Not since my teens was there such tension at 6.45pm on a Sunday as to who would win the golden prize of being named this year’s Christmas No. 1: In the blue corner, the smarmy army of Simon Cowell’s tepid X-Factor 2009 protege Joe McElderry, the encumbent four-year-running foregone conclusion schmaltz which many cite as a reason that chart music and people’s attachment to it has gone to the dogs. In the red corner, rank outsiders Rage Against the Machine, with a 16-year-old minor hit with a naughty sweary word in the chorus, instigated by a huge people-powered campaign started by two music fans from Essex, UK, and proof that social media can unite people against ‘the man’ to win the day. Power to the people!

And win the day people power did. Despite really disliking this tedious song first time round when I was 15 (and equally now), I can’t wait for Christmas day’s Top of the Pops and for an (ageing) Zack and co to tell us: “F**k you, I won’t do what you tell me” – even though of course we all did exactly as we were told and bought their song.

Much has been written by tabloids, broadsheets and fans a like – particularly of the irony of BMG-Sony, owners of both McElderry and RATM’s songs, winning out. Personally, I smelt a rat weeks ago when sent the first ‘invite to the ‘Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No. 1‘ Facebook group (now numbering over 1 million members). I spent the earliest part of my career in the music industry in online marketing, doing various seminal but doubtless silly campaigns to get people to buy largely rubbish commercial records. We were ruthless, if it was legal we’d do it (including hiring online PR co’s to ‘seed’ teen chat rooms talking about how great such and such album was, assuming identities of other teen music fans…before such a practice was outlawed).

As I’ve previously blogged about this month in relation to my strange encounter with T-Mobile, ‘astroturfing’ that is the phenomenon of marketeers creating a ‘fake’ grassroots campaign to sell more phones/widgets/insurance plans is a worrying – and growing – trend. And my suspicious periscope raised upwards when I saw this tweet from my network suggesting fake PR at work. Then another of my network, John Lyle, a PR expert from Nottingham, posted an expose of what he believed was a scoop on how he had pieced together some evidence to view the project as a well executed capaign led and funded by the majors. The article attracted 58 comments in a matter of hours, and soon gained a response from the ‘marketeer’ in question Tracy Morter which proved that the storm-in-a-teacup was just that, no big influence or money at work, and had John (and me) eating our words.

So a victory for social media, yes?

Not quite. In the blue corner, us cynical PR types who are perhaps still tied to older systems of economic value and marketing principles, who will see a rat near every dustbin, but often shrewdly refuse to swallow what we’re given. In the red corner, the social media evangelists who have been waiting for a story like this all year, a genuine case study the majority of us have participated in, understood, and brings weight to the cause that social media changes everything.

Who wins? Well, like all great Christmas gifts of giving and receiving, we both win – and we both lose. Jon and Tracy’s brilliant campaign, authentically ‘grassroots’ in origin, gained its giant snowball momentum thanks to the impact of ‘big’ traditional media. And when Cowell, Sony-BMG and co saw the impact and press coverage this ‘fight’ was getting – it was good new for all involved in the process of marketing and selling new music releases. Websites like Rage Factor, and support from Kerrang! and ITN – clearly have the ‘cashing in’ ring tone. In turn, the conflict from the ‘man’ gave more weight to the online ‘people’ powered campaign. There’s nothing the public like more than a triumph of David over Goliath. Which in turn, sells more papers, which – you’ve guessed it – benefit the big media again.

I don’t think Jon and Tracy’s campaign proof empiracally that social media can change the world – but it does show that a small voice can create a large shout, and social media can allow the individual to become amplified and noticed in a way and with a speed that traditional media – and indeed the pre-broadband age – rarely could. It’s a powerful tool in an arsenal of other powerful tools.

My own tips for the top? Mainstream A&R has never been my forte. Instead I’m backing ‘Hello Mistetoe’, the 80s inspired pop hit by Brett Domino (who did the lovely RATM Christmas mix above) which no doubt will fail to chart, as it’s probably got nothing to do with a record label or the whole music system anyway. Kraut rock legends Can have released a free version of Silent Night too, and Kunt and the Gang – Basildon filth-pop heroes – have a free Christmas song you can download from their site.

Either way, I’m with online music expert Steve Lawson here – buy music directly from an artist to support them, to help them carry on doing it, not because of a ’cause’ but because their music says something to you and you value it. Ultimately the hype surrounding social media has won here, but the impact of supporting new music through social media has lost out. Still, I can’t wait to see if they bleep out Christmas Top of the Pops, it could be a mini-Sex Pistols/Bill Grundy moment.

Merry Christmas one and all, I’ll be blogging much more about music, digital strategy and marketing in 2010. Peace and goodwill!
Susi x