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Facebook Campaign Decides UK Christmas Music Charts

Posted by kdawson on from the rage-against-the-commercialization dept.

uglyduckling writes "A grassroots Facebook campaign has pushed the 1990s Rage Against the Machine song 'Killing in the Name Of' to the top of the British music charts for Christmas. The campaign was planned to prevent the X-Factor winner from charting Christmas number one, as has been the case for the past four years. It was supposedly a kick against the commercialism of Christmas and commercial dominance in the music scene, although Rage and the X-Factor winner Joe McElderry were actually signed to the same label. Despite this minor detail, it's interesting to note that this is the first song to reach the number one spot through downloads alone in the UK, and is a testament to the organizational power of social networking sites like Facebook. The Facebook group also asked for donations to charity, and has raised £70,000 for the homeless charity Shelter."

4 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Charity by tompeach · · Score: 5, Informative

    And RATM are giving the proceeds to Shelter too, good for them:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8423340.stm

    1. Re:Charity by tompeach · · Score: 5, Informative

      (They stuck a Shelter link on the Facebook page - not quite the same thing!)

      The band are additionally giving the proceeds from the record sales to Shelter, from the Beeb article:

      Guitarist Tom Morello said it had "tapped into the silent majority of the people in the UK who are tired of being spoon-fed one schmaltzy ballad after another". He added that proceeds from the single would go to homeless charity Shelter tying in with the Morters' Facebook campaign which includes an online link to give to the charity, raising over £70,000 so far.

    2. Re:Charity by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, RATM are donating their proceeds from the sales to Shelter as well as the £70,000 (it's even mentioned in the article linked from the summary) and intend throw a free concert in the UK at some point next year. Of course, this is only the artist's cut of 500,000 digital downloads that we are talking about here, so I'd be very surprised if the total was much larger than the £70,000 generated from the Facebook page.

      Personally, my eyes are now on Sony UK and, to a lesser extent, Simon Cowell. Sony have profited to the tune of 500,000 digital downloads on the RATM track, plus probably a good 100,000 extra copies of McElderry's bought by X-Factor fans to try and keep RATM off number one spot. Total materials cost: £0. I think it only fair that they make a gesture in kind and make a sizable donation to Shelter as well.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  2. Re:Astroturf by gnomeza · · Score: 5, Informative
    Except that it's NOT the same Neil Ridley. Compare