So you probably heard about Rage Against the Machine’s recent campaign to dethrone “X Factor”/”American Idol” eye-roller Simon Cowell from his Christmastime pop charts kingdom by starting a Facebook group rallying fans to purchase “Killing in the Name” the same week Cowell hoped for Joe McElderry to wake up with a number one single under the tree. Well, they succeeded(?) with their “Anarchy Christmas Miracle,” and now a group of Smiths fans have launched a chart-topping coup attempt of their own.
“Celebrate [the] 25th Anniversary of Meat is Murder by making “How Soon Is Now?” UK No.1 [on] February 11,” proclaims their Facebook group, adding later, “Let’s put real music back in the headlines and celebrate one of the UK’s greatest bands ever.”
Honestly, I’m not convinced they’ll pull it off (RATM’s FB group has over 1 million members to date), but the spirit behind these endeavors is interesting to me. Sure, Rage got a bit of flack (and rightfully so) for downplaying that the same parent company, Sony, would profit from the chart race brouhaha, but I just can’t help but approve of fans giving up their hard-earned cash in the name of (what they consider to be) art.