British pop music fanatics are a cranky bunch. They just don’t like Simon Cowell and his perceived “manipulation” of England’s pop charts. So how do they respond? With a protest urging people to buy, from Amazon UK or Amazon USA, John Cage’s infamous 4’33’ – a “composition” that is nothing but dead air.  All in an effort to show Cowell that he doesn’t control pop music during the Christmas season.

All this began in 2009 when attempts were made to push Joe McElderry to the top of England’s pop chart with “The Climb,” a rather Disney-esque tune that premiered on Simon Cowell’s British show, “X Factor.” It isn’t a necessarily deep song, but is earnest as it works on your emotional heartstrings. Unfortunately, McElderry’s bit of lite pop didn’t sit well with the trolls who despise anything that might lift people out of the muck and mire.

In protest, a Facebook page appeared urging people to buy one of Rage Against the Machine’s horrid Left-wing hate-fests; a steaming pile titled “Killing in the Name.” A thing (associating this trash with the word ‘song’ sucks that term dry) that includes the lyrics,

Some of those that work forces
are the same that burn crosses. Uggh!

Killing in the name of!
Killing in the name of!

And now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya …

Those who died
are justified
for wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites
You justify
those that died
by wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites

This foam flecked flotsam ends with a screaming chorus of “F*** YOU, I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!!” repeated over, and over, and over again.

‘Uggh!’ indeed. Sad to say, but this immature protest prevailed, and “Killing” beat “The Climb” for Englands number one single during 2009’s Christmas season. What a way to celebrate the Lord’s Nativity.

This year, instead of another idiotic antinomianist anthem, the anti-Cowell protesters are pushing about four and half minutes of silence (if only they did this in 2009), and American classical music composer and critic Greg Sandow thinks, “This is just a wonderful idea. I support it completely.”

On the upside, a short period of silence might get these nitwits to reflect on the true meaning of the season. … Yeah, right.

If you don’t know about Cage’s 4’33’, it “premiered” in 1952 with a pianist opening a piano lid, poising his fingers above the keyboard, doing nothing for four minutes and 33 seconds. He then closed the lid and walked off stage. Cage’s post-modern foolishness confused silent pauses between the notes for the notes themselves. Naturally, the art-world elite loved it. Everyone else just stood there wondering, ‘I paid good money for that!?!‘

For a laugh, click one of the Amazon links above and “listen” to Cages “composition.” How does anyone know if the link actually does anything. Click the play button, and nothing happens. But cultural mavons like Sandow think this is art. One either screams at its sheer lunacy or laughs in its face. I choose the latter.

And if you’re like Sandow, and despise the “empty commerce aimed at kids” allegedly foisted on the unsuspecting public by the likes of Simon Cowell, there’s a simple solution. Don’t watch his shows or buy the stuff he’s selling. These protests are nothing but the self-indulgent flatulent fests by petulant children. Grow. Up.