Rage Against Manufactured Drivel
For those of you who don’t live in the UK, the Christmas no.1 single each year is, without fail, produced by the winner of a reality TV show called the X Factor. And when I say produced, I mean that they are either parroting something that has been written for them or desecrating over classic songs (see last year’s destruction of “Hallelujah”).
Throughout all of this, the music lovers of Britain are usually content to acquiesce to silence, resigning themselves to snide Facebook statuses and a slightly arrogant belief that they have better music taste than the uncultured media slaves who go out and buy these X Factor singles. Not this year though… Thanks to a campaign started on Facebook, Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In The Name Of” is currently outselling the X Factor winner’s single by around 6,000 copies, and if they hang on until Sunday, “Killing In The Name Of” will be Britain’s Christmas no.1 for 2009.
Personally, I don’t think this had anything to do with an adoration for “Killing In The Name Of”, or anything personal against the guy who won the X Factor, it’s just Britain’s music loving public standing up and saying, yes, we don’t buy singles so the charts are filled with the soulless radio fodder that you’re told to like, but we’re still here, laughing at you from behind our Bon Iver LP’s, and we won’t be represented by the unoriginal, talentless, manufactured and mundane drivel that you’re consuming.
However, the CD version of the X Factor single was released today, and the race is predicted to become a lot closer, so if you love real, intelligent and passionate music then, regardless of what you think about Rage Against The Machine, spare 65p and buy it here. And if Rage being no.1 would make your Christmas, then buy it again on iTunes.
At the end of the day, it’s hardly even important who wins, the fact that the Rage single has become such a serious contender will simply remain as a statement that, although we’re not making our presence felt via the charts each week, there are hundreds of thousands of Britons who despise the bland and farcical excrement being churned out by these cynical “talent” finding programmes.
Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name Of (SebastiAn Remix)
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December 19th, 2009 at 1:20 am
Hi Phil,
Just a point to consider after reading your post. I was intrigued when you described Rage Against the Machine’s music as real, intelligent and passionate. This was of course in your opinion, contary to X Factor’s unoriginal, talentless, manufactured and mundane drivel.
However, the manufactured drival of the X Factor is signed under the same record label as the original Rage Against the Machine. The label of course being Simon Cowell’s
December 20th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Rage might be on the same label , but they play their own instruments, they write their own tunes. This isn’t against the lad who won it despite what Cowell says ( although how people can say the young lad *deserves* to be No 1 is beyond me). Its also not about “bullying” a young singer as Cowell idiotically put it . Its about people sick to death of Cowells demnetors kiss on popular music, in which he manages to suck all the life , all the passion out of music and neatly package and shrink wrap it, a disposable meanigless slice of instant entertainment which will be quickly forgotten. Yes I know its always gone on, but Cowell has taken it to a whole new level, lables wont take risks on new bands, they play it safe and Simon has created this environment and reducing a generations musical horizons to a karaoke TV friendly vacuous crock of sh*t . The money goes into his pockets and do we see him investing it in new art forms , in dynamic new musical talent ? Erm no. Imagine what Cowell would make of Bowie *Sorry David, its time to purse another dream* or Leonard Cohen *You need to lighten up* . Or The Clash * You cant sing, you cant play, you look awful*
Im not really keen on the RAGTM song personally, but as a statement it would be quite nice to see it succeed…Of course it won’t though will it ?
December 20th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Well, yeah, I’m not sure you can use RATM being on Sony as evidence for their music being fake and unintelligent. The record label is completely irrelevant, really. I mean, we’re not arguing that the X Factor artist is rubbish because he’s attached to a major label. To be honest, there’s so few independant record labels left that can support themselves that it’s become a reality that a lot of the music we listen to is released via major labels, and that really isn’t the problem here. The problem is everything that Von Pip mentioned above. I don’t really need to add anything, because he said it better than I could have, so thanks for the comment Von Pip! And I’d also recommend that if you’re supporting the RATM appeal, you should head over to http://www.vonpipexpress.com/ and see what he has to say!
January 7th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I heard that he was quite keen do a Eastenders cameo! lmao. Not sure how true this is, has anyone else heard it? There’s a part of me that sort of hopes this is true lol.