Facebook group tries to foil Simon Cowell’s top pop choice

The World

Music producer and talent show host Simon Cowell is used to dominating the pop charts at Christmastime. His hit British television show, the X Factor, (roughly speaking, the U.K. version of American Idol), churns out chart-topper after chart-topper annually as the winners are chosen at the end of each year. But music fan Tracy Mortar has started a grassroots campaign to take a few potshots at the Cowell’s dominance of manufactured pop music. She’s formed the Facebook group Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No. 1, and nearly 60,000 fans of that group are pushing to push RAtM’s 1992 song, “Killing in the Name,” to the top of the charts. Chris Hawkins, DJ for the BBC’s 6Music, joins us to play some tracks and handicap the outcome.

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