So you try explaining “Killing in the Name” to a 12 year old .

We heard it back to back with Joe McElderry’s “The Climb” on the Capital chart show last night. I’m no fan of “The Climb” but if it represents “the sterile pop monopoly (of the X-factor)” it’s a darned sight better than previous manifestations- Cliff and the Shadows, Dave Clark 5, Osmonds etc…. I hope it inspires a new generation of 12 year olds to reinvent pop music as they’ve been doing for the past 50 years.

“Killing in the Name” is humourless, cliched and American. It never resonated over here and never will.

My kid likes music so I got him to listen to “Smash it up” by the Damned, “White Riot” by the Clash and “Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols. My kid laughed when I played them- he said he liked the tunes and the words.

We listened to “Killing in the name”  and just got bored. Confronting racial and religious intolerance with blind anger is “rubbish”.

“Killing in the name..” is now going to be one of Sony’s biggest successes of the year. The X-factor’s winning single is published by…Sony.

If this smells like teen spirit then I’m glad I’m middle-aged.