The second 'X-factor' post on here...

It's been a memorable race for Christmas Number One... The first for a few years as the X-Factor has dominated in the recent past, and a somewhat different race to those that preceed it!

How powerful is the X-Factor?

It is has been widely discussed that X-Factor has dominated pop music over the last few months, X-Factor Finalists went straight to Number One, and at one point eight singles in the top 10 were linked to the X-Factor with artists being either ex-contestants are stars performing live on the show. The strength of the show even extends the contestants performances, a popular contestant will perform a cover and it will appear in the lower reaches of the top 40. With 9 million votes on the final, no-one expected anything other than a X-Factor Christmas Number One

Rage against Simon Cowell?

A facebook group started by Jon and Tracy Morter began a campaign to knock the Cowell-machine off it's tracks, by getting the 1992 Rage Against the Machine hit 'Killing in the name' to number one (The song charted at 25 back in 1992). It is certainly not the first campaign to seek success through various media, in 2004 Radio One's Chris Moyles supported the re-release of Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl and in 2007, an internet campaign bought the 'Wispa' bar back to our shelves. Similarly, last Christmas another facebook-based campaign attempted to prevent the X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke reaching Number One with her song Hallelujah by supporting the Jeff Buckley version of the song. (Burke still reached number one, with Buckley reaching Number two)

So What?

The X-Factor is one the most powerful shows on TV, bear in mind that a 30-second X Factor advertising slots can cost up to £250,000 a throw. Despite shaping the UK chart for the best part of 3 months, the Goliath was slayed by David, and in this case David was a few passionate music fans using social networking as their sling and stone. The power of social networking has been truely realised, a facebook group went on to generate TV, Radio and Press interest, and ultimately win the battle.

Does this mean that the Internet is now the media of choice? Is this the beginning of the end for the television? Who knows... What it does mean, is that the internet is powerful and influential, particularly over the younger folks and this may ultimately mean that we might have a whole generation of e-learners, captivatived by their computer screens, we just need to engage them!!