Genre: Information/Explanation

In 2009 the song was the focus of a successful Facebook campaign to prevent The X Factor winner's song from gaining the Christmas number one in the United Kingdom for the fifth successive year. The campaign provoked commentary from both groups and other musicians, and gained coverage in both national and international press. The song became the first single to reach the Christmas number one spot on downloads alone. "Killing in the Name" has been described as "a howling, expletive-driven tirade against the ills of American society." [ 1 ] The song repeats six lines of lyrics that associate police brutality with racism , and then switches to the refrain, "Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses," an allusion to cross-burning by the Ku Klux Klan . The uncensored version contains the word " fuck " seventeen times. [ 2 ] The song builds in intensity, with Zack De La Rocha repeating the line "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me", murmuring the line the first four times, building in a crescendo the next four times and screaming the line the final 8 times culminating with Zack screaming "Motherfucker!" [ 3 ] The song's 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." The song reflects the racial tensions that exist in United States; it was released six months after the Los Angeles Riots , an event triggered by the acquittal of four white police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King . [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] Tom Morello created the heavier guitar riffs while teaching a student drop D tuning . He stopped the lesson and recorded the riff. [ 8 ] 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". [ 9 ] Like all Rage Against the Machine songs tuned to Drop D, it was recorded on a Mexican-made Fender Telecaster . [ 10 ] "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. The band's first video for "Killing in the Name" did not receive heavy airplay in the United States due to the explicit lyrics. The song received substantial airplay in Europe and drove the band's popularity outside its home country. [ 11 ] After signing with Epic Records , the band released their self-titled debut album in November 12, 1992. It reached triple platinum status, driven by heavy radio play of "Killing in the Name". [ 2 ] The album also included the singles "Freedom" and "Take the Power Back". [ 11 ] Single track listing: "Killing in the Name" "Darkness of Greed" "Clear the Lane" "Darkness of Greed" and "Clear the Lane" were re-mastered versions of the respective demo tracks. Another version of "Darkness of Greed", titled merely "Darkness", was included on the 1994 The Crow soundtrack album. The previously unreleased demo appeared on the XX 20th Anniversary Edition of their debut album, which was released on November 27, 2012. [ 12 ] The song earned its notoriety in the United Kingdom on February 21, 1993, when BBC Radio 1 DJ Bruno Brookes accidentally played the full uncensored version of the song on his Top 40 countdown, leading to 138 complaints. [ 13 ] It should be noted that Brookes was recording an advertisement for next week's Top 40 Countdown while the song played. This moment of infamy has since been consistently referenced by numerous British rock media. [ 2 ] [ 5 ] 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 complaints from customers. [ 5 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] In early December 2009, English DJ Jon Morter and his wife Tracy launched a group on the social networking site Facebook encouraging people to buy the song in the week running up to Christmas in order to prevent the winner of the X Factor television show from achieving the Christmas number one slot in the United Kingdom for the fifth year running. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] On December 15, the BBC reported the group had over 750,000 members. [ 19 ] As the X Factor song was donating some of the profits to charity [ 20 ] the Rage against X Factor campaign encouraged supporters also to give to charity. Alongside the group, a JustGiving page was created to raise money for homeless charity Shelter which, as of 20 December, was reported to have raised over £70,000 (approximately $110,000). [ 21 ] After the creator of The X Factor , Simon Cowell , publicly denounced the campaign as "stupid" and "cynical", [ 22 ] the group gained more attention and went on to be mentioned on various UK news channels, radio stations and websites. Rage Against the Machine added their support to the campaign. Guitarist Tom Morello said that achieving the Christmas number one would be "a wonderful dose of anarchy" and that he planned to donate the unexpected windfall to charity. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] Dave Grohl , touring in the UK at the time with Them Crooked Vultures , Liam Howlett and The Prodigy were among many musicians and celebrities supporting the campaign. [ 20 ] [ 25 ] [ 26 ] The campaign even received support from Paul McCartney , who had appeared on the X Factor with the finalists [ 27 ] [ 28 ] and X Factor contestants John & Edward also added their support. [ 29 ] Critics noted that both The X Factor and Rage Against the Machine are signed to labels that are part of Sony BMG. [ 19 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] Tom Morello dismissed conspiracy claims as ridiculous. [ 32 ] [ 33 ] The band created controversy when they performed an uncensored rendition of the song on BBC Radio 5Live despite the hosts asking them to censor the expletive end. During the crescendo of their performance, frontman Zack De La Rocha started out only singing "I won't do what you tell me," with a pause where he normally sings "Fuck You", but after a few lines, he screamed the lyrics, "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" repeatedly. Hosts Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty apologized afterward. [ 23 ] [ 34 ] On December 20, 2009, BBC Radio 1 revealed the song had successfully reached the number one spot, selling over 500,000 copies and being the first exclusively download-only single to be Christmas number one in the process. [ 21 ] The following week Joe McElderry 's cover of the song "The Climb" became the last British #1 single of 2009. Killing In The Name dropped to number two, falling 38 places to #40 the week after, [ 35 ] [ 36 ] and dropping out of the top 75 the following week, falling to #100. [ 37 ] The campaign to get the song to Christmas number one had also spread to Ireland, where like in the UK, the Christmas number one had been dominated by X Factor finalists for the previous five years. The campaign was less successful in Ireland and McElderry beat Rage Against the Machine to Christmas number 1. [ citation needed ] On June 6, 2010, Rage Against The Machine performed at a free 'thank you' gig for 40,000 fans in Finsbury Park . [ 38 ] On stage Tracy and Jon Morter were handed a representative cheque in the amount of £162,713.03, representing the proceeds from donations to JustGiving and royalties from sales of the single. [ 39 ] As a result of the campaign, the song is featured in the 2011 UK edition of the Guinness World Records under the category of 'Fastest-selling digital track (UK)', after recording 502,672 downloads in its first week. [ 40 ] An alternative cover used in Australia instead featured the words "killing in the name" written in large red block capitals, and a much smaller and tightly cropped picture of the monk appearing in the bottom right corner. [ 8 ] 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 . [ 11 ] The song was performed as an extended instrumental at their first public performance at Cal State in the Quad, on October 23, 1991. Bassist Tim Commerford is known to chant the backing vocals of "now you do what they told ya" of the chorus during most live performances. Zack de la Rocha sometimes changes the lyrics in the second verse from "Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses" to "Some of those that burn crosses are the same that hold office" when playing live. [ 48 ] As part of supergroup Audioslave , guitarist Tom Morello incorporated instrumentals from Rage Against the Machine and cover versions of Killing in the Name into their performances. [ 49 ] Rage Against the Machine performed the song live in 1999 at the Woodstock '99 festival, burning the American flag during the song. In this performance Zack changed the lyrics to "Some of those that work forces are the same that burn churches". [ 50 ] During one of his last performances before he died, American comedian Bill Hicks ended a set by smashing his microphone against a stool while singing along to "Killing in the Name" playing over the loudspeakers. [ 51 ] As part of the US War on Terror the song was used by military interrogators at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp . Music was played at painfully high volume levels for hours on end, as a form of psychological torture. "The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me," noted Morello. [ 5 ] [ 52 ] [ 53 ] [ 54 ] In the Daria episode "The Big House", the opening guitar riffs from "Killing in the Name" can be heard in the background in the scene where Daria Morgendorffer is reading a book while her sister Quinn is pacing back and forth. [ 55 ] The song featured in the British television series Skins . Metal music fan Rich tells ballerina Grace to stick up for herself, he encourages her using the song as an example, and has her chant the chorus. [ 59 ] On 22 August 2008, Scottish alt-rock band Biffy Clyro performed a re-worked acoustic cover version of "Killing in the Name" on Jo Whiley 's show at The Reading Festival on BBC Radio 1 . [ 65 ] 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 ] French band La Maison Tellier released a country-folk version of Killing in the Name in their first album (2006). [ 66 ] In 2008 Icelandic electronica group FM Belfast released a single called "Lotus", a minimal electro cover version of Killing in the Name . [ 67 ] In 2007, "Killing in the Name" earned a spot on Guitar World ' s list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos" at #89. [ 76 ] [ 77 ] In 2002, Rolling Stone magazine listed "Killing in the Name" as the 24th in its 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. [ 9 ] In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as number 12 on their list of the “Top 20 Political Songs” as voted for by the Political Studies Association. [ 4 ] In 2010, 2011 and 2012, The Rock radio station in New Zealand have held the Rock 1000 countdown which counts down the top 1000 rock songs of all time, as voted by the public; in 2010 and 2011, the song was in the top five, while in 2012, the song featured at number seven. In 2011 and 2012, "Killing in the Name" was played uncensored, with a preceding message from John Key approving the playing of the uncensored version of the song due to the large number of complaints received by MediaWorks New Zealand regarding the 2010 countdown not giving any warning that the song was uncensored. ^ a b c "Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts" . BBC . 2009-12-20. Archived from the original on 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 Christmas charts on download sales alone and has achieved the biggest download sales total in a first week ever in the UK charts." ^ "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." ^ Alex Fletcher (2009-12-17). "RATM swear during 5Live performance" . Digital Spy . Retrieved 2009-12-20 . "He also disputed claims that their track reaching number one would benefit Simon Cowell as it is released by Sony Records."