After having read Barbara Ellen’s worryingly inaccurate article in The Observer this morning, “Why I rage on behalf of the ordinary Joes”, I have been convinced to spur into a Rage Against the Machine article of my own.

The fog of chart war first began to form when the Facebook group “Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No.1” appeared on Facebook. The group was formed after X Factor winner Joe McElderry was predicted a Christmas number 1. Why shouldn’t he get the number 1 spot at Christmas? For the last 5 years the X Factor has been at the top of the charts at Christmas. As of writing this article the group has 948,854 members which isn’t taking into account the other numerous fan groups which have since appeared. The only group I can find in support of Joe is, “Lets Get Joe McElderry to Christmas No.1”, which boasts just over 1,100 members.

At first it was easy to become sceptical about the whole matter. Personally I am fed up with how the X Factor dominates the charts and how fame descends upon the chosen individual as some sort of divine power. The more pressing problem is how Simon Cowell was rumoured to be benefitting from the whole rebel outbreak against the X Factor. Apparently Cowell has shares in Sony but research as shown me that this is in fact untrue. Whilst Cowell did establish Syco Music, this is a division from Sony. So Sony did very well out of this debacle, the only extra profit Cowell may have made would have been through some extra sales of Joe’s single but other than that everything is OK.

The best news about the Rage Against the Machine campaign was when it was announced that the profits would go to the charity Shelter. This not only made Rage Against the Machine a rebellion choice for unhappy people to select but also the charitable one. So far Shelter has received over £60,000 of donations.

A confident HMV spokesman announced, “It’s going to be a much closer race than predicted but we remain confident Joe will do it”. This was said as a CD glitch occurred which caused distribution issues of Joe’s new CD. The chart battle has been a close one all the way through and it is difficult to say who will win.

What this has shown us is just how powerful social media can be at raising awareness for a particular cause. We must take into account that the Facebook group was spoken about in the mainstream media but this was only because of the conversations caused by the brewing chart battle online.

It is worthwhile having a look at the Twitter hashtag #ratm4xmas. So far there are rumours that Rage Against the Machine have indeed reached the Christmas no.1. The only websites which offer any sort of overall judgement have been online betting markets. We will only know for certain around 7pm this evening who has won the chart battle.

So what did I do? I bought Rage Against the Machine. It was a song that I didn’t own, I love metal and I am fed up with how contestants are almost promised a Christmas No.1 on the X Factor. I’m not sure if it will change the way Simon Cowell runs the X Factor now that this campaign has heavily influenced the charts but it shows how powerful the people really are.

I should better stop writing now otherwise I may start uncontrollably screaming ‘revolution’.

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