Rage Against the Machine about to top sales in the UK? (funny)

[Guest Low Roller]

So a bit of background first: X-Factor, which is the UK equivalent of American Idol, has managed to generate season after season of stomach-churning pap they call music, yet maintain extremely strong ratings.

The winner of the competition gets to produce an album, usually in time for the Christmas holidays of course. In fact the last three Christmas season music sales were dominated by X-Factor winners.

This year there has been something of an uprising by the masses who don't give a shit about X-Factor.

A MASSIVE Facebook campaign has started to ensure that this season's X-Factor winner does not gross the highest sales for the month. The chosen opponent of the proletariat? Rage Against The Machine's "Killing in the Name" of course.

Currently the two are neck-in-neck in sales. The Facebook campaign however is just starting to gain momentum and will more than likely overtake the X-Factor winner by this Sunday when results are announced.

The campaign has some fairly strong backing, such as Paul McCartney who thinks it would be "funny" if Rage won.

Simon Cowell (the asshole judge from all those talent shows) is pretty bitter about the campaign, mainly because he has a financial interest in the X-Factor winner's album.

Rage Against the Machine performed the song on BBC Radio 5, and of course swore constantly, which is a MAJOR no-no on BBC programming, sending the show into a panic, frantically apologizing immediately as the band played on.

[nibbler]

Awesomeness.

[Hartamophone]

Hilarious. Thanks for posting that. "Well, we asked them not to do it but they did it anyway." Really? Never would have seen that coming.

[c-towns]

awesome.

[Guest Low Roller]

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE WINS!

After four years of Christmas chart domination, the X-Factor winner has been pipped to the post for the number one spot by a re-release of the 1992 Rage Against the Machine song 'Killing in the name'.

Fed up of the Christmas chart being dominated by the X-Factor winner year after year music fans across the UK have made their voice heard as they downloaded 'Killing in the name' 500,000, beating X-Factor winner Joe McElderry's entry 'The Climb' by 50,000 copies.

The bid to beat the X-Factor began as a Facebook campaign started by Jon and Tracy Morter and turned into what one retailer called "possibly the greatest chart upset ever".

Over 450,000 fans joined the Facebook 'Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No.1' campaign in a bid to stop the X-Factor domination. For the past four years the winner of the X-Factor has been guaranteed the Christmas number one spot, as their song is released just before Christmas. Over the years the domination has angered fans and artists alike with many not bothering to release songs at Christmas.

Joe McElderry, the 18-year-old winner of this years X-Factor winner said, "It's been exciting to be part of a much-hyped battle and they definitely deserve congratulations. This time last year I never thought for one minute that I'd win The X Factor, never mind about having a debut single out, so I'm just delighted to be in the charts. It's been such an incredible couple of months and I got the best Christmas gift I could ever have asked for in winning The X Factor."

Failing to realise the power of the Internet and calling the Facebook campaign "stupid" earlier in the week, Simon Cowell has now admitted he called Jon Morter and offered his congratulations. He said, "I am gutted for Joe because a number one single meant a lot to him but I have to congratulate Jon and Tracy, who started the Facebook campaign. I called Jon on Saturday to congratulate the two of them that, win or lose, they turned this into a very exciting race for the Christmas number one. I am proud of Joe - he worked really hard this week, but he has a great year ahead of him."

The competition was close on Friday with only 9,000 copies separating the two songs but a sudden surge of sales meant that a further 200,000 copies of the Rage Against the Machine hit were sold and practically ensured them of a victory in the race.

Pointing out that bad weather may have prevented Joe McElderry fans from getting to the shops to buy his CD, only released on Wednesday, Martin Talbot, the managing director of the Official Charts Company, offered his good wishes to the LA based rock band, "Congratulations to Rage Against The Machine on their number one - as we have seen in recent years, overhauling any X Factor winner in the race for the Christmas number one is no mean achievement. The popular support we have seen for the record this week has been truly amazing - and handed them two all-time records."

The two records set by Rage Against the Machine in this chart battle are first single to reach the top of the charts on downloads alone and achievement of the biggest download sales total in the first week of sales in the UK chart.

Rage Against the Machine guitarist, Tom Morello, said of the result that it, "tapped into the silent majority of the people in the UK who are tired of being spoon-fed one schmaltzy ballad after another".

He added that proceeds from the sale of the single would go to the charity Shelter which helps homeless people.

High street retailer, HMV, spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said, "It's not so much that Joe lost the race - sales of his single have matched those of recent X Factor winners, and he shouldn't take this personally; this is all about the stunning impact of the Rage Against The Machine internet campaign in galvanising music fans to protest against the dominance of the reality show in recent years."

[shainhouse]

Rage won. funny.