Rage Against The X-Factor
The full power of the internet was realised this weekend when after a few weeks of the Facebook campaign to stop the X-Factor winner becoming the Christmas Top 40 #1, Rage Against The Machine took top spot with their swear-fuelled Killing In The Name.
Dubbed “F**k You I Won’t Buy What You Sell Me” over 500,000 people downloaded the song, which was nearly 50,000 more than Jo McElderry could manage with his cover of Miley Curys’ song The Climb. The two songs couldn’t be more different if they tried. As Charlie Brooker quite eloquently put it:
For a song whose lyrics ostensibly document an attempt to gather the spiritual strength to overcome adversity and thereby attain enlightenment, The Climb is about as inspiring as a Lion bar. It’s a listless announcement on a service station Tannoy; an advert for buttons; a fart in a clinic; a dot on a spreadsheet. Listening to it from beginning to end is like watching a bored cleaner methodically wiping a smudge from a Formica worksurface.
Now I can see why people would want to stop Simon Cowell and his X-Factor domination of the Christmas charts but I can’t help feel that they chose the wrong song with which to de-throne him, especially has the song is on the Sony label which Cowell will make money from.
If it had been down to me I would have gone with a different song to RATM’s one. I would have gone for an actual Christmas record. that way, we not only stick two fingers up at Cowell but we get a song that represents the period we’re celebrating. Maybe make it a song that didn’t actually make it to number one when it was originally released.
My song of choice would have been Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl. When released in 1987 it was cruelly kept of the top spot by The Pet Shop Boys’ Always On My Mind, and this has nothing to do with it being my favourite Xmas song ever!
So maybe if there’s a similar campaign next year maybe we should look at this as the song that says “fuck you” to Cowell but also represents the festive time of year!