Firstly, let me get something straight.
For one, the Facebook campaign to get Rage Against the Machine (Henceforth Rage or RATM) to Christmas number one was NEVER a vendetta against Joe McElderry or his singing ability, which is undoubted. The campaign was against the X Factor’s corporate stranglehold on the Christmas number one, as all the other artists deserve a shot too. As such, all of the accusations of this being bullying toward McElderry are unfounded.
Now that is cleared up, let us define music:
Music (N): A set of sounds pleasing to the ear, usually produced by musical instruments and/or a voice.
This implies that music as an art form is NOT purely about vocals. As such, those of you who declare that “Rage don’t even make music!” are factually incorrect. In fact, that Rage took the Christmas number one is NOT a travesty; it is a victory, for musical diversity, for songwriting, and for instrumentalism.
This saga showed that the UK as a public are fed up with the constant stranglehold of the X Factor over the charts at Christmas. The manufactured pop stars of the X Factor have been described as “Having a shot at a Christmas number one single” on the show; in fact, over the last four years, this has morphed into a guaranteed number one at Christmas. This is musically and ethically wrong, as the hype generated by the show and the timing of its finish is plainly a piece of very subtle marketing and public manipulation to make sure that the X Factor single will make the number one. Also, this also implies that the winner of the X Factor has a right to the number one at Christmas, which of course, they do not. This was a travesty, against all other artists who came up through music the hard way, playing restaurant concerts for as little as £100 for a two hour set, for years or decades, struggling to pay for their instruments, equipment or even their homes and food, simply hoping to get noticed. These are the people that have worked truly hard, artists such as Metallica, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and RATM, not the manufactured instant-hit winners of the X Factor. As such, McElderry being denied the number one was a victory for musicians all over the world.
Another point to be made is, how can McElderry deserve the number one spot on the music charts, when he is not even a musician? This calls for another definition:
Musician: A person who writes and performs music.
The operative word in this definition is “writes”, i.e that musicians will compose the music that they perform. As McElderry has NOT composed a song that is considered competent enough to be released as yet, he is not a musician; he is simply a singer, and it follows logically that those who write AND perform music (musicians) are superior to those who simply perform it (singers/instrumentalists) of a similar musical ability. As such, not only is McElderry’s cover inferior to RATM, it is also inferior to most other chart artists and any other signed musician (using the assumption that all music is equal, as any preference of genre is subjective and not a valid point in a reasoned debate).
Also, even discounting the previous point, going back to the first definition I provided, those who accuse McElderry’s cover of being better than RATM’s composition are clearly doing so on the basis of vocals (as in McElderry’s song the vocals are so dominant that anything else is barely heard, and when it is, it is sadly basic and mediocre), some even calling RATM’s composition “noise” and such an assessment is clearly very narrow-minded, as they have not considered the instrumentalism behind the main vocal melody (In fact, it could even be argued that Tom Morello’s guitar line is the main melodic track for much of the song, so discounting it is very foolish). In this, it is clear that RATM’s instrumentalists have a greater range of skill than McElderry’s supporting cast. As such, overall, Killing In The Name is far superior for every other viewpoint than vocals (And even then, de la Rocha’s vocals are just as appropriate to the rest of the RATM song as McElderry’s vocals are to his).
Also, those claiming that McElderry’s fan-base is greater than RATM’s and that on this basis McElderry is the real number one are clearly highly ill-informed. RATM are statistically one of the most famous and highest-selling political bands of all time, having been releasing music since before McElderry was born. (This also denounces the misconception that Killing In The Name was made purtely to sabotage McElderry, the song being originally released in 1992). The simple fact that their song was selected and accepted by the campaign as their flagship song shows their fan-base is both wide, numerous and lasting. The accusations that RATM could not fill Wembley while McElderry could are preposterous – in fact, when RATM announced their UK comeback concert at T In The Park last year, the festival sold out in hours, and as many as half a million RATM fans were denied tickets, figures suggest. Therefore, suggesting that RATM are not accomplished enough to deserve the number one is preposterous. Also, the accusations of the song not being popular enough for number one are preposterous – it is an all-time anthem in rock circles and the album it was on went triple platinum – this shows that the single not selling excessively originally was not a matter of the song not being popular, rather of the album being so good that all of the fans already had the song. The clear difference in both musical style and original sale patterns shows that RATM’s song being so high in the charts is a victory for musical diversity and open-mindedness, also because it may change the face of the charts forever, publicizing metal and possibly giving it the potential to be commercially successful once more.
Finally, those claiming that McElderry is really more popular than Rage in the charts are mistaken. The whole point of the campaign was to show that people are sick and tired of the X Factor and to show that it the winners are not as popular as they are thought to be. The fact that the campaign succeeded shows that in actual fact, the generic manufactured pop stars that the X Factor produces and McElderry falls under are not nearly as popular as they are thought to be. This is a victory for people power and the force of the internet.
So, due to the above points, the fact that Killing In The Name is the 2009 number one is a triumph for musical diversity, artists doing their own songwriting, instrumentalism, people power, and musicians all over the world.
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