• on air
• artists
• music news
• gigs & tickets
• breakfast
• x-lists

• competitions
• festivals
• gig news
• gossip
• releases
• travel
• uk news
• weather
• winter wonderland

Rage Against The Machine Make Christmas Number 1

added 20 December 2009 at 20.15

Rage Against The Machine have beaten The X Factor's Joe McElderry in the race for the Christmas No 1. The 1993 song 'Killing In The Name' has made it to the festive top spot, following a huge Facebook campaign that saw the track outsell its rival by 50,000 copies.

And Rage's Tom Morello has promised that the band would play a "A HUGE FREE CONCERT IN THE UK TO CELEBRATE THE VICTORY OF THIS HISTORIC PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN! It will be the victory party to end all victory parties."

Tweeting after the announcement, Morello claimed the triumph was "the anarchy Christmas miracle of 2009" and that "Rumor has it that next year's X-Factor winner will sing Killing in the Name for Christmas".

Meanwhile, Joe McElderry was gracious in defeat, telling the BBC: "It's been exciting to be part of a much-hyped battle and they definitely deserve congratulations."

And you can also read all about the campaign, as well as see some of the photos in out chronicle of Rage Against The Machine's Christmas Number One.

What do you think? Did Rage deserve the top spot, or was Joe robbed? Was it all a fantastic publicity stunt and what does it mean for the future of the charts? Do you even care? Have your say, leave us a comment below...

Find Rage Against The Machine on iTunes
Find Rage Against The Machine on Amazon

 

Tagged as Rage Against The Machine, Charts, Downloads

• send to a friend

add your comment

enter

your name*

your email

your comment

I have read and agreed to the terms and conditions and Xfm's privacy policy

* Please note that the name/alias you enter here will be displayed next to your message.

submit comment

comments

1. People still talking about sony???!! What is wrong with you? For christ sake it was not about the record label. It has been said a million times and a million times we have replied to you whining people. If it was about the record company we would have had an independent band but it wasn't. It was about the fact that people were sick of having X factor at number 1 every christmas. We did what we wanted to do and we made the chart interesting again. Have a hug trolls

   Posted by Bill Evans on 23/12/2009 11:01:51 | report abuse

2. Sony 1, People power 0. The big winner is the commercial record company, as once again they outsmarted the consumer. To all those who spent money on this campaign, the Sony corporation thanks you. Can we check if the people who organised this viral campaign were in any way subsidised by Sony????

   Posted by Steve on 22/12/2009 21:42:46 | report abuse

3. Whether this was a publicity stunt or not, what I think it illustrates is the power of social networking to marshall a large number of people to take action with great effect. Social networking is something I have been going on about for a long time to independent musicians as it is a great way to promote their music. In fact I wrote about this article on my blog to make that very point http://independentmusic-greg.com/uk-christmas-single-no-1-manipulation-or-people-power

   Posted by Greg on 22/12/2009 16:24:40 | report abuse

4. i think what happened here is pure brilliance the guy who came up with that idea was a genius not only did he prevent another person who can sing but has no creative skills wich is the main part of music getting to number 1. but also maybe bringing the worlds biggist activist and creative muscians back to england once more.

   Posted by Dr_greenthumb on 22/12/2009 00:37:16 | report abuse

5. Do i care yes i do! But i think everyone has a chance to rise to fame and if this Joe is any good then he will do well in the future, but it does prove what ppl think counts and maybe if the ppl of this great country can turn around this then they can stand together to make this a great country once again because what the ppl think matters they have shown that standing together that they can make a difference.

   Posted by Lisa Cain on 21/12/2009 13:36:08 | report abuse

6. I am so happy rage got to number one! Like many of you i do not watch the X factor and have no interest in ever doing so. Im glad that this year we have a good xmas number one. Unfortunatly next year it will go back to being another manufactured pop "singer" I would love for them to bring the xfacotor forward a month, still release the song for xmas but after a month the "fans" will have decided if they actually like the song for its musical worth or maybe they will reaslise the song is rubbish and it was all hype.
   I feel very sorry for Joe, Simon obviously dosent hold his career in good stead because he gave him a hannah montana song for goodness sake. If you are going to make us have to listen to this rubbish each year they could at least put some effort in and write the winner his/her own song, instead of pumping out a 3mth old disney song!
   
   Well done for everyone who supported the rage cause & to all those who made donations for shelter. What an excellent way to end the decade. XFM could we re-do the song of the decade chart and have rage in it this time! HAPPY CHRISTMAS ALL!!

   Posted by teressa on 21/12/2009 10:51:29 | report abuse

7. Joe should have won, no mistake about it. If you read this Joe, I'm completely behind you and I wish you the best in everything! xx

   Posted by Tara Darlington on 21/12/2009 10:47:35 | report abuse

8. THEY ARE BOTH ON THE SAME RECORD LABLE PEOPLE!! Your money is still going to all the same people who would have made money off of Joe the X Factor dude. This campaign has achieved literally nothing. And the X Factor will continue as usual and will probably give us a Christmas number 1 next year...

   Posted by Joe king on 21/12/2009 10:10:12 | report abuse

9. I have to say, alot of people are looking at the song for how it sounds and not what the whole campaign was about... First of all, the campaign wasn't to get a sweary, hard rock song to topple a "poor" 18 year old kid who apparently deserved it. It was to show that people COULD make a change and a stand against Simon's Pop monopoly.
   
   The song is quite agressive but that was one of the reasons, it wouldn't be such a contest if it was just another boring pop song/alternative. Rage against the machine were very supportive of this, as anyone who knows them would know they would be.
   
   I am very proud to have seen such a rebellion in Britain, but now we need to do this again, for bigger issues, it's so great to see people standing on their own two feet and not just accepting whatever their government tells them to.
   
   Just to sum this up, being a 14 year old it's very concerning to see mostly everyone my age around me just take all this X-Factor stuff every year, buy the single, pump the money and get bored and move on to something else... Real music lives forever, real music stands for something, and I'm proud to support it.
   
   

   Posted by Glenn Christmas on 21/12/2009 10:02:13 | report abuse

10. disgusted! Joe deserved number 1! saddos r the rage against the machine! watta name!!

    Posted by gemma on 21/12/2009 09:02:37 | report abuse