For the first time since the show started, this year I decided to legitimately watch as much as possible of The X Factor. Yeah, i'm insane, I get it, but hear me out.

In years past it's been something that's really gripped the entire populace of the UK in a way similar to that of the early years of Big Brother, with talk of the contestants, the songs, and et al generally being something discussed wherever you went. With the familial December get togethers of 2008, the show was often something discussed at length, and inevitably watched, but beyond the auditions i'd never actually watched the show or knew the names of any of the contestants. That changed this year, and for reasons that were never actually clear, I stuck with the show pretty much all season.

Instead of talking about things that genuinely interested me, I was now able to talk about the X Factor. As it stands now, neither the show or it's participants did anything for me personally, but I guess on some level, the mock-arguments and discussions that it created and allowed for were maybe a little exciting.

More recently the discussion has been targeted towards "the battle for Christmas Number One" between the show's winner and Rage Against The Machine. I've been a RATM fan for years -and thus, cooler than everyone else- so having this band mentioned and endorsed by so many recently came as a little surprise. Launched to the xmas number one by a huge people-fed internet campaign, again, it's not so much the event and scenario that was exciting or interesting as the discussion and talking that backed it up and reinforced it all. That they got to the position and sold the amount of records they did, obviously is good, and the fallout even better, but the most captivating and engrossing side to all of this has surely been the public consumption and opinion-splitting of it all. Case in point, who knew I would ever have a legitimate discussion about Rage Against The Machine with my parents?

That the campaign worked and Rage got the Christmas number 1 is a non-issue I think- both the success of it and the record of the show winner says a lot about the impact that conversation and buzz can have on the success of something. Lets be honest- if Joe McElderry hadn't won the competition or ever been on the TV would he have ever racked up the sales that he did? He's a product of TV rather than genuine talent, helped along merely by that buzz. In that same light, the same can also be said for Rage Against The Machine and the "Killing In The Name" single. It's great, and I love it, and i'm happy that it's out there, but these sales wouldn't be anywhere near as impressive without the people behind it. The the song was also kind of counter-active- here was a song that was being used to promote to stand against being told what to buy and yet, half a million of us bought it- is another issue, and something worth considering, but maybe another day.

Both singles and acts were driven and manipulated entirely by this "battle", but that the internet is now recognised as capable of doing something this large and doing it successfully, is certainly the most important thing to take away from this feud. Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" Christmas number one, close to two decades on from it's original release: who saw that one coming?