Congratulations to the Christmas #1 artists...
...RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!
Congratulations, lads - and well done to the metal community, and to everyone else out there who decided to participate in a bit of wholly legal anarchy for Christmas this year. I imagine a lot of them were the same people who voted Iron Maiden to a Brit Awards victory and Lordi to that runaway Eurovision triumph, and this is why I am proud to be a metal fan. Because I know that my scene is full of people who respect bands even when they themselves aren't necessarily fans, and will put their money - even if it's only 65p - where their mouths are, when someone gives them a reason to do it.
I am fucking delighted. I'm delighted that the run of bad karaoke by X-Factor winners has finally had a rocket shoved under it (poor bloody Hallelujah did not deserve that, for reals). I'm delighted that an antiestablishment anthem that contains possibly the most celebrated F-word in metal history is top of the charts. I'm delighted that Shelter have been snowed under with charity donations by the same people who've been buying the song, and that Rage have announced they're giving their profits to Shelter and Youth Music too - because no matter what you feel about the validity or relevance of who's #1 for Christmas, this is amazing and it wouldn't have happened if someone hadn't decided Simon Cowell needed a kick in the arse.
And I'm delighted that Rage committed the ultimate in recursive meta, by playing the song on the BBC Radio 5 breakfast show and completely ignoring the fact that they were under strict orders NOT to sing the "FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!" part. That last one, in particular, I find interesting just for what it suggests about the mentality of the people in mainstream broadcasting authority. That they actually believed, for one second, that a band who have something to say and chose to say it in those words, would censor themselves on request - why?
Grownups, I guess. Convinced that we-the-young (even when said "young" are a bunch of grown men with twenty-year careers behind them) should respect, serve and obey them-the-establishment, and unable to process it when we don't. Convinced that all challenges to their authority are empty, as though they can enforce compliance simply by believing all alternative positions to be invalid. I've noticed that a lot of mainstream commentary doesn't seem to have known, or appreciated, that Rage are a veteran band with a lot of respect among fans. Well, if you will stick your head in the sand, don't come crying to me that you didn't see it coming... *g* [Edit: And this goes triple for the various UK bookies who, reports have it, have just lost a fortune. You should've known better after the abovementioned Maiden and Lordi incidents, guys. Did ya think we couldn't do it?]
Funny thing is, I can remember being around in the late nineties and everyone (admittedly, me included) being sick of hearing Killing in the Name. And I can remember everyone ranting about how this shouty stuff was a flash in the pan and only for kiddies, and all the jokes about "Fuck you, I won't tidy my bedroom". And yet now it comes easily to the fingers to call them veterans, and speak with admiration of the respect and status that they hold. I guess there's a lesson in that to us metalheads, too - don't diss the new stuff. Because our stuff was the new stuff, once. And because in every generation of our music, there'll turn out to be a few bands who we surprise ourselves by cheering for ten years later. So that's the moral, I guess: respect the rising generation, guys, if only in preparation for the moment a decade on when you realise they've joined the Hall of Heroes. Or you, too, may look in the mirror one terrible morning and find you've turned into the establishment. O_O
But in the meantime, for all of you who I know haven't and I hope never will: Merry fucking Christmas! ^_^
Laters,
Rath
Congratulations, lads - and well done to the metal community, and to everyone else out there who decided to participate in a bit of wholly legal anarchy for Christmas this year. I imagine a lot of them were the same people who voted Iron Maiden to a Brit Awards victory and Lordi to that runaway Eurovision triumph, and this is why I am proud to be a metal fan. Because I know that my scene is full of people who respect bands even when they themselves aren't necessarily fans, and will put their money - even if it's only 65p - where their mouths are, when someone gives them a reason to do it.
I am fucking delighted. I'm delighted that the run of bad karaoke by X-Factor winners has finally had a rocket shoved under it (poor bloody Hallelujah did not deserve that, for reals). I'm delighted that an antiestablishment anthem that contains possibly the most celebrated F-word in metal history is top of the charts. I'm delighted that Shelter have been snowed under with charity donations by the same people who've been buying the song, and that Rage have announced they're giving their profits to Shelter and Youth Music too - because no matter what you feel about the validity or relevance of who's #1 for Christmas, this is amazing and it wouldn't have happened if someone hadn't decided Simon Cowell needed a kick in the arse.
And I'm delighted that Rage committed the ultimate in recursive meta, by playing the song on the BBC Radio 5 breakfast show and completely ignoring the fact that they were under strict orders NOT to sing the "FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!" part. That last one, in particular, I find interesting just for what it suggests about the mentality of the people in mainstream broadcasting authority. That they actually believed, for one second, that a band who have something to say and chose to say it in those words, would censor themselves on request - why?
Grownups, I guess. Convinced that we-the-young (even when said "young" are a bunch of grown men with twenty-year careers behind them) should respect, serve and obey them-the-establishment, and unable to process it when we don't. Convinced that all challenges to their authority are empty, as though they can enforce compliance simply by believing all alternative positions to be invalid. I've noticed that a lot of mainstream commentary doesn't seem to have known, or appreciated, that Rage are a veteran band with a lot of respect among fans. Well, if you will stick your head in the sand, don't come crying to me that you didn't see it coming... *g* [Edit: And this goes triple for the various UK bookies who, reports have it, have just lost a fortune. You should've known better after the abovementioned Maiden and Lordi incidents, guys. Did ya think we couldn't do it?]
Funny thing is, I can remember being around in the late nineties and everyone (admittedly, me included) being sick of hearing Killing in the Name. And I can remember everyone ranting about how this shouty stuff was a flash in the pan and only for kiddies, and all the jokes about "Fuck you, I won't tidy my bedroom". And yet now it comes easily to the fingers to call them veterans, and speak with admiration of the respect and status that they hold. I guess there's a lesson in that to us metalheads, too - don't diss the new stuff. Because our stuff was the new stuff, once. And because in every generation of our music, there'll turn out to be a few bands who we surprise ourselves by cheering for ten years later. So that's the moral, I guess: respect the rising generation, guys, if only in preparation for the moment a decade on when you realise they've joined the Hall of Heroes. Or you, too, may look in the mirror one terrible morning and find you've turned into the establishment. O_O
But in the meantime, for all of you who I know haven't and I hope never will: Merry fucking Christmas! ^_^
Laters,
Rath