TBH I don't think it was chosen for any other reason than the guy that started it liked the song and it's a song about giving a big Eff You to authority. TBH In my mind Mumford (sp?) & Son would be a good Xmas number one, it's a cracking tune, and whilst it's not a Xmas tune per se, it kinda sounds like one. But it's no where Or the Muppets and Queen doing bohemian rhapsody, THAT'S a Xmas number one, bloody daft and you'd hate it after a while. Not exactly screaming out of the shops ether. The video still makes me laugh though. I don't think KITN has even been released, I don't think you can buy is physically, it's just in iTunes etc with everything else. Personally why I bought it, 1) I like the song and didn't have it 2) I LOVE music, and in recent years the balance between well written songs, performed by people who love what they're doing and the disposable nonsense banged out in a factory by Cowan and his ilk has been well out. The **** eating grinner that just won x factor doesn't love music, he just wants to be famous. I'm sure if you asked him if is fancied an album written by Leonard Cohen and produced by Quincy Jones or a part in some incipit US teen series he suddenly discover it's "been my dream since I was 4 to be an actor, and I could buy my mum a new liver and save the world" I hate x Factor (more now I've been forced to watch it), it's a vile money making machine that uses music as fuel. The fake arguments, the tears, the made up sob stories all so soft hearted people like my mum and my GF will spend money voting for them and buy tracks that, if they hadn't endured what seems like months of x factor really isn't worth a ****. I know that RATM is ultimately under Sony and ether one is more money for Cowel, and I'm OK with that. SC is an incredibly talented, bright guy. At the moment he can make more money that the entire F1 grid by doing his 'talent' shows. If this shows him that people will still buy edgy, interesting, passionate music then he might throw some of this energy and resources into better music.
"Killing in the name" was a single back in '92 or '93. Mark Goodier famously (for us oldies) accidentally played the uncensored version on the Radio 1 chart show. It might not have been officially re-released now (although I expect they record company will catch on quickly) but if you buy enough of it from iTunes, it'll chart anyway I think. IIRC most of the charts are from download sales now anyway.
Sorry, I meant re-released. In old enough to remember owning it on tape when it cane out, and Radio1 playing it uncensored ha ha, sadly not first hand, read it in the paper. Ha ha
Soooo happy this was brought up on the forum. RATM are one of the best bands of all time (in my humble opinion). Iv altready got this track on 3 different albums/compilations, but even if you dont like it, its only 65pence to download, the money goes to a really worth-wile cause, and is a small price to pay for what will most likely go down in history as a triumphant two fingers to modern day commercialism within the music industry. Peace
Will it though? Will it really? Or will it go down, as I suspect more and more each day, as another load of publicity with Simon Cowells name attached to it. "Number one : Killing in the Name of getting to number one stopping Simon Cowells blah blah blah" Or "Number Two: Killing in the Name of, being beaten by Simon cowells blah blah blah" No matter what we do - Simons already won. Theres no such thing as bad publicity, Simons name is in lights and that song written by Mylie Cyrus for Whatshisface, will disappear as quickly as the winner of xfactor himself. Wheres that Shane thingymabob bloke gone? anyone?
I think if the internet machine can beat Cowell, that's quite something. The message is "f-off", loud and clear.
Is him not getting 1 xmas number one beating him though? I wouldn;t class it as beating him, just delaying him and giving him more of the publicity that he makes him money from. Beating him, in my eyes, would be him finally admitting the music that xfactor churns out is generic, bland, recylced garbage and that he will invest large sums of money into helping bands and singers that are trying to go their own away in a variety of genres to create something new and exciting. The only way to do that is for people to stop watching his shows and voting for the least worst contestant each week in staged phone polls. And there are far to many 13 year old Girls willing to do that. EDIT: Apparently 13.5m people watched Last years Xfactor final. Thats at least 1 in every 5 people you see walking down the street. 1 in 5! Not gettign to Xmas number one this year really isn;t going to make Cowell lose any sleep when he his show has that much of a fan base and potential revenue stream.
It's a significant achievement at saying "you p*ss us right off, your entitlement to Xmas #1s has now been thwarted, no matter how big your machine. Go to America, stay in America."
This isnt really about Simon Cowell and the x-factor is it? Its about a collective show of power and stickin it to the man (whoever that might be). Yes there are far more radical ways we can do that! BUT If Rage do get to no.1, what it shows is what can be achieved if large volumes of beings all with a common goal rallye at the click of a button. Facebook, bebo, this forum - are just modern day tools to enable this to happen. For me, the track is almost irrelevant (although its a quality choice). Its about the people, what some 750 thousand of them that turned around and said f##k you to a much greater power, and won the day. Come on!
it only counts if it is over 0.40 so if you got the 29p one on amazon it wont count for the chart just found this out
Not so, thats what people keep posting but Jo or whatever his name is that started the group checked with Amazon and they do count, its in the info section of the group.
The guest on Jo Whiley just said they've both notched up over 300,000 sales. There's less than 9000 between them (not sure who's in the lead though).
RATM were in the lead at 17:00 lat night, but only by 9000 apparently, so getspreading the word as we've only got until 21:00 tonight I think to makes the difference. There's 915,000 members on the Facebook group, if only they'd all put their hand in their pocket it would kill the Xfactor track for sure.
But my arguement is that Cowell actually doesn't care about selling enough records to get to number 1. He can't do. And heres why: an average of 15.62 million people watched the 2 shows. Of those 15.62 million people, as off last night, 300,000 people have bought the winning record. Thats a pathetic return of 2% of the people that watched the final have bought the song. At a cost of 65p (price on Play) for a download or 3.99 for the physical CD - The maximum that song has put in the tills is 1.2m. And thats before you start taking out the manufacturing costs, Cowells cut etc etc etc. So Money is taken out the equation. So why is getting to Xmas number 1 such a good thing? The Publicity. And this Rage campaign has done nothing other than give the guy exactly what he wants. More and More Publicity. We haven't won by getting a good song to number one. He has won by setting himself up as the Pantomime baddie - and we have fallen into the trap again. The more we give him the publicity he wants, the more he remains relevent. The more he sticks around.
