Sheep Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine for Christmas #1. I’ve been invited to this group about ten times. So I joined and tried to have a conversation about the idea with some of the other members. Their responses contained a large volume of the word ‘fuck’ as well as various other insults, often misspelled.

It struck me that talking to these people was very much like talking to politicians. They are adamant about every single point, yet if they spy you getting near a chink in their armour, they change stance. Their tag line reads “Fuck you I won’t buy what you sell me!” Very clever. One person said to me (and I reproduce all comments as they were originally typed):

“this is a stand up and fight demonstration against the crass majority thats musical taste is shaped by”

OK, so what are you against? People in offices making decisions about marketing? People like Simon Cowell who have the weight to send things straight into the charts? Pop music? I hate to break it to you guys, but Rage records are all put out on by big record companies. In face, in this case the same company that Simon Cowell works for… Sony. I doubt Rage would get much money from the single sales, and nor do they need it. My suggestion was, instead of buying a single, go to a local gig. Buy an independent album. Put some money into artist’s pockets and cut out the corporate machine. The response?

“no way could you get everyone to rush out and by an independent bands single without an expensive advertising method and no way would that band deserve all the attention and money they would recieve"

What a lovely sentiment. Apparently, if a band is small, they are automatically shit. You have to have sold several million records to ‘deserve’ and success. I do accept the point about advertising though, despite the fact it’s irrelevant whether anyone gets to the top of the charts or not.

It’s a nice sentiment to try and topple the X Factor’s dominance of the Christmas #1 spot, but let’s not pretend it’s a noble protest. I’d love to see these guys talk to Zach de la Rocha and tell him they were going to buy a 17 year old American single to protest about the consumerist British music industry. People kept talking about how ‘important’ this idea was, and how they were doing it because they ‘cared’ about music. And they said all this as if I didn’t, which is very clearly not true.

If you care about music, why not do this every week? If you care about music, why are you so preoccupied by the singles chart? If you care about music, why don’t you go and watch live music? If you care about music, why not buy a song that you like and don’t already own, and isn’t nearly 20 years old, by a band who haven’t released any new music since 2002? And the question I’d really like to ask them is:

If you care about music, why do you hate Simon Cowell?

How many people do you think gave thought up a considered answer to this? Not many, I’d expect. I’m not saying I like the man, it just seems like he’s demonised because he’s an easy target.

Let’s be honest, this isn’t any different to those groups on Facebook that are called:

“IF I GET 1 MILLON FOLOWERS MY GF WILL LET ME CALL MY SON SPIDERMAN!!!!!!!1!!! OMG”

People just take it as a funny idea, and follow like sheep. Except in this case it’s different. That child is never going to be called Spiderman. Unless the parents are actually fucking idiots. This just seems to be people assuming that by buying this single, they’re embodying the spirit of the song – and they haven’t even thought about how or why.

Hell, I hope they succeed. I hope they have to cut out all the swear words when they play it on Radio 1. I’m just happy listening to some good old fashioned Christmas music, I’ll stick Rage on when I’m drunk and fancy a play-fight with Joe Selwyn. And to everyone who would like to force me to buy Killing in the Name:

Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!
Motherfucker!

I think that’s the right amount…