A few weeks ago, we came across a truly grassroots Facebook group dedicated to overthrowing Simon Cowell’s long ruling regime of X-Factor contestants topping the UK charts. Their plan is simple: Everyone buys a bunch of copies of Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name in the weeks leading up to December 20th, to place it atop the list of top Christmas singles. The number one spot has gone to X-Factor winners every year since 2005.
The full band (including the elusive Zack De La Rocha) made an appearance on BBC Radio 5 this morning to discuss the campaign, and perform the song… At least until the radio hosts made it back from their smoke breaks just in time to cut the live feed after the fourth “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!”
And those four f-words screamed on live radio represented the only truly respectable act of rebellion in this whole misguided schoolyard jihad. Both Simon Cowell’s Syco Music and Epic, who gets the checks for RATM sales in the UK, are owned by Sony Music.
We love Rage and appreciate the sentiment, but we have to call this for what it is: a bunch of people into one particular type of popular music, picking a pointless fight with another type of popular music, driving sales of popular music up briefly, and putting more money into the very machine they think they’re raging against. It wasn’t conceived in a boardroom, but had it have been, someone would be looking good for a promotion right about now.
Could we not have picked an independent artist’s song for the battle cry?
On the bright side, at least Rage is currently winning.
Thanks to Paul Kiristy for the audio.
I don’t think it matters that they both have the same parent company. It’s about good music winning on the charts…
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When Susan Boyle is the top selling debut in a fiscal year, you know the music industry is in trouble.
I just listened to the interview and Tom Morello said the exact same thing that I did…so I guess it wasn’t all that insightful.
Yes, it would’ve made more sense to use an independent artist, but they also had to pick some song people would actually want to listen to. Plus, no other song expresses what this group is trying to say than this one (at least on a superficial level), so it seems a pretty good choice.
What I want to know is if a new Rage album is comin out. Fuck Simon Cowell anyway.
Lets focus on what’s important here. The BBC does not use a delay like 99.9% of America, and Rage said fuck on the radio four times today. Let’s just be grateful it was not on TV, because you know Justin Timberlake would have come from behind exposing Tom Morello’s sun shaped titty ring to the masses.
Justin…I don’t get it…
Comment of the day.
RATM agreed to not curse on the air, and then cursed. If it was the President or some government figure that blatantly told a lie, would they be bitching about it? The right way to do it is to never sacrifice your standards to begin with. If you wanna curse, say “We don’t censor ourselves. take it or leave it”.
Then they leave it, and the machine grinds forward with the willing. The “right way” isn’t an option anymore. The surprise is far more subversive than a principled boycott.
Here’s what I think happened. The BBC producers purposefully let them swear on air. Yes they talked to the band and they agreed they wouldn’t, they cut them short and of course the bbc have issued an apology. However the presenter said ‘we were expecting it’ afterward and what else would they expect from RATM? After all, what stopped them pre-recording the performance? Made me smile…I really hope they win and they have to play it on christmas day on BBC1 after the Queen’s speech!
p.s. for an independent band video for christmas No.1 how about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH2umxtA_sc
[ziggy - lundun engerland]
Did you even read the stance of the group who’s doing it before you wrote this?
http://saveourmusicindustry.com/
if bill hicks were alive he’d get a huge kick out of this. bloody hooligans using the ‘f’ word on the talky box!
yeah i get it trucks… it’s about “good” music ruling over “bad” music. and they make a good case on that front. rage has a legacy. this time next year, is anyone going to remember joe mcelderry’s miley cyrus cover? i didn’t want to write a thousand words on the issue, but the campaign is silly for more reasons besides the fact that it’s only helping sony. rage gets plenty of airplay. they’re a hugely successful crossover band. there aren’t too many bands we’ve covered that have such mainstream appeal. which makes them a great candidate for a coup against simon cowell, but it’s a petty victory. we could make orange juice the #1 beverage for a day, but it wouldn’t change the fact that a lot of people love coca-cola and don’t give a flying fuck what it’s made of. it’d be a nice symbolic gesture and all, but it won’t change or “save” any industry.
if these 300,000 people had rallied behind an independent artist, maybe they wouldn’t be quite as successful at throwing a pie in simon cowell’s face. but they could at least achieve a better big-picture victory of bringing a new artist to the forefront to compete with cowell’s presentation. and when that artist is still around next year, and mcelderry isn’t… well then maybe the industry will take note. and a step towards salvation.
And let’s not forget, at the heart of this is peoples opinion on music. Some people like RATM, some people like whoever the fuck they are up against in this art competition or whatever it was. Everyone who likes one thing, thinks the people that like the other thing are somehow stupider or have bad taste. I swear there was a time when RATM had more important causes on their mind.
Shit, brothers and sisters! These were just two english knuckleheads pissed with the radio over there, and that’s it! No plan, no maps, no nothing. Just out of pure “I’m tired of this shit” feeling.
So fuck it, let the boys have fun and bring home the “fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” to their parent’s home through tv, on christmas day. On the side, RATM can get a little extra and completely unexpected cash.
The label? they don’t give a tiny fuck about all this. Really.
Rock N’ Roll is about fun.
i can get down with that.
For Dave Grohl, yeah… but would Zack EVER say “Rock N’ Roll is about fun”? That would be some wild shit there.
There is video now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx19×9xPB8o
nice find rory, thanks…good to see these guys still together, although I’m hoping for further One day as a lion before some new Rage
Woo Hoo!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8423340.stm
you realize they sold out a while ago, right? i mean, the music is good and all, but really any more they don’t “mean” it
José De la Rosé said:
December 19th, 2009 at 8:08 AM
For Dave Grohl, yeah… but would Zack EVER say “Rock N’ Roll is about fun”? That would be some wild shit there.
Maaaaaan, RATM is where they are because people have fun listening to their music. You sure pay attention to the message, but not the other 90% of the people who bought their albums. They sell because their music can be fun to listen to, and that’s the core of Rock N’ Roll (yes, with capitals!).
So just go and have fun, and merry christmas!
[...] That campaign to get Rage Against The Machine’s "Killing in the Name" to be the Christmas number one song in the UK instead of the X Factor winner’s track actually got RATM together for a BBC Radio 5 appearance. They discussed the campaign, and they actually performed most of the song … the performance was cut after the fourth "F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me!" Check it out.. [...]
[...] That campaign to get Rage Against The Machine’s "Killing in the Name" to be the Christmas number one song in the UK instead of the X Factor winner’s track actually got RATM together for a BBC Radio 5 appearance. They discussed the campaign, and they actually performed most of the song … the performance was cut after the fourth "F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me!" Check it out.. [...]