Raging against the same machine…

Author's note: this was reported today by the Daily Star, the lowbrow sister of the Daily Express. All the guy probably did was what I did once I read the story: find the names on the same list on Wikipedia.

When it comes to the UK music charts, the most coveted prize of the year is to have the most popular song at Christmas. As described by the BBC in 2001, winning the honour conveys the ultimate sign of name recognition in the UK, guaranteeing a spot on talk shows and Top of the Pops programmes. Schemes to obtain the top spot, attempted as early as 1973, were lampooned in the comedy film Love Actually with a parody of The Troggs' "Love is All Around".

Since 2005, the Christmas Number One spot has been dominated by winners of The X Factor, Britain's counterpart to American Idol. As the final episode airs two weeks before Christmas, demand for the new release of the show's winner ultimately spikes. And while Leona Lewis has made waves on US charts, I'd be surprised if anyone back home has heard of Shayne Ward, Leon Jackson or Alexandra Burke. And now there's another representative of the music "establishment": Joe McElderry, an 18-year-old from the Tyneside town of South Shields and winner of this year's hotly contested X Factor. His single "The Climb" (which is a cover of Miley Cyrus) was produced by SyCo, Simon Cowell's recording label, which is part of the Sony Music conglomerate.

However, those tired of the bubble-gum, sugar-coated covers that are churned out by Simon Cowell are rallying on Facebook to get a different song at the top. Enter Rage Against The Machine and their 1992 debut single, "Killing In The Name", complete with 17 mentions of one obscene word. The band, along with several UK radio personalities and the first winner of X Factor, are expressing support for the endeavour, which has been made easier this year by purchased downloads now counting in the charts. Earlier today, a partially edited version of song aired at the end of an interview with the band on BBC Five Live (and by partially, I mean a refrain featuring said obscene word aired four times before being yanked from the air.) Also today, the online music magazine Gigwise claims RATM is surpassing McElderry by 65,000 downloads.

"Killing In The Name" was released by Epic, also a subsidiary of Sony Music.

Even if Cowell is going to blow a gasket being unseated by anarchists, someone in a hi-rise on New York's Columbus Circle is still revelling in turning anarchists into a different breed of sheep. All the while, the real X Factor (where Christians are concerned) isn't factoring on the charts. The last Christmas song to reach #1 during Christmas was a 2004 remake of the 1985 Band Aid hit "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

If I had to choose one song to download this week, it's going to be this one. It just happens to be another Sony artist.