Niklas' blog

I can’t tell you how pleased I am. Rage Against The Machine have taken the UK christmas #1 song slot of 2009 with “Killing In The Name“, a song originally released in 1992. Why? From The Independent:

Rock band Rage Against the Machine ended Simon Cowell’s four year domination of the Christmas charts tonight after a hugely popular Facebook campaign helped the Los Angeles nu-metallers snatch the Christmas number one slot from X-factor’s Joe McEdlerry.

More than half a million people downloaded the band’s famously anti-authoritarian and expletive laden track “Killing in the Name” in what was seen as a broad protest against the increasing influence of manufactured pop music.

It is the first time a non-X-Factor song has made it to Christmas number one for four years and represents a major snub to the show’s creator Cowell who angrily described the campaign to him another number one slot as “very Scrooge”.

The band performing the track live on BBC Radio, Five Live, 2009-12-17.

And The Guardian states:

Killing In The Name, an expletive-heavy rock song first released in 1992 by the Californian rock band Rage Against the Machine, won the battle for Christmas top spot on the basis of downloads only. It sold about 500,000 copies last week, about 50,000 more than The Climb, McElderry’s earnest ballad.

Further driving the point:

When the Guardian broke the news to Morter that he had won, he was initially lost for words. “Oh bloody hell,” he said, as the consequences of what he had done became clear. Composing himself, he said: “I think it just shows that in this day and age, if you want to say something, then you can – with the help of the internet and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. If enough people are with you, you can beat the status quo.”

Finishing off:

Despite Cowell giving some pseudo-grumpy interviews, he phoned Morter on Saturday night to congratulate him on the campaign. “He commended us on how we had marketed the campaign, and said if we won, he would be the first to congratulate us,” Morter said.

Rage Against the Machine have pledged to give all profits of the single to the homelessness charity Shelter, and will perform a free victory gig in the UK to thank those who bought their single.

McElderry is off on an Alpine skiing holiday to ponder his next move.

And there’s always the crappy official promo video to remind us of the days when flannel was OK to wear: