Sunday 20 December 2009

Cx3: Rage Against The Machine beats X Factor

One of the most competitive battles to reach the UK's Christmas number one in chart history has been won by Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing in the Name' (supported by a fierce Facebook campaign), beating 'The Climb' by X Factor's Joe McElderry into second place.

The Facebook campaign 'Rage Against The Machine for Christmas No1', created by Jon and Tracy Morter as a reaction against X Factor potentially spawning the UK's Christmas number one single for the fifth year in a row, resulted in 500,000 downloads being sold beating the X Factor winner by 50,000 copies.

Colin Paterson, BBC News Entertainment correspondent comments:

"It is simply one of the biggest shocks in chart history.

The common belief was that the race for Christmas number one had been destroyed by the X Factor.

For the last four years the winning act has been top of the festive charts by a landslide. Bookmakers only took bets on who would be number two.

This year the corporate might of Simon Cowell has been defeated by a husband and wife's Facebook campaign.

The result is 'Killing In The Name', which most parents would be pretty reluctant to play to their children. It contains 17 uses of the F-word.

This chart shock is right up there with Spiller's 'Groovejet' derailing the start of Victoria Beckham's non-Spice Career in 2000 or crooner Engelbert Humperdink ending The Beatles' run of 11 number ones in a row.

Two other points - this could become an annual event - the public deciding on a track with which to take on the X Factor winner.

Secondly there is still every chance Joe will reach number one next week.

The Rage Against Machine campaign was designed for one week only so Joe could get the top spot, saving him the indignity of being the first ever X Factor winner not to hit number one with their debut single."

RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Facebook, the influential social networking book face

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