People began to get fed up with Cowell in 2005 when winners of The X-Factor (another Idol-like talent show) started dominating the Christmas chart. After four years—Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson and Alexandra Burke—a couple from Essex named Jon and Tracy Morter decided that enough was enough.
It all began earlier this month with a Facebook posting entitled Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No. 1. It read: “Fed up of Simon Cowell’s latest karaoke act being Christmas No. 1? Me, too....So who’s up for a mass-purchase of the track ‘Killing in the Name’ as a protest to the X-Factor monotony?”
At first, few people gave this campaign much chance of succeeding. After all, Cowell’s latest karaoke star was Joe McElderry, a teen star wannabe and winner of the X-Factor. His song, “The Climb,” was by far and away the favourite. Cowell remained confident and smug.
But then it got weird. More and more people signed on, promising to buy a copy of “Killing” last week, the crucial week for tallying the Christmas No. 1. People from around the world began logging into British download sites to buy a copy. Even Paul McCartney got on board.
By late last week, McElderry was in so much trouble that Sony/BMG, his record label, cut the price of “The Climb” by 63% to try and boost sales.
Then Rage themselves got involved, appearing on the BBC to play an uncensored version, complete with “F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me” repeated the requisite sixteen times. They had been asked to tone it down for this live performance, but like the lyrics say... (The BBC was forced to apologize profusely.) That endeared them greatly to the Cowell-hating masses. And when Tom Morello pledged to donate all the royalties from the campaign the charity, that pretty much sealed it.
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