I am pretty confident, actually 100% that they never played the part at the end.

The term Fuddy Duddy comes to mind.

Why is it any worse than last years Xfactor song?

Maybe, but it's still one of the ultimate protest songs.

What's so stupid about blaming Cowell, anyway? The X Factor is testament to the cultural vacuum of pop music.

How is it rebelling against anything? Talk about naiiveity - co-opting a song about racism because you don't like the same music as the majority of the population is pathetic tbh.

Isn't that the whole point of democracy in general? If people don't like something they come together to change it?

Priceless, hahaha

I dont know about the majority. I mean , out of the 15 million who watched X factor last year, 5% actually bought the single. Thats just one in twenty people.
So far this year, its just over about 0.5% for Joe.

Yes, but stuff like RATM has never been chart topping stuff anyway, so what are you trying to prove? Even if it gets to number 1 it's only there because of X-Factor, so you're not diminishing its hold over the charts or anything.

Supposedly 'popular' music will have been beaten out by metal. Win win win.

I’m certainly a bit surprised by the song choice, I like RATM, I liked them when they were original and fresh but now I just see them as yet another middle aged band that split up because they didn’t really get on but have now decided to get back together to milk the cash cow.

Personally I’d have chosen Them Crooked Vultures or to keep it seasonal something like Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal.

Is this a wind up???

Is that why they're given their profits away to charity?

What?

Do you think they got back together for a FB campaign against the X Factor?

Any money RATM could have made from this is a drop in the ocean compared to what they have and will make from ‘reunion gigs’, they aren’t even attempting to write any new music together.

They haven't got back together.

But Tom has stated that he'll give his profits from the campaign to get RATM to #1 away to charity.

I can't see what that has got to do with a reunion tour that may never happen.

It's already happened -

Reunion and Tours (2007–present)

Rumors that Rage Against the Machine could reunite at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival were circulating in mid-January 2007,[32] and were confirmed on January 22.[33] The band was confirmed to be headlining the final day of Coachella 2007.[34] The reunion was described by Morello as primarily being a vehicle to voice the band's opposition to the "right-wing purgatory" the United States has "slid into" under the George W. Bush administration since RATM's dissolution.[35] Though the performance was initially thought to be a one-off,[36] this turned out not to be the case.

On April 14, 2007, Morello and de la Rocha reunited onstage early to perform a brief acoustic set at a Coalition of Immokalee Workers rally in downtown Chicago. Morello described the event as "very exciting for everybody in the room, myself included."[37] This was followed by the scheduled Coachella performance on Sunday, April 29 where the band staged a much anticipated performance in front of an EZLN backdrop to the largest crowds of the festival.[38][39][40]

Rage Against the Machine continued to tour in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan,[41] and also played a series of shows in Europe in Summer 2008 including Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, Pinkpop Festival, T in the Park in Scotland, the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden, the Reading and Leeds Festivals in England and the Oxegen Festival in Ireland. The band also performed on August 2, 2008, in Chicago as one of the headliners (Radiohead, Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails being the other three) for the 2008 Lollapalooza Music Festival. When asked in May 2007 if the band were planning on writing a new album, Morello replied:

“ There are no plans to do that... That's a whole other ball of wax right there. Writing and recording albums is a whole different thing than getting back on the bike (laughs), you know, and playing these songs. But I think that the one thing about the Rage catalog is that to me none of it feels dated. You know, it doesn't feel at all like a nostalgia show. It feels like these are songs that were born and bred to be played now. ”
— Tom Morello, Blabbermouth.net, May 1, 2007[42]

Morello declined to comment about the possibility of a new album when interviewed by MTV News in April 2008.[43] In July 2008, it was revealed that de la Rocha had begun a new project called One Day as a Lion with drummer Jon Theodore formerly of The Mars Volta, with an eponymous EP released on July 22, 2008.[44]

In August 2008, de la Rocha revealed his take on the possibility of new material:

“ We’re going to keep playing shows -- we have a couple of big ones happening in front of both conventions. As far as us recording music in the future, I don’t know where we all fit with that. We’ve all embraced each other’s projects and support them, and that’s great. ”
— Zack de la Rocha, Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2008[42]

In December 2008, Tom Morello revealed that Rage Against the Machine shows in 2009 were a possibility, although plans for the band to record a new studio album were very unlikely. When asked by Billboard.com whether they planned to head to the studio in 2009, Morello stated that: "we've had a wonderful year and a half of playing shows, and I don't see any reason to not play more shows. The thing is there's only so many hours in the musical day, and mine are very occupied right now."[45] Morello elaborated that The Nightwatchman is now "my principal musical focus, as I see it, for the remainder of my life. From the earliest days of playing open mic nights at coffee houses, it was apparent to me that this music was as important to me as any music I've ever been involved in. It really encapsulates everything I want to do as an artist."[45] He repeated this point in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.[46]

Isn't wikipedia marvellous!

Yes, they did A reunion tour (2007-2008, rather than 2007-present), but there has been no comfirmation of another one and (with the band all being headstrong individuals) this campaign won't make an iota of difference to whether or not they reform again.

I'm divided on this, it's fun to get one back at ITVs karaoke shows, but aiming for the top of a pop singles chart just seems a bit too conflicting - that chart hasn't been relevant for years.

Yes indeed, wikipedia is very useful but then as someone who is interested in RATM (and Audioslave) I was well aware that they had already reformed but wiki explains it in much better detail than I ever could.

In any case I only mentioned their money grabbing reunion because they were a band I once respected, I certainly don't expect this campaign to encourage them to write any new material but I'd be willing to bet they tour again.

They may well do.

But this campaign won't be the reason for it.

What about Bohemian Rhapsody ? That sounded perfect at Christmas to me both as a child and an adult. Let's not stick to formulas.

Absolutely. The so called "inapropriate" songs that got to number 1 at Christmas are some of the best. Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall and Gary Jules Mad World spring to mind.

Unless someone does a Bruno Brooks of course.

Killing In The Name still sounds as raw and as fresh as it did back in 1992, it also sounds better than a lot of the indie pap that parades itself as 'cool' these days.

The only decent respectable radio left station in the UK played it in it's entirety after 10pm last week, Planet Rock!!

I can only agree that it still sounds great, one of the last great albums that didn't get ruined by the loudness war.

Radio 1 played it in full last night too! So did Radio5live this morning, even if by accident!