Rage Against The Machine vs X Factor: What are your thoughts?

As Britain burns in a sea of, erm, rage about who will make it to number one for Christmas time, Rip It Up Digital gives you the low down on one of the greatest musical battles since Blur vs Oasis

In the UK, the Christmas number one is kind of a big deal. Remember in Love Actually when Bill Nighy is trying to get his awful Christmas version of Love Is All Around Me to top spot? Well that sort of thing happens pretty much every year.

In recent times, the competition of the Christmas number one has been hi-jacked by reality television stars. You see talent show X Factor conveniently airs every year so that the winner is announced at the beginning of December, allowing its star to release a single just in time for Christmas. Four the past four year, X Factor have had the lock on the Christmas number one and it looked like 2009 would follow suit. Until...

Jon Morter, your everyday Joe Public, decided he'd had enough of the reality show's reign at the top and decided to start a Facebook campaign to get Rage Against The Machine's classic Killing in the Name to number one for Christmas time. Facing off against the legendary American rockers is this year's X Factor winner Joe McElderry and his song, a cover of Miley Cyrus' The Climb.

The move has sparked a lot of debate, with X Factor judge and all-round nice guy Simon Cowell slamming the idea as "stupid" and "very Scrooge". He went on to tell the NME, "Why not let the kid have his moment? It's miserable to put down young talent. We should celebrate it. I am! I've had a glass of champagne or two".

In response, the online community has hit out at Cowell, criticising him for assuming that the X Factor winner has some sort of entitlement to the Christmas number one. Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello has also weighed in on the debate, slamming Cowell for "spoon feeding us one schmaltzy ballad after another" on BBC radio.

Despite the preposterousness of out-selling McElderry for Christmas time with a song that's almost 20 years old, Killing in the Name made early headway in the race and has to this point sold more copies. However, bookies are expecting The Climb to pip Rage's anthem for the gong, announced this Sunday.

So the heat is on. It's Rage Against The Machine vs X Factor and the gloves are off.

What do you think? Does X Factor have a right to be number one every year? Could a campaign like this dethrone such a pervasive musical machine? Do you even care?

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR E-NEWSLETTER!