Rage Against The Machine beats the X Factor in The Shazam Charts!
The annual race for the Christmas number one spot in the UK singles chart used to be as much a part of a British Christmas as the Queen’s Speech or watching repeats of Only Fools And Horses on the television after dinner. Excitement surrounding who will hold the coveted number one spot over the festive period used to raise the event to a level of national importance. Bets would be placed, daily newspapers would dedicate entire pages to Xmas novelty records and popular bands would shamelessly add sleigh bells and angelic choirs to their records in order to give them an extra festive advantage in the Yuletide sales race.
Unfortunately, the excitement surrounding the Christmas number one seemed to dry up in 2005 when it was decided the winner from Simon Cowell’s X Factor talent show would release their debut single over the Christmas period: almost guaranteeing the X Factor winner the Christmas number one spot thanks to the show’s 19 Million + viewing figures.
Since 2005 the Christmas number one spot has been held by 4 successive X Factor winners who have all remained totally unchallenged for the top spot; somewhat sucking the fun out of the entire event.
However, this year that all changed. Thanks to a well co-ordinated digital campaign that was largely driven by people on Facebook, it looks as though Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name Of’ may well pip Joe McEldery, this year’s X factor winner, to the Christmas number one spot.
The raucous, downtuned metal of ‘Killing Of The Name Of’ may well be about the least Christmassy record imaginable; but it seems to have struck a chord with those bored with Simon Cowell and co. waltzing off with the Christmas number one spot year in year out.
Rage are currently edging it in the midweek singles sales charts and whatever your thoughts of ‘Killing In The Name Of are, it’s clear that there’s a proper race to the number one spot this Christmas.
Even if RATM aren’t successful in beating Cowell to the pole position this year, what is clear is that UK Shazamers are definitely backing the metallers to the top with ‘Killing In The Name Of’ scoring an amazing 570% more tags than ‘The Climb’ during the last week.
The people have spoken!
