Rage Against The Machine to be Christmas No1?

It couldn't happen, could it?

Bid To Beat X Factor 'Karaoke Act' To No 1

Love it, I joined the group on the book of Stalk!
It won't happen, but worth a shot!

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=nf&gid=2228594104#/group.php?v=info&ref=nf&gid=2228594104

Although I agree with the sentiment and would like nothing better than seeing the smile wiped off Simon Cowell's smug face, there's a certain irony in being told to buy a song whose chorus goes "fuck you I won't do what you told me"

Ah yes Hesh, the irony is what makes it so delicious. It would probably be the best Xmas no.1 since 1979.

Last year, everybody downloaded the Leonard Cohen original and the (arguably) definitive Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah in an attempt to stop the X-Factor winner's version from reaching No.1 with their ullulating travesty. And guess what? It turns out that Simon Cowell actually owns the publishing rights for the song Hallelujah itself, so the whole thing ends up being a win/win/win situation for him.

I wonder whether Simon Cowell's business empire already owns the publishing rights to this RATM track in some convoluted way?

Mr Woman wrote:

I wonder whether Simon Cowell's business empire already owns the publishing rights to this RATM track in some convoluted way?

RATM are signed to Sony, so they do, yes!

There is a connection, Mr Woman. Sony own Epic, RATM's label. Syco Music (no guesses who runs this company) operates under the Sony Music banner. So Sony will make money whether RATM or X Factor sell records, and I'm sure that Cowell will benefit in some way too.

I read an argument about how pointless the whole exercise was on the NME website (I know, shame on me) and whilst it is true that supporting your local band would do more to promote new music than this howl of protest, that Killing In the Name is definately not new, and the whole Killing In The Name campaign is full of moral contradictions and irony, that does not, IMO, make it pointless on two counts.

1) It is a bit of fun. This is important.
2) Despite their major label affiliations and offtimes questionable shouty politics, RATM genuinely have (had) something to say. Their music will never change the world, but at least they had belief that it might, and they tried, and that in itself makes their stuff 1 million times more worthwhile than another karaoke Westlife cover.

So I'm gonna buy it. I know it is as pointless a gesture as flicking a V at Cowell when you see him on telly, but so what, if it makes you feel a bit better.., and I know I'm following the crowd, but it is a nicer crowd than the X-Factor one.

I don't know the ins and outs of these things, but you'd think if you were running a Facebook campaign to prevent Simon Cowell from monopolising the Christmas No.1, you would try and make sure you weren't promoting something else that was going to benefit him.

Or is that the plan? Don't buy that Sony product, buy this Sony product instead!

Luke Lewis' NME blog of which Mr_K spoke...

NME.com wrote:

Take that, Simon Cowell! In your face, Louis Walsh! Fuck you, Dannii Minogue, we won't do what you tell us! Mutha-fuck-eeeeeerz!

Over the weekend, Facebook and Twitter were collectively gripped by the hormonal, door-slamming spirit of Kevin the teenager, as a campaign to get Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' to Number One for Christmas – ahead of the inevitable X Factor winner's song - went viral.

Riding a wave of anti-Cowell anger, the pro-RATM Facebook group now has almost 300,000 members, and has been mentioned/Tweeted about by such well-known rap-metal afficionados as Lenny Henry, Martine McCutcheon and Andy Scott-Lee.

Yeah, Cheryl so-called Cole! Swivel on that!

After all, there's no better way to stick it to The Man than by swelling the coffers of a major label rock act who've sold over 20 million albums worldwide.

Hang on. I think I've just spotted a flaw in the campaign… can't quite put my finger on it… Oh yeah: it's a total waste of everyone's time and money.

Quite apart from the deep irony of the lyric "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" being used to propel a Facebook campaign – the success of which depends on many thousands of people mindlessly doing exactly as they're told – it can't possibly work.

Think about it. Last year's X Factor Christmas release, Alexandra Burke's cover of 'Hallelujah', sold 576,000 copies in its first week. Even if all 300,000 members of the RATM Facebook group bought the track – which of course they won't – it'd still be dwarfed by the inevitable monster sales of Joe McElderry's winning song (yeah, I went there: Joe's a dead cert to win).

Plus, if you really want to rage against the Simon Cowell machine, 'Killing In The Name' is a bizarre song to pick, since it's a Sony BMG catalogue track – just like 'Hallelujah', 'Don't Stop Believin', and all those other tunes which mysteriously crop up on The X Factor time and again.

In case you're unaware of the corporate link, Sony BMG have exclusive rights to Simon Cowell's artists. His own label, Syco, is owned by Sony. He's hardly likely to be soiling his high-waisted trousers over the prospect of a few thousand extra download sales of 'Killing In The Name'. He's probably got shares in the company.

Plus, politically, the campaign is at best misguided, at worst vaguely offensive. Rage Against The Machine wrote the song about the racism deeply embedded in American society – the police officers who "burn crosses" are closet members of the Ku Klux Klan. Lynch mob scum.

You can't imagine Zack de la Rocha – a man so committed to leftist social activism he has worked closely with Mexico's Zapatista National Liberation Army, and once declared US Presidents should be shot as war criminals – would be too delighted to discover his howl of anti-establishment rage had been co-opted by a bunch of bored Brits on Twitter.

More to the point, why do we care which song goes to Number One at Christmas? Partly, I suspect, it's a collective yearning for the pre-digital, prelapsarian musical landscape, before X Factor distorted the charts, and we were all united by cosy communalities like Top Of The Pops and, er, Mr Blobby.

But there's an element of false nostalgia here. When were Christmas Number Ones ever good? Before reality TV took over in the noughties, we had embarrassing novelty records, such as Bob The Builder's 'Can We Fix It?', and Michael Jackson's 'Earth Song'. Go back further than that and it's all Renee And Renato and Shakin' Stevens.

Is that better than The X Factor? Has a noble tradition really been ruined here? Or was there, in truth, not a whole lot to 'ruin' in the first place?

Mostly, though, what irks me about the 'Killing In The Name' campaign is the fact that the song is seventeen years old.

I'm all for a bit of us-and-them, adversarial Cowell-bashing – I despise the X Factor as much as the next hypocrite who is nonetheless glued to it every week – but is there no other track from the past decade that we can hold up as emblematic of 'our' values', as distinct from the cynical, gaudy world represented by Cowell and co?

Mr_K wrote:

So I'm gonna buy it. I know it is as pointless a gesture as flicking a V at Cowell when you see him on telly, but so what, if it makes you feel a bit better.., and I know I'm following the crowd, but it is a nicer crowd than the X-Factor one.

I'm with you, Mr_K...I am not particularly fond of RATM, to be honest. I admire them more than enjoy them. Because I'm old. But I hate Slimon Cowell even more. He represents everything evil that has infected the music world and even if it's useless, I'd be cheered just a smidge if his TV twits were kept off the #1 spot by something else. If I'm ever gonna be a crowd-following sheep, this is a good enough reason to do it as any, as far as I'm concerned. Baaaaaa!

And yeah, perhaps it'd work a bit better if Slimon wasn't going to benefit financially from this whole thing, but I suspect it makes no significant difference either way...he's rich as f**k and whatever the RATM downloads add to his coffers will be a mere drop in the bucket for him. Bastard.

Well there you go. We have an X-Factor winner and the song gets released this week, to be dutifully purchased by the lumpen proletariat as decreed in the now-traditional Cowell smash-and-grab of the Christmas No.1 slot.

Meanwhile, the RATM campaign appears to have fallen on it's backside, because people have gone out and bought the RATM track too early, making it number one THIS WEEK instead of next week.

Don't fire til you see the whites of their eyes!

Mr Woman wrote:

Meanwhile, the RATM campaign appears to have fallen on it's backside, because people have gone out and bought the RATM track too early, making it number one THIS WEEK instead of next week.

Are you sure? It didn't chart in the top 75 last night, and is currently number two in the iTunes chart for this, Christmas, week.

Misspelt Yoof wrote:

Mr Woman wrote:

Meanwhile, the RATM campaign appears to have fallen on it's backside, because people have gon.e out and bought the RATM track too early, making it number one THIS WEEK instead of next week.

Are you sure? It didn't chart in the top 75 last night, and is currently number two in the iTunes chart for this, Christmas, week.

Apologies if information incorrect, but it was quoted as being at No.1 in the charts by Shaun Keaveny on 6Music this morning....or maybe I misheard in my early-morning fug! Or maybe Keaveny was wrong (again). Anyway, I should have checked first before I ranted.

Nevertheless, Emperor Sony must be rubbing his hands in glee at all this, what with having the top two tied up this Christmas and all.