Head Tale

I've mentioned the annual battle to top the UK pop charts during Christmas week before but this year's contest was especially intriguing. 

The main contender was a song by this year's winner of “X-Factor”, a UK reality singing show similar to American Idol (actually, it's a copycat show created by Simon Cowell so he'd have a bigger stake than he did with Idol.) 

X-Factor winners had taken the Christmas Number One for four years running and everyone expected that, with the power of a very popular show behind it, this would be the case again this year.

But instead, a protest Facebook group sprang up with the intent of making a Rage Against the Machine song from the 1990's, “Killing In The Name Of” the Christmas Number One.  In less than a month (and for the first time ever, based entirely on online downloads since the single wasn't available in stores), the Rage Against the Machine song triumphed to take top spot. 

There are numerous storylines at play here…
– yet again, social media is showing that its reach is outstripping even the most popular traditional media outlets
– the protest movement also supported a charity for the homeless raising 70, 000 pounds in a month
– ironically, both songs are released on companies owned by Sony BMG so some have wondered if this was really a true protest when the “controversy” helped improve Sony's bottom line no matter who won. 
– more irony – the song's refrain is “Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me” which is exactly what people did by raising this song to number one as directed.
– during a live performance on BBC3, Rage sang the song uncensored (but would you expect any less?) 
– which brings us to this week's clip – watch the whole thing, it gets funnier as it goes along…