Rage Against The Machine Vs Joe McElderry

In the UK, a battle was waged in the name of integrity. The opposing forces were completely unexpected.

The battle was between Rage Against The Machine and  X-Factor (American Idol for Brits) winner Joe McElderry.

The artist’s were fighting for the the holiday charts. RATM was pushing their 1992 anthem “Killing In The Name Of ” against McElderrly’s  “The Climb”.

As of this morning, RATM was declared the official winner (thank god!), bringing in over 500,000 sales compared to McElderrly’s 450,000.

The whole battle was kicked off by Jon Morter a logistics specialist with a severe animus towards awful pop. Last year, Morter failed to knock down X-factor winner Alexandra Burke, attempting to rally people around the humorous, but ultimately ineffectual  “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Ashely. 2009 saw Morter come back with a vengeance.

Using the internet as his primary weapon, Morter mobilized a huge online network of individuals via facebook and twitter to rally around his cause. The battle gained national attention and sparked up a press frenzy that eventually convinced the BBC Radio to broadcast a live performance of RATM’s “Killing In The Name Of”.

During the broadcast Front-man Zach de la Rocha and guitarist Tom Morello aired  grievances about the tired ass music from major media outlets. In a sure sign of their defiance, de la Rocha broke his promise to censor his lyrics and enunciated “Fuck you! I won’t do what you tell me” all while flipping off the camera’s.

Music fans everywhere should take a moment and rejoice. It’s not every day that we get to say fuck you to major corporate interests.