Over the past week, 500,000 people have bought Rage Against The Machine's 1992 song 'Killing in the Name' to protest the monopoly of 'The X Factor' becoming Christmas Number 1 in the Singles Chart.

Over the past 4 consecutive years, The X Factor, a reality TV show pitting real people against each other for a record contract managed by Simon Cowell has created the Christmas Number 1. This year, a facebook group spoke out against this and asked people to buy RATM's decidedly angry song to try and overthrow the X Factor's Xmas No1 reign.

Joe McElderry, the winner has released a cover of Miley Cyrus' 'The Climb'.

In the end, the winner of X Factor 2009, Joe McElderry lost to Rage Against the Machine by some 50,000 sales.

The metal song has broken two records, becoming the first download-only song to become number 1, and the best-selling download song in one week ever.

and for reference, here are the two songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLC-DGiPBRU - Joe McElderry 'The Climb'

Source: YouTube


I, myself bought a copy of RATM's song on iTunes... sadly i had to sell Joe McElderry's song to people at work today >_>