Not since the Britpop struggle for chart success when Blur’s ‘Country House’ was pitted against ‘Roll With It’ by Oasis has there been such a two-horse race to get to number one. Like rap metal or not, Rage Against the Machine’s victory over Joe from X Factor is a blessing for music. Fair enough, Simon Cowell still makes a lot of money because they are both under Sony’s label, but still given the choice I’m sure he would rather have had the 18 year old from South Shields take 2009’s Christmas number one. He branded the facebook campaign that reached close to a million members as “bullying” and “cynical”. For a start, since when was it the right of the X Factor winner to get the Christmas number one? It’s surely healthy to have had the competition and if it really deserved it then ‘The Climb’ would have been top of the charts.

This isn’t even the point really, as much as I like to see the X Factor spited. The argument that the campaign was pointless because Cowell would be reaping in much of the benefits anyway is one that doesn’t really make sense. First off, much of the money from people buying the single is going to be put towards the charity ‘Shelter’ rather than purely for Sony’s benefit. Secondly it wasn’t about making money or spiting Simon Cowell; it was a campaign to prevent the monopoly of dull ballads spewed out by X Factor winners from being number one yet again. In this sense the choice of song was irrelevant, but it seems only suitable that such an anarchist, anti-establishment song that would never have been in the charts without a facebook campaign was to shake up the bland excretion of ballads dominating the Christmas charts of recent years. What makes the song even more suitable though is that I’m sure the band don’t really care about number ones and selling records, to the dismay of many Joe fans who slam the song as ‘just shouting’ (which it arguably is).

It seems the song to challenge Joe could have been many options. Various other campaigns such as “Get Journey to Xmas number one” (after it was feared by fans that ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ would be covered by the winner) attracted smaller yet still significant attention with the song reaching number nine. Such a discontent at the Christmas number one being a done deal shows just how many people care about the charts still, with this year proving to be one of the most exciting finales.

Whilst you have the ‘yeah, down with the establishment’ left-wing socialists claiming victory, it is neither Rage Against the Machine nor their fans who have the greatest victory (I hope anyway). It is a win for music. A song created by the people who perform and released it (although many years ago now) in the grass roots of Los Angeles has beaten a song compiled originally in a recording studio by ‘experts’ for a whiney teenage girl and was taken on by the X Factor to suit Joe – and suspiciously not the other finalist Olly Murs it seems. Not only is it a win for music that conflicts with the traditional idea of cheesy manufactured pop, it is also a huge victory for technology. The couple who orchestrated the campaign, Tracey and Jon Morter, proved that an organised movement via the Internet can have a real impact on modern culture. Similarly there was a group to ‘bring back the Wispa’, small but significant because many others and I love those chocolate bars. The song ‘Killing in the Name’ is also now the first Christmas number one to have won on downloads only, signifying the growing power of the mp3 format, with Joe’s physical CD’s sales not being able to give him the number one.

All this said I’m sure normality will resume again next week when Joe is number one at the second time of trying. Nevertheless, I hope X Factor learn their lesson and maybe next year they either won’t make it so the winner is lined up for Christmas number one, or they just make the song much much more upbeat than ‘The Climb’. Regardless of whether you like Rage Against the Machine or think they’re just shouting obscenities, it was a fantastic chart battle and as frontman Zack de la Rocha told radio one “well done to Joe and Simon for being number two”. A valiant effort in the PR war by both sides, with Simon even appearing in ‘NME’ and Rage appearing on radio 5 live, ended up in the campaign by a humble couple making a real impact on Britain’s pop culture with the most extraordinary Christmas number one since Bob the Builder beat Westlife in 2000.