From Canoe.ca

LONDON – A grass-roots Facebook campaign has spoiled American Idol mogul Simon Cowell’s Christmas by denying one of his new acts the prestigious Christmas No. 1 spot in Britain.

Thanks to a Facebook campaign that capitalized on growing unhappiness with Cowell’s cookie-cutter approach to pop stardom, the antiestablishment Rage Against the Machine came out ahead of Joe McElderry, winner of Cowell’s popular “X Factor” TV competition.

The upset for the heavily favoured McElderry represents a setback for Cowell, who has made millions on both sides of the Atlantic for his roles in “American Idol,” “X Factor,” “Britain’s Got Talent” and other productions.

Rage Against the Machine finished first with a surge of support for their 1992 hit “Killing in the Name,” which became the first Christmas No. 1 in Britain supported only by downloads.

The Facebook campaign was organized by an English couple Jon and Tracy Morter in a concerted effort to break Cowell’s recent stranglehold on the holiday No. 1 song, a traditional source of status and bragging rights inside Britain.

“Rage Against the Machine was built for moments like this,” the band’s guitarist Tom Morello told The Associated Press. “We are honoured to have the song that liberated the U.K. pop chart.”

“Killing In The Name” surged in the last days of the competition to sell more than 500,000 copies in the past week, compared with sales of 450,000 for McElderry’s single. It also set a record for most downloads in a single week. Morello said the band would donate the profits to the British homeless charity Shelter.

Read the full article here >>.

That rocks jingle bells!

Seriously. Read it here >>.

Ok, so it’s based on record sales and not artist merit and that’s fine. So good for Fucking Nickelback in that sense. They’ve worked hard enough for it I suppose. And you can’t really blame Billboard either, since vulgar pop music is their bread and butter and we all know it.

But to the millions of North Americans who used the hyper-inflated credit bubble to purchase Fucking Nickelback CD’s while bankers raped the economy sideways… fuck you!

Now, the real fun is in the video for the tune.  Al is one pissed off Santa, and this is one funny video. 

Al Jourgensen And Mark Thwaite It’s Always Christmas TIme

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Below are the two songs Rage performed amongst the crowd, acappella with a megaphone.

Rage Against the Machine in Minnesota and the state of political pop | Soundboard | Los Angeles Times

“That’s Rage, getting down with a megaphone after being denied access to the stage at the Ripple Effect festival, a day-long event held Tuesday on the Minnesota State Capitol’s Upper Mall to promote non-partisan progressive politics in the shadow of the Republican convention.

The band was supposed to be the fest’s surprise closer, but according to the Ripple Effect blog, capitol staff and state law enforcement agents shut down the concert because Rage was starting too late — a half hour before the event’s scheduled 7 p.m. curfew.

Rage’s megaphone set ended with the band inspiring thousands of protesters to march toward the Xcel Energy Center, site of the convention. The music fans joined a larger march before being dispersed by police.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video on You Tube

Via Boing Boing: Yes We Can — the McCain mix

O’Reilly Radar: A rare post about the music industry that isn’t completely depressing

The gust of the post on Motley Fool was that litigation is not a good business model.

The Motley Fool.com: We’re All Thieves to the RIAA

“As I’ve said before, a good sign of a dying industry that investors might want to avoid is when it would rather litigate than innovate, signaling a potential destroyer of value. If it starts to pursue paying customers — which doesn’t seem that outlandish at this point — then I guess we’ll all know the extent of the desperation. Investor, beware.”

The thing is, everyone is a potential customer. The marketing done by recording companies targets every person who listens to music. Therefore, the RIAA is ALWAYS going after its customer base.

These law suits are not cheap, and I have not seen any evidence that the RIAA is actually coming out ahead overall. They are costing the industry money, something that may be in shorter supply these days. And all of this money going into legal fees is fighting a battle against the changing reality of information distribution. Any savvy investor, and even the dumb ones should recognize that this is not the way to succeed in business, and is certainly not how the investor would want their money spent.

Who the fuck are these people? I never miss the irony in these stories, especially as they occur in the ideological heartland of cut-throat global capitalism, the USA. I mean, when workers are laid off by the thousands, when drinking water is polluted, or when sick people are denied necessary care, its pretty hard not find a politician, legal bureaucrat, or industry representative to solemnly declare these events part of the inevitable function of market, which must never be interfered with – lest we risk becoming filthy communists.

That is unless “the market” is hurting established players, like the RIAA or subprime brokerage firms, and then of course, all sorts of measures to ‘influence’ the market are miraculously found. New technology causing problems with your pre-1950′s business model? No problem, strangle its use with legislation. Made some bad loans to poor suckers who can’t pay? Here’s a few trillion in liquidity, that might help, but probably not.

I’m not even going to get into the question of “stealing” and “fair use” here. That’s for another installment.