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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."

2 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Vote For Something Serious! by mrpacmanjel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am amazed that so many people are willing to vote for X-Factor and who should be no1 in the Christmas charts but will not vote for who runs the UK!

    That's like totally horrifying.

    At least protest for a something worthwhile - e.g. against clause 11 of the "Digital Economy Bill"http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/001/10001.13-19.html Essentially gives Lord Mandelson complete control of what is published on Internet and unrivalled power and "interpretation" of copyright law.

    You can join petitions here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/list/open?cat=758

    Then again Simon Cowell wants to "X-Factor" politics http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1236002/The-Politics-Factor-Simon-Cowell-unveils-plan-launch-election-debate-show.html This mentality scares the crap out of me!

  2. Re:Charity by LordSnooty · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually the Xfactor-bot's song sold 100,000 less than last year's winner did, who did secure the Xmas no1 spot. So to say it has increased Cowell's profits is wrong. It was a win-win for Sony though. And the BPI, who saw several hundred thousand people legally download a song for the first time (and paid for it!)