Last year, British music fans successfully campaigned to make Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" the UK Christmas No. 1, toppling the talent show X Factor's vice-like grip on the honour. We're only in October, but there is already a movement to bring another unlikely song to Christmas chart supremacy: John Cage's "4'33.""
For those not already familiar with "4'33,"" it's an experimental composition from 1952 that consists of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. It invites the audience to listen to the sounds around them, meaning that each "performance" of the song is different, and varies according to the ambient sounds of the room. On the radio, however, we're guessing it just sounds like dead air.
A Facebook campaign for the song already has over 22,000 followers as of press time. The group urges supporters, "let's make it a silent night on Radio 1," and declares, "Cage Against the Machine!"
If you enter your email address here, the group will email you on December 13 to remind you to buy the song, and will include a link to a chart-eligible digital download source.
If the campaign is successful, it will mark the second year running that the Christmas No. 1 has been secured on digital downloads alone. But Cage will have some competition: as Gigwise points out, other Facebook campaigns have been set up for artists like Hollie Steel, Children of Bodom and the Cribs. The "Cage Against the Machine" campaign is by far the biggest of the bunch, however.
The winner of X Factor has yet to be decided. If you're a British music fan hoping to keep that future winner off of the charts, voice your support for John Cage here.
For those not already familiar with "4'33,"" it's an experimental composition from 1952 that consists of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. It invites the audience to listen to the sounds around them, meaning that each "performance" of the song is different, and varies according to the ambient sounds of the room. On the radio, however, we're guessing it just sounds like dead air.
A Facebook campaign for the song already has over 22,000 followers as of press time. The group urges supporters, "let's make it a silent night on Radio 1," and declares, "Cage Against the Machine!"
If you enter your email address here, the group will email you on December 13 to remind you to buy the song, and will include a link to a chart-eligible digital download source.
If the campaign is successful, it will mark the second year running that the Christmas No. 1 has been secured on digital downloads alone. But Cage will have some competition: as Gigwise points out, other Facebook campaigns have been set up for artists like Hollie Steel, Children of Bodom and the Cribs. The "Cage Against the Machine" campaign is by far the biggest of the bunch, however.
The winner of X Factor has yet to be decided. If you're a British music fan hoping to keep that future winner off of the charts, voice your support for John Cage here.
