2010 Christmas Number One Campaign
In 2010 a group was set up on the social networking website Facebook that encouraged people to buy a new rendition of 4′33″ in the week leading up to Christmas 2010, in the hope that it would prevent the winner of the seventh series of The X Factor topping the UK Singles Chart and achieving the Christmas number one. The group was inspired by an earlier campaign in which a Facebook group set up by Jon and Tracey Morter prompted people to buy "Killing in the Name" by American metal group Rage Against the Machine in the week before Christmas 2009, and has therefore been dubbed "Cage Against the Machine". The creators of the Facebook group hope that reaching number one would help to promote the piece and "make December 25 'a silent night'." At its peak on December 14, 2010, the Facebook group had more than 85,000 members.
The campaign received support from several celebrities. It first came into prominence after it was mentioned by British science writer Ben Goldacre on his Twitter profile. Within two weeks, British newspaper The Sun reported that the Facebook group had been backed by more than 3,000 members. One of several similar campaigns, the Facebook group was called "the only effort this year with a hope of " by The Guardian journalist Tom Ewing in September. XFM DJ Eddy Temple-Morris also voiced his support on his blog, as did Luke Bainbridge. This version of Cage's work failed to make number 1, but charted at number 21 on the UK Singles Chart.
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