There is campaign currently being waged in the UK to get Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” to be Christmas Number One and it is hard not to support such a move when the motivation has arisen from the grassroots. Basically some music fans fed up of being on the receiving end of another X-Factor ballad ruining their listening pleasure set up a Facebook page to get RATM to Number One. Indeed the campaign has been such a success that Rage are currently leading X-Factor winner Joe McElderry by about 10,000 copies… and the song could hardly be more appropriate with the infamous lyric opposing conformity used as the title for this article. Check out the video below where the band themselves explain why they think the campaign is a good idea. What a shame the BBC could not allow RATM to vent their frustration live on air, even if it was eight in the morning. Indeed the idea that Rage would agree to be censored by the BBC, particularly on this song, for this cause and not sing the lyrics they have written is laughable. Go on RATM, take the power back!!!!!

Download the single now from itunes to show your support!

Now the anger of Mrs Cole and Mr Cowell are understandable and to be expected, after all they have worked hard and invested time and money into producing another X-Factor winner but their defence that the campaign is “mean” or is a personal attack on young Joe are misplaced to say the least. The campaign is a response to the increasingly-diluted manufactured pop genre and quite simply many people have had enough of listening to rubbish. Even Sir Paul McCartney who used to be in quite a successful band has joined in the debate and thinks that the campaign is good for music. Moreover, RATM are possibly one of the best bands of all time, combining astute political insights with a mixture of heavy metal and hip-hop and they write their own songs. Unlike this year’s X-Factor winner who I am reliably informed is singing a Miley Cyrus song, who almost certainly had a team of writers (courtesy of Disney) helping her in the first place. This campaign is not about being mean or picking on a young man’s dreams, it is about music, good music and as Tom Morello puts it himself, it shows how in the modern world technology can be used to support the smallest cause even in the face of the most daunting and well-funded opposition.