More To Rage Than Giving Cowell A Good Kicking

One year on from all the fun and games which surrounded the race for Christmas number 1, I’m posting the article I wrote on the subject for the
Social Arts Network.

For the first time since
Band Aid in 2004, we have a Christmas number 1 that hasn’t been produced from
Simon Cowell’s reality TV conveyer belt.
Rage Against the Machine sold over half a million downloads of their early nineties hit, if you can call getting to number 25 such a thing,
‘Killing in the Name’. This saw them take the top spot by 50,000 more sales than
X-factor winner Joe. Those in the media that know about such things are calling this one of the biggest shocks in chart history, up there with
Mr. Blobby beating
Take That to the festive number 1 back in 1993.

The people behind the RATM campaign certainly achieved their goals in not only defeating Cowell’s latest pop product, but restoring the race for Christmas number 1 to the status it held less than a decade ago, when it was the most talked about sales week of any year.

While Facebook and Twitter has been a wash with people celebrating a victory for real music, sticking the boot into Simon Cowell or, already wondering what could do it next year, it’s also worth reflecting on another major part of the Rage success, something which did get slightly overlooked in the hysteria.

Those that created the Facebook campaign, as well as encouraging people to download ‘Killing in the Name’, also suggested group members might like to make a small donation to
Shelter. In doing so, £72,000 has been raised for the homeless charity, and that’s before you include the donation Rage themselves will be making from money made from the song sales.

The Thursday before the Christmas chart was revealed, Rage Against the Machine made a somewhat controversial appearance on the Five Live breakfast show, a headline grabber since they performed the track live following an interview with Nicky Campbell and, either not realizing, or choosing to ignore that they were live, attempted to perform the song in full, F words and all.

Following this, the station was swamped by phone calls and emails from people arguing the case for and against Rage or Joe. One such contributor drew attention to the link to Shelter, suggesting that those that were downloading the song and justifying their actions with the homeless charity in mind were merely clutching at straws. The emailer in question wondered what percentage would continue to support Shelter in the future, as she and her husband were doing by way of a monthly contribution. As well as missing, perhaps not being aware of, the link through Facebook to make donations, they also overlooked something which is absolutely vital to the success of any charity.

Charities both large and small, benefit greatly from loyal support, people that make a monthly or annual donation, but sadly a lot simply wouldn’t survive from this alone. Although Shelter in this case were the fortunate beneficiaries of the Rage campaign group founders interest in their cause, this incident is an extremely high profile example of what all charitable organizations need to include in their yearly activity. Something which, for want of a better term, can be regarded as a publicity stunt. So not only was it a happy Christmas for fans of Rage Against the Machine, but also for Shelter and its fundraising team. A New Year’s resolution for the charity sector should be to take inspiration from this in a time when more people have les money to spare. OK so not everyone can get the music press on their side, but a bit of social networking imagination and the ability to seize the moment can get you a long way.