(Image courtesy of Daily Mail UK)

Leveraging a social network to market to a wider group, increase your fan base, or just create mass updates is nothing new. Rage Against the Machine, the rap-metal-punk band, have taken it to a whole new level in England, resurrecting a 17 year old song and making it the #1 Christmas song in England.

What song of theirs is it? If you’re racking your brain trying to think of a Christmas-y tune, don’t. They asked their facebook fans to drive “Killing in the Name of” to the #1 Christmas song in England, all to beat Simon Cowell’s artist Joe McElderry and his single “The Climb”.

As an avowed Rage fan, I think this is cool all by itself. As a big geek, I think it’s fascinating that a mainstream artist lost out to a band that hasn’t released an album in years by using social networking and internet communication to mobilize their fans. And they went up against Simon Cowell, the symbol of mainstream pop music, and won. If that’s not a giant sign that media consumption and fan mobilization has shifted, I don’t know what is!

Below is the Rage Against the Machine song, and then the Joe McElderry single. Which would you rather hear? (Warning: Rage song may be NSFW).

Via NPR’s Monitor Mix