what machine are we raging against, exactly?
If you’ve been quarantined with the plague for about a week, you may not know that a war is afoot. Oh yes, dear plague-suffering reader: the nefarious forces of darkness known as “alternative music fans” have had as much as they can take, and they’re striking back. With a vengeance. You may have naively
HE MUST BE STOPPED
believed that this year’s X Factor winner — the doe-eyed Joe McElderry — and his cover of Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” seemed destined for the Christmas number one this year. Think again. Maybe. Or something. See, the schemy old alt.music fans have decided to get another, rather more anti-establishment track to number one this December: in this case Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name”.
The thinking here seems to be that if “Killing in the Name” reaches number one, we will have proven something to the mysterious legions of executives who believe that music is all about money. And we will have proven this by… spending our money. On music. Of course, both artists involved are owned by Sony, and in the end it is the Sony executives who really stand to gain from this chart-topper-face-off, but it’s very difficult to find a band who aren’t owned by Sony or at least a similar large corporation and that’s not really my point. I’m just wondering what exactly we’re proving, and to whom.
The NME, chief purveyor of all things kind-of alternative, is naturally supporting the campaign, with rather intriguing cries of “anarchy”. My understanding of anarchy is admittedly limited, but I am pretty sure it doesn’t involve sedately purchasing things. I guess if no one bought any singles at all this Christmas, it would be kind of anarchic, but as it stands, “going out and buying stuff with money” isn’t generally a great way of sticking it to The Man. The Man basically invented “buying stuff with money”. And he really fucking likes it as well.
Okay, you say, it’s not anarchy. But it is a huge fuck-you to Simon Cowell, which is almost as good if not better. Fine, I say. Let’s unravel this one. All SiCow cares about is money (boo!). But in this scenario, he is not actually losing out on any money. He may actually be making money, if there’s a backlash from X Factor fans. All he will lose out on if RATM reach number one is the glory attached to having a Christmas number one. And people like Simon Cowell invented that glory, and attached it with a paste made from cold hard sales. If we go out of our way to achieve a Christmas number one for RATM, we’re just buying into a value system that the mainstream music industry created to begin with. We’re trying to prove that X Factor music is rubbish because it’s all about sales, and yet we’re doing that by starting a sales battle. Circular logic is circular.
THIS WILL SAVE MUSIC FOR SOME REASON
Somewhat unsurprisingly, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello has spoken out in favour of the camapign. He says: “People are tired of being spoon fed one schmaltzy balled after another. They want to take back their own charts. We’re honoured they’ve chosen our song to be the rebel anthem to topple The X Factor monopoly.” Here, Morello apparently sees some difference between “the people” and “the X Factor monopoly”. It seems ”the people” are living beings who buy Rage Against the Machine singles, and “the X Factor monopoly” is some kind of self-propagating organism which has taken over the “people’s charts”. Except, whoops, turns out people are the ones who have been buying X Factor singles all along! Yes, they may not have your taste in fine wine and pseudo-anarchic capitalism, Mr Morello, but they are people. Not a monopoly. A public. An X Factor-loving public. Nobody is spoon-feeding anybody anything. It turns out some people actually like listening to Joe McElderry singing. I’m sorry. I know it hurts. But it’s the truth.
So it seems that this campaign is built on more than a few fundamental misunderstandings. Lining the pockets of Sony executives is not anarchy; Simon Cowell probably doesn’t really give much of a shit; the people you are attempting to beat are just ordinary record-buying people; and you have no idea what anarchy actually is (me neither).
So, is that it? Is music lost forever? Um, no. Most people will continue to buy mainstream music, which is why it’s called mainstream, and some people will continue to buy alternative music (again, the clue is in the name). We may never reach number one, but that may not actually mean anything. In fact, it definitely doesn’t. Personally, I don’t even think obediently buying a seventeen-year-old single that reached the charts on its original release is the best way to prove that music is still alive; if you want to be alternative, go and support some new independent artists. Or join a band.
I mean, come on. Christmas number ones? They’re just so not rock ‘n’ roll.
Wait…I thought only bourgeouis fucks who don’t care about animals and most certainly don’t care about RATM appreciate fois gras?? Now I’m deeply confused. Are they “people” or non-people?
Being an eternal diplomat, I’m quite in favour of a compromise – the X-Factor finalists covering ‘Killing in the Name’ for No 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6M_IYPUWd8
I’m not buying either. Does this make me a true anarchist or a tight-fisted git? The choice… is yours.
You mean there’s a difference?
Wow, I really don’t get anarchy.
Hi there,
In short, I think you’re massively over complicating this. There are a lot of people, myself included, who are utterly sick to the back teeth of the X-Factor. Maybe we’re the silent majority, maybe we’re not, but there’s a lot of us judging by what’s going on. The person who came up with buying RATM hit on this Zeitgeist.
Now, I don’t care what the song is, and who’s making money from it, because it doesn’t change that a lot of people are making a public vote against that self-important, glorified karaoke, mind numbing excuse for entertainment.
It is as simple as that, and none of the anarchy and circular logic you spoke about. It’s simply a lot of people who have lost their patience, myself included.
I don’t think I’m overcomplicating anything. Go and buy “Killing in the Name” if it makes you happy, by all means. I just wonder why people who like alternative music are bothered about who gets Christmas number one anyway. It’s alternative for a reason.
Basically, you’re trying to undermine the X Factor by literally funding the system that keeps X Factor music in production. Funding it with your money. I’m sorry. Doesn’t make much sense to me.
This is why I said you’re over complicating it. It being ‘alternative’ is irrelevant. What we’re all buying could be anything, the track, it’s genre, it’s artist, are all irrelevant. We’re just sick of that show, and a protest wouldn’t work very well if we all went and bought a random track would it?
We all had to get behind something, but what it was didn’t matter. I don’t even think RATM is an appropriate Christmas song, but that is secondary to simply telling X-Factor to go away.
So the virtue is that it is an “alternative” to X Factor, which was kind of my point.
If you don’t care what is number one so long as it’s not X Factor, then clearly it’s nothing to do with the music industry, or music itself, which I misunderstood. I mean, the way you tell it, it’s solely a hatred of one show that airs close to Christmas every year and is very popular. That’s it. Seems like kind of a paltry protest, but spend your money if you will.
Firstly, I must say this is a very well written post, giving your point of view and opinion succinctly, and I certainly don’t begrudge you that.
Here’s why I have bought the RatM single over the X-Factor:
I cannot abide these reality TV shows that aim to churn out a new celebrity each year by “giving them a chance”. For a start off, the entire genre of the X-Factor is, as you call it, mainstream. I call it pop. Certainly not mainstream, because it’s not mainstream to everybody. In fact, to the great majority of music listeners in the UK, and even the world, so-called mainstream music is pretty much a minority compared to all the other genres out there. There are dozens to choose from, after all.
The stars of these shows are picked from obscurity, thrown into a competition, and, if they are lucky, win it. The rest might be good enough to attract attention.
But where’s the hard work?
Where’s the years (not weeks, not months, YEARS) of hard work, grit, and dedication put in by these performers, busting a gut to prove that they have got talent? Many bands like RatM, most ‘alternative’ (as you call them) bands, spend years slogging away earning very little money gigging small bars and clubs, trying to make a name for themselves. X-Factor takes away all that slog for a small handful of performers, and, if they are lucky, throws them into a multi-million pound career that lasts, well, not very long. None of them had to actually work for it, at least not to the degree of most other bands out there.
I’ve listened to bands who aren’t ‘big’, don’t play sell-out tours in massive venues, and yet still have talent to match, and perhaps even exceed, that of X-Factor winners. They may never make it big. But they work bloody hard for the small amount of recognition they get.
Now, some of the performers on X-Factor are good. I don’t think JM is good, but there have been artists who I would go out and pay good money for their music.
Why RatM? Well, because one guy picked them at random. He could’ve picked anyone, really. Personally, I’m not a RatM fan (though I do love heavy metal, rock, punk and indie music) but I was happy to jump on the bandwagon. Because in doing so I’m saying that I’ve had enough of the Christmas Number 1 chart being dominated by a single show churning out the same manufactured pop act every year; I want to see a decent battle for the number one spot, played out by different bands who come from different genres and styles of music, to see who gets the public’s vote. Not the current system of X-Factor brainwashing a few million people into buying the winner’s single, and everyone else not having anything to buy because no larger labels or bands will bother to go up against them. From now on, I want the other bands to have a go for that coveted Christmas Number 1. Maybe next year an original song on its first release will beat X-Factor, simply by being a good song by a good band.
This is as much about restoring faith in the British love of decent and varied music as giving a big two fingered salute to Simon Cowell or the media moguls. They will always find a way of making money out of us, thats why they earn millions and we don’t. It’s something they’re good at. But I want to see a host of bands fighting it out for the top of the charts next year, not just one manufactured act and no-one else.
On my own music tastes: my two favourite bands are HIM and Evile. HIM are rock metallers, well experienced, doing sellout stadium tours the world over, with many albums to their name. Evile are a thrash metal band from the town where I live. After a slight setback in October (their bass player, Mike Alexander, died of a blood clot on his lung while on tour in Sweden) Evile will be starting a headline tour in January of the UK and Europe, before joining some US bands as a support act later on in 2010. They are by no means the biggest band out there. But they are slogging their arses off to get there. Otherwise, I like rock, heavy metal, some goth music, country, classical, a few odd pop songs and groups, and a handful of other snippets of other genres.
Just my thoughts, agree with them, or tear them apart, at will.
Andy
I assure you that I don’t intend to tear them apart. I appreciate your engagement with the whole topic, and you make plenty of sense.
I think your claim that X Factor is “not mainstream, because it’s not mainstream to everybody” is disproven by the numbers who vote for and buy the X Factor singles. Nothing is ever going to appeal to everyone. X Factor is the most popular, and therefore most mainstream, option out there at the moment. I don’t follow any past X Factor contestants, nor have I ever spent any money on any X Factor related merchandise (except a Jedward t-shirt, but I bought it from a dodgy street vendor, so it’s all good), but I don’t object to its classification as mainstream.
Of course it is a minority compared to all the other music that everybody else likes put together, but there is no one united genre that sells more, so the RATM thing is in that way a false premise. It doesn’t represent any shift in musical tastes or even a statement about musical tastes. It just says there are a lot of people who don’t like X Factor. That’s fine. I think we always knew that. But people who don’t like X Factor doesn’t necessarily have anything else in common, which is the illusion this campaign is creating. To say that an original song could go on to be Christmas number one due to this RATM business is ignoring the fact that this idea is nothing to do with music or musical taste. It’s a kind of anti-music protest.
You’re absolutely right to say that the X contestants don’t really do the work to deserve what they get. I don’t really appreciate the disposable pop star industry, and when I listen to pop I prefer artists who write and perform their own songs, with very few exceptions. But again, my preferences aren’t relevant. If this is what people want from music, and this is the life these pop stars want to live, I see no reason to protest against it. It is not crowding out the production of independent music, it is just (possibly) preventing it from reaching number one. And, as I said before, the only reason we care about reaching number one to begin with is because we are told it’s important by people who are interested in sales. Number one is basically an imaginary concept. It’s only made public in the interests of stirring up lucrative campaigns like this one.
You’re preaching to the choir when it comes to supporting independent bands. I’ve seen Rage Against the Machine live already, and in general I’m an indie cindie. I just wanted to make some points about the relationship between music and sales and how much we’re really challenging that by coveting the Christmas number one as much as the X Factor does to begin with.
I find the best protest against X Factor is to just ignore it…and I have a primary school age child (and that is surely one of its main audience groups). We watch Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday nights (excellent all round family entertainment – silly but quite life-affirming in its way) and we are vaguely aware that other families watch another programme but we don’t worry ourselves too much about it. As you rightly point out…lots of people will always want to watch and listen to…well, crap.
I kind of approve of the idea of getting something else to Xmas number one but I’m not sure this was the best choice of weapon.
x
I am not buying either. I don’t see how Cowell loses if this kid doesn’t get number one though. Cowells money has been made, its a record company that are linked to his, who get the money if RATM get to number 1. The kid at the heart of it, gets nothing either way. His number 1, may mean a moment in teh sun. The whole thing sucks because of the existence of the programme- but am not entirely convinced that buying RATM records, is way to protest-
http://deeplyflawedbuttrying.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/x-factor-and-rage-against-the-machine/
And I agree. If the reason fro buying a record, is that it is a protest alternative, then point in buying that record is lost. Just another three quid in record company pockets.
Rage Against the Machine VS X-Factor is about more than Cowell or Sony BMG http://justjuiced.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/rage-against-the-machine-vs-x-factor-is-about-more-than-cowell-or-sony-bmg/
I bought Killing in the Name and The Climb… im a bit confused about the whole thing to be honest.
While personally I don’t care either way, and were I to take the “anti-X-factor” side in the debate, I certainly wouldn’t have chosen RATM as my rival song, there is still an issue here.
This article requires more awareness of media systems.
“Pop music” is a concept supposedly made up entirely of music that is popular. Unfortunately, music that is popular is largely decided by what music has the greatest exposure to a mass audience. People grow to accept what they hear the most, for better or for worse. (If there is any contention on this point, then a perfect example I can think of is metal music. It is rare to find someone who enjoys the particularly “heavy” ends of the spectrum of metal music when all they’ve been exposed to beforehand are acts such as ‘Westlife’ or ‘Boyzone’. However, people who have grown up listening to Iron Maiden, Scorpions, etc. tend to be more open-minded towards and fond of music with gruff vocals and white-noise guitar sounds.)
The X Factor, being given multiple television slots a week over several months, and now with a resulting single released has quite certainly been granted an abundance among the media. As a result, it has become commonplace to a majority of society. Forced upon people in the same way products such as coca-cola, gilette razors and Pedigree dog food have been for years.
Don’t get me wrong- there are people who would enjoy and pay for this music without having been exposed to it in such a manner, certainly. This isn’t the point however. The point is that other, “alternative” music is not given the same exposure – as a result, large audiences are simply left ignorant of the existence of many musical acts. Even the term “alternative” points to this – what is this music an alternative to?
The RATM vs. The X Factor fued is, for many people, a way of rebelling against this “Pop music” not simply because it is “crap” or “commercial nonsense” but because modern “Pop music” has grown more and more in recent years to be about what earns money for record companies, and what sells, rather than what music has been about since its original incarnation – namely, art. As well as this, the rivalry is a way of expressing freedom from media control.
The cruel ironies are that Sony most likely began this movement themselves. Increasing record sales – and of course, interest in older products which have declined in sales in recent years – would seem like a good idea to them, especially if it can be one with relatively no cost, and merely by making some angry comments on social networking sites. Similarly, the people supporting the RATM side may be saying that they are free from the control of televised media, but seem to be missing the effect that social networking sites are having on them. People can be so blind, sometimes.
Or maybe not. There is nothing “stupid” – as you wish to say – about the movement itself. Only the motivations of some of its participants. We live in a capitalist society, and so there is no way a person can declare a figurative war on something such as The X Factor without still giving money to “The Man”. There is no way music can become popular without “The Man” in a capitalist society, and certainly, this movement could not happen without a reasonably popular song to lead the offensive. And how does one beat a song in “sales” without getting More sales? So free music simply does not work. “The Man” must be involved.
So the movement is justified. Capitalism has placed business so much in control of our society that the movement must make compromises in order to act. But the main message is still there. To put it as the “alternative music fans” do, they are saying “Screw you Simon Cowell.” Somewhat successfully too, if I hear correctly. To put it more elegantly, they are successfully declaring that, while “The Man” still grows richer, and the media still profits, we have not entirely given up our free-will, and that while they will accept business manipulating art, they will not accept business doing away with art completely.
Still. I’m not fond of “Killing in the Name” to be honest. Too rebellious. I understand fighting back, but there’s no need to carry around a big sign saying “We are fighting back” while you do it. Something more obscure would be better. Especially if the band were also less known. Perhaps a song from the new ‘Air’ album, “Love 2″ perhaps? I think it would be a better choice – and probably have greater market appeal, considering the bands softer and more relaxing melodies. Unfortunately, since they’re less well known, they’d probably acquire much fewer sales, I suppose. Still, a person can always hope.
I hope this comment has been useful, in helping you form a more understanding and accepting opinion of other people’s opinions and movements.
I don’t know if I need to be more “understanding” or “accepting” of capitalist movements than I already am (read: not very), but I would honestly hope that I haven’t been disrespectful of anyone in particular during the article or here in the comments. And while I appreciated your lecture on pop culture, it probably wasn’t as interesting as the actual lectures on pop culture that I take notes on in university. Ooooh. I said it.
My original point is that you’re attempting to stick it to The Man by:
a) Reinforcing the structures that The Man created
b) Financially supporting The Man himself
You may have a point about the proliferation of the X Factor brand, but it is a legitimate capitalist enterprise. If all you’re using to fight it is capitalism, then your point becomes totally confused. Also that digression about people not being exposed to metal music doesn’t entirely make sense. The Man will expose people to whatever will sell in highest numbers. If you honestly believe that heavy metal would sell in equal or even similar numbers to X Factor pop if it was played to the same extent, then your theory as to why it is not played to the same extent collapses. The reason X Factor is proliferated is to make money. The reason X Factor is the best money-making genre is because it sells the most. If The Man could make a killing on heavy metal, he would do it. He doesn’t have a personal preference for syrup-flvoured teen pop ballads. He has a preference for money.
According to this now-successful campaign, the only way to “protest” at a capitalist democratic movement is to get self-proclaimed high-culture types to throw money at it. With the underlying and unspoken fear that the working class might continue to control the “art” of popular music, because, well, what would become of us then, right?
In other words, I understand and accept your opinion, and I respectfully reject it. Nice to be reminded how condescension tastes, though. Kind of pineapple-y.
Ive baiscally ignored what everyone else has said and come to this conclusion:
children listen to the christmas number 1 , it generally being sosme family friendly dribble
now would you rather have your child listen to Miley cyrus or RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE?
Simple choice