  I've got nothing against X-Factor, its pretty cool that people get the oppitunity to display their talents and make something of themselves, but what I don't agree with is that they never seem to have hits of their own (mind you Leona Lewis' cover of Snow Patrol's Run was very rare awesomeness and I don't care what anyone says about it) and the timing just before Christmas is blatant exploitation but good luck to the dude, I just hope he realises he is basically a music industry pop exploit at the moment, time will tell if he lasts in the long run.
  Now check this out, as of 12am this morning, I've just taken a look at the iTunes Top 10... and would you believe it... people aren't wasting time, take a look for yourself...
  Apparently within minutes, Killing in the Name sky rocketed to Number 1 before Joe McElderry could even make a dent on the charts with his teeny bopper cover.
  Lets wait and see if it holds out against X-Factor, its gonna be an interesting couple of weeks. I've always been a huge RATM fan so I hope it does, although it is kinda for the wrong reasons as one thing I don't think was really thought through correctly, is that Rage Against The Machine are signed to Epic which is a subsidary of Sony BMG, so either way Simon Cowell's pockets are going to get full. I think if they wanted to do something like this, I reckon they should have got some dude and his guitar who is completely unknown, to take the honours.
  I would really like to hear what Zack De La Rocha; Tom Morello and the boys have to say about it although I haven't found anything so far.
  If you're keen on joining the fun, join the group at http://bit.ly/inthename and get all the details you need to purchase the single and if you like donate a buck to charity which is a pretty cool thing to do 🙂
  christmas number 1 Joe McElderry killing in the name rage against the machine simon cowell x factor 2009-12-14
  Tagged with: christmas number 1 Joe McElderry killing in the name rage against the machine simon cowell x factor