Hello. Long time lurker, first time poster. Thought I'd just have an angry rant at the few people considering buying that there Rage single this Christmas. I feel like most of you won't *anyway*, but I thought I'd get medieval on those who are.

Yes: I’m here to stop you from buying Rage Against The Machine’s classic anthem ‘Killing in the Name’, which you have been urged to purchase to aide the noble cause of knocking the X Factor winner, Joe McElderry, off the number one slot this year.

This isn’t an argument, because it’s my blog and I’m right. This is a lesson; one called ‘stop being silly’. Get a cup of tea and listen.

Point one: Sony BMG owns both songs. Take this in: by buying RATM in huge quantities, you are making a major corporation a lot of money (and Apple, actually, so that’s two major corporations). They will use this money to make more pop music, which you are rallying against. Hmm.

Also, is it that hard to believe that a savvy exec at the company has gone, ‘Hey guys, why don’t we use Facebook to market an old alt-rock track, so we’ll make hundreds of thousands of pounds from anyone who isn’t already buying Joe’s single from us’? Makes you wonder.

Point two: Do you own, say, a Linkin Park or Kings of Leon song? If you do, go home. They too are in fact corporation-created boy bands, but I guess the fact that they have long hair, beards and tattoos makes them okay to support, right? Shallow, much?

Just to be clear, I love KOL, but I’m not the one ranting about X Factor (I’m just generally ranting).

Point three: That Rage single came out in 1992. If you wanted to support some new music – even a great band who have emerged in the last couple of years – I would be proud. But the fact that we’ve selected that song rather suggests that this is more about mid-to-late-20s suits trying to reaffirm a feeling of youth.

Point four: Consider the irony of buying a song that labours the point: “F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me,” because you have been told to buy it by an anonymous Facebook entry and – crucially here – by media hype, the same hype you would normally sneer knowingly at, and which is seen as one of the most prominent forms of populace control. I’m tempted to go and shoot Zack de la Rocha now, because his spinning grave converted into a generator would power our cities for years.

Point five: You know what’s worse than people who don’t vote in a general election and then vote for their favourite ballroom dancer, X Factor finalist or Celebrity jungle survivor? People who don’t vote in a general election, condemn the aforementioned masses, and then put more effort into ‘saving’ the pop charts by buying a song than they do thinking about genuine social change and political reform.

I think I’ve erased any form of counter argument, except for the ‘don’t be such a grumpy sod’ one, but then again I can live with that. I'm aware, however, that you guys are probably about to prove me wrong. That's fair enough, but if I seem angry, it’s because I am. If this is the peak of our motivation to make a difference to the music industry, then no wonder good bands are struggling.

Here’s a new thought: instead of buying the RATM single this Christmas, spend 99p on a song from a relatively unknown band that you find on iTunes and help keep them afloat. That’s what will ultimately save our beloved art.

Rant over, and hope it's a first post worth reading. If not, my bad.

Merry Christmas, and do what I tell you.