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</ref> As a result, the track successfully reached the number one spot as revealed on [[BBC Radio 1]] on December 20, 2009, selling over 500,000 copies and being the first exclusively download-only single to hit number one in the process.<ref name="bbc-rage">{{cite web
</ref> As a result, the track successfully reached the number one spot as revealed on [[BBC Radio 1]] on December 20, 2009, selling over 500,000 copies and being the first exclusively download-only single to hit number one in the process. <ref name="bbc-rage">{{cite web
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| title = Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts
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A BBC spokesperson said [[BBC Radio 1]] and [[BBC Radio 6 Music]] would continue to play the clean edit of “Killing in the Name” which cuts out the 17 swearwords at the end of the song. [[BBC Radio 2]] will not play the Rage Against the Machine track but will play Joe McElderry's.<ref>[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/rage-against-the-machine-take-christmas-no1-slot-1846247.html]</ref>
A BBC spokesperson said [[BBC Radio 1]] and [[BBC Radio 6 Music]] would continue to play the clean edit of “Killing in the Name” which cuts out the 17 swearwords at the end of the song. [[BBC Radio 2]] will not play the Rage Against the Machine track but will play rival Joe McElderry's "The Climb" that reached #2.<ref name="bbc-rage">{{cite web
| date = 2009-12-20
| title = Rage Against the Machine take Christmas No.1 slot
| url = http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/rage-against-the-machine-take-christmas-no1-slot-1846247.html
| publisher = [[The Independent]]
| accessdate = 2009-12-20
| quote = A BBC spokesperson said Radio 1 and Radio 6 would continue to play the clean edit of “Killing in the Name” which cuts out the 17 swearwords at the end of the song. Radio Two will not play the Rage track but will play McElderry.
}}
</ref>


== Charts ==
== Charts ==

Revision as of 19:59, 20 December 2009

"Killing in the Name"
Song

"Killing in the Name" is a song by American rap metal band Rage Against the Machine, featured on their 1992 self-titled debut album. Released as the lead single from the album in November 1992, the song reached number 25 on the UK Singles Chart and has now become the official Christmas Number 1 of 2009.

Written about revolution against corruption in society, "Killing in the Name" is widely recognised as the band's signature song, and has been noted for its distinctive guitar riffs and heavy use of strong language.

In 2009 the song was part of a successful Facebook campaign to prevent The X Factor winner's song from gaining the Christmas number one in the UK[1]. The campaign provoked commentary from both parties and other musicians, as well as gaining coverage in national press. As a result of the campaign, the single became the first song to reach the Christmas number one spot on downloads alone.[2]

Song

"Killing in the Name" has been described as "a howling, expletive-driven tirade against the ills of American society."[3] The song repeats six lines of lyrics and the uncensored version contains the word "fuck" seventeen times.[4] The song builds in intensity, repeating the lines "And now you do what they told ya. And now you're under control" culminating in Zack de la Rocha screaming "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me! Motherfucker!".[5]

The song lyrics reference the allegation that some members of US police forces are members of the Ku Klux Klan organization, whose symbol is the burning cross. The BBC News website refers to it as railing against "the military-industrial complex, justifying killing for the benefit of, as the song puts it, the chosen whites."[6][7][8]

"Killing in the Name" was originally written and recorded shortly after Rage Against The Machine formed as part of a 12 song self-released cassette. After signing with Epic Records the band released their self titled debut album, which reached triple platinum status, driven by heavy radio play of "Killing in the Name".[4]

Rage Against the Machine's first video for "Killing in the Name" did not receive any airplay in the US due to the explicit language in the song's refrain. The song received substantial airplay in Europe and drove the band's popularity outside its home country.[9]

Writing process

Tom Morello created the heavier riffs while teaching a student drop D tuning. He stopped the lesson and recorded the riff.[10] The next day the band met in a studio and according to Morello the song "Killing in the Name" was created in a collaborative effort, combining his riff with "Timmy C.'s magmalike bass, Brad Wilk's funky, brutal drumming and Zack's conviction".[11]

This song was performed as an extended instrumental at their first public performance at Cal State in the Quad, on October 23, 1991.

Single

Template:Sound sample box align right

"Killing in the Name" (1992)
30 second sample of Killing in the Name
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Template:Sample box end

Epic Records released Rage Against the Machine's self titled debut album on November 6, 1992. The album included the singles "Killing in the Name", "Freedom" and "Take the Power Back".[9]

Single track listing:

  1. "Killing in the Name"
  2. "Darkness"
  3. "Clear the Lane"

"Darkness" and "Clear the Lane" were re-mastered versions of the respective demo tracks.

The single's cover pictured Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, burning himself to death in Saigon in 1963 in protest of the murder of Buddhists by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm's regime.

Music video

The video, produced and directed by Peter Gideon, a guitar student of Tom Morello who had a video camera, was filmed during two shows in small Los Angeles venues, the Whisky a Go Go and the Club With No Name. Released in December 1992, (the uncensored version of) the video clip was shown on European MTV but was banned on American MTV because of the explicit lyrics. As a result the video's existence was in doubt until its release on the self-titled video.

United Kingdom

The song earned its notoriety in the United Kingdom in 1993 when BBC Radio 1 DJ, Bruno Brookes, played the uncensored version of the song on his Top 40 countdown, leading to 138 complaints.[12] This moment of infamy has since been consistently referenced by numerous British rock media. [citation needed]

The song drew controversy again in Britain on November 2008, when it was played over the speakers in an Asda supermarket in Preston, Lancashire, prompting numerous customers complaints.[13][14]

A live unedited version of the song was broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live by chat host Nicky Campbell in December 2009 following an interview with the band. The song was cut, but only after the song's signature "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" had been repeated four times.[15]

Christmas Number One – 2009 campaign

In early December 2009, members of the social networking site Facebook launched a group encouraging people to buy the song in the week running up to Christmas in order to prevent the winner of the The X Factor TV show from achieving the coveted Christmas number one slot in the UK Singles Chart for the fifth year running and have "Killing in the Name" as Christmas Number One.[16][17] On December 15 the BBC reported the group has over 950,000 members.[18]

Alongside the group, a JustGiving page was created to raise money for UK homeless charity Shelter which, as of 19 December, was reported to have raised over £50,000 (approximately $80,000).[19]

After the creator of The X Factor, Simon Cowell, publicly denounced the campaign as "stupid" and "cynical", the group has been mentioned on various UK news channels, radio stations and website blogs.[20]

The campaign has also been supported by Rage Against the Machine themselves. Guitarist Tom Morello said that achieving the Christmas number one would be a "wonderful dose of anarchy" and that he plans to donate some of the unexpected windfall to charity.[21][15] Musicians Dave Grohl, Liam Howlett, Sir Paul McCartney, The Prodigy and the band Muse [22][citation needed] also pledged their support for the campaign. [23][24][25] Comedians Stephen Fry, Ross Noble and Bill Bailey are also among the celebrity supporters of the campaign. [25][26]

On 17 December, it was reported that most bookmakers had suspended betting, with Ladbrokes announcing that "Killing in the Name" was favourite.[27][28] This was later retracted, with Ladbrokes reinstating X Factor winner Joe McElderry as favourite.[29]

After two days of sales, "Killing in the Name" was reported to be ahead by 10%, resulting in at least one major bookmaker re-opening its betting market for Christmas Number One.[18] Further midweek chart figures released on December 16 suggested "Killing in the Name" had widened the gap at the top of the charts to approximately 65,000 copies. Industry experts expect the physical CD release of McElderry's "The Climb" on Wednesday will help provide it with a big sales boost.[30][31] On December 17, a representative of HMV said Rage Against the Machine were still ahead, but only by "a few thousand" copies.[32] On December 19, the final day that sales were eligible for inclusion in the chart, NME announced that The X Factor single was outselling Rage Against the Machine by 11,000 copies. The same article included a statement from McElderry, in which he described "Killing in the Name" as "dreadful".[33] On December 20, before the final results were announced, 7Digital chief Ben Drury claimed on Twitter that "Killing in the Name" could still win. Drury's claim was based on the fact that the song had been downloaded 100,000 times on December 19 alone.[33] As a result, the track successfully reached the number one spot as revealed on BBC Radio 1 on December 20, 2009, selling over 500,000 copies and being the first exclusively download-only single to hit number one in the process. [34] A BBC spokesperson said BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music would continue to play the clean edit of “Killing in the Name” which cuts out the 17 swearwords at the end of the song. BBC Radio 2 will not play the Rage Against the Machine track but will play rival Joe McElderry's "The Climb" that reached #2.[34]

Charts

"Killing in the Name" reached #2 in the Irish Singles Chart, after a similar campaign to get the song to #1. The Christmas Chart for Ireland is decided a week later than the UK Chart. The song clinched the UK Christmas Number one from Joe McElderry, selling 500,000 copies.

Chart Year Position
UK Singles Chart 1993
25
Irish Singles Chart[35] 2009
2
UK Singles Chart [34] 2009
1Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
  • On 22 August 2008, Scottish alt-rock band Biffy Clyro covered a re-worked acoustic version of "Killing in the Name" on Jo Whiley's Show at The Reading Festival on BBC Radio 1.[37] The band agreed that, for this live broadcast, they would not use expletives and sung just the melody in place of "Fuck you" in the song. The crowd were bound by no such agreement and began an impromptu mass sing along with "Fuck you" in place, audible by the recording equipment. As this broadcast was going out live at lunchtime, Jo Whiley was required to apologize on air after the performance.[citation needed]

Recognition

  • In July 2009, "Killing in the Name" was voted at number #2 in the Hottest 100 of all time countdown poll, conducted by Australian radio station, Triple J. More than half a million votes were cast in.[10]
  • "Killing in the Name" earned a spot on Guitar World's list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos" at #89.[38]
  • Rolling Stone lists "Killing in the Name" as the 24th in its 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.[11]

Video games

  • A note-for-note cover version of "Killing in the Name" is a playable song in the Guitar Hero II video game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, as a part of the main song list. It is found in the fifth song tier, Return of the Shred, in the PS2 version and in the sixth tier, Relentless Riffs, in the Xbox 360 version. The song's lyrics are altered to remove the expletives, replacing the sentence repeated 16 times "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" with "Now you're under control, I won't do what you tell me", and the word "Motherfucker" near the end with "Under control".[40]

Credits

Preceded by Christmas number-one singles in the UK
2009 		Succeeded by
incumbent
Preceded by UK Singles Chart number-one single
December 20, 2009 – 		Succeeded by
incumbent

References

  1. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8423340.stm
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbc2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Buckley, Peter (2003). The rough guide to rock. Rough Guides. p. 844. ISBN 9781843531050.
  4. ^ a b "The History Of: Rage Against The Machine". Ulimate Guitar. 2007-07-27. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  5. ^ Laura L. Finley (2002-03-09). "The Lyrics of Rage Against the Machine: A Study in Radical Criminology,". Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture. Western Michigan University: JCJPC. ISSN 1070-8286. Retrieved 2009-12-17.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  6. ^ "What is anti-X Factor song Killing In The Name all about?". BBC. 2009-12-18. Archived from the original on 2009-12-20. Retrieved 2009-12-20.
  7. ^ Savage, Mark (16 December 2009). "What the critics say: X Factor chart battle". Quoting Luke Lewis of NME. BBC. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  8. ^ McIver, Joel (2002). Nu-metal: the next generation of rock & punk. Omnibus Press. p. 104. ISBN 0711992096.
  9. ^ a b Sonya Shelton (2009-11-16). "Rage Against the Machine Biography: Contemporary Musicians". eNotes. Retrieved 2009-12-17. (PDF)
  10. ^ a b "Countdown: Hottest 100 - Off All Time". Triple J. 2009-01-01. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  11. ^ a b Austin Scaggs (2002-12-16). "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone (magazine). Archived from the original on 2009-12-20. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  12. ^ John Robinson (2000-01-29). "The revolution will not be trivialised". New Musical Express. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  13. ^ Robin Murray (2009-11-19). "Rage Against the Machine row". clashmusic.com. Idiomag.com. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  14. ^ November 19, 2008. Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' sparks Asda furore
  15. ^ a b BBC News (2009-12-17). ""Rage Against The Machine swear on 5 live"". BBC Corp. Retrieved 2009-12-17. Well, we were expecting it and asked them not to do it and they did it anyway - so buy Joe's record.
  16. ^ "Rage Against The Machine to take on 'The X Factor' for Christmas Number One". New Music Express. 2009-12-04. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  17. ^ Johnny Famethrowa (2009-12-04). "Rage Against The "X-Factor"". Yahoo! Music. Yahoo!. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  18. ^ a b "Rock anthem outselling X Factor winner Joe McElderry". BBC. 2009-12-15. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  19. ^ Scott Colothan (2009-12-19). "Buy Rage Against The Machine's Killing In The Name Today!". Gigwise.com. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
  20. ^ Liz Thomas (2009-12-11). "Future of X Factor in chaos as Simon Cowell demands more money to return show to ITV". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 2009-12-17. [Simon Cowell] The X Factor creator and judge said the Facebook campaign, which he saw as a personal vendetta against him, was 'cynical' and 'dismissive' of the show's viewers.
  21. ^ "Rage Against The Machine's Morello praises chart race". BBC News. BBC Corp. 2009-12-16. Retrieved 2009-12-17. Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello has said that beating the X Factor single to Christmas number one will be a "wonderful dose of anarchy".
  22. ^ Muse Website with Banner image, advertising Rage Against the Machine from iTunes to visitor
  23. ^ Scott Colothan (2009-12-17). "Dave Grohl: 'I'm Buying Rage Against The Machine'". Gigwise.com. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  24. ^ "Liam Howlett: 'Rage Against The Machine'". TheProdigy.com. 2009-12-16. Retrieved 2009-12-16. this is the biggest rise up against the ' industry manufactured shite ' in years and thats why its important --- and fukin funny at the same time act now.
  25. ^ a b Scott Colothan (2009-12-16). "The Prodigy: 'Rise Up Against The X Factor And Buy Rage Against The Machine'". Gigwise.com. Retrieved 2009-12-17. As some proceeds of the X Factor song are going to charity, those pledging their support to the RATM campaign can donate to Shelter - a charity helping the homeless
  26. ^ Steve Hargrave (2009-12-18). "Macca Backs Rage Against X Factor No 1". Sky News. British Sky Broadcasting. Retrieved 2009-12-18. He's just some kid with a career ahead. I've got nothing against that, but it would be kind of funny if Rage Against The Machine got it because it would prove a point.
  27. ^ Robin Scott. "Music: Rage Against the Machine Second Favourites for UK Christmas Number 1". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
  28. ^ "Rage Against The Machine swear on 5 live". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  29. ^ Ben Cardew. "Xmas race goes to the wire". Music Week. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  30. ^ "Rage Against The Machine beating 'X Factor' by 65,000 sales in Christmas Number One race". New Music Express. 2009-12-16. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  31. ^ "Rage Against The Machine widen gap over X Factor's Joe McElderry". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2009-12-17. [dead link‍] Joe McElderry losing Christmas number one race to Rage Against The Machine
  32. ^ "Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No 1: The celebrities wade in". The Guardian. 2009-12-18. Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  33. ^ a b "X Factor's Joe McElderry brands Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name Of' 'dreadful'". New Music Express. 2009-12-19. Retrieved 2009-12-20. Cite error: The named reference "NMEarticle" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  34. ^ a b c "Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts". BBC. 2009-12-20. Retrieved 2009-12-20. The Los Angeles rock band's hit also set two records: it is the first single to reach the top of the charts on download sales alone and has achieved the biggest download sales total in a first week ever in the UK charts. Cite error: The named reference "bbc-rage" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  35. ^ Daniel Kilkelly (2009-12-18). "Joe McElderry beats Rage in Ireland". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
  36. ^ Zane Lowe (2007-07-19). "BBC - Radio 1 - Zane Lowe - Tracklisting". BBC Radio 1. BBC. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  37. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_7576000/7576971.stm
  38. ^ Dan Cross (2007-07-19). "100 Greatest Guitar Solos Part 9: Guitar Solos Number 81 - 90". Guitar World. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  39. ^ Tor Thorsen (2004-10-26). "Full San Andreas soundtrack details". Game Spot. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  40. ^ Chris Roper (2006-10-09). "Guitar Hero II Final Tracklist Revealed. It's official: From Aerosmith to the Rolling Stones to RATM, all 40 licensed tracks unveiled". Game Spot. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
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