Metal/Rap band Rage Against The Machine have beaten X Factor winner Joe McElderry in the battle for UK Christmas number one.
The US band's single, Killing In The Name, sold 500,000 downloads beating McElderry's The Climb by 50,000 copies. One retailer said it was a "possibly the greatest chart upset ever".
Its success followed a Facebook campaign designed to prevent another X Factor number one. Judge Simon Cowell offered his congratulations to the couple behind it, Jon and Tracy Morter, despite earlier in the week calling the campaign "stupid".
Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts
I remember Rage Against the Machine once did a rehash of Afrika Bambaataa's hip-hop classic "Renegades Of Funk". I didn't like their version much, but I respected them for having the guts to attempt a cover version.
It's debatable how much this will mean in the long term - after all, X Factor will still return to our TV screens (unfortunately). But it's good that people are seeing the X Factor for what it truly is - a production line of tedious, plastic, clean cut karaoke artists masquerading as musicians.
To me Rage's victory is a victory for real music, and for that, I'm very glad it won.
No comments:
Post a Comment