Idolize this.

It's hard to escape the digital noise around the battle between Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name and X-Factor winner Joe McElderry for the number one Christmas song in the UK. Partly aimed at Simon Cowell, partly against the syrupy, manufactured and formulaic songs that are churned out of reality TV shows, from Idol to X Factor, (although the Facebook fan page has also helped raise nearly £30,000 in donations for a homeless charity site, Shelter), this huge grassroots, digital groundswell for RATM seems to be in the lead according to sales figures.

There has been a lot written about this recently, see here and a superb article found here. Listen to BBC's Radio 5 interview with RATM here.

While this chart war blazes, Cowell has been hatching a plan to create a new global reality talent show for the web (forget text messages, die-hard fans will be able to engage and interact with wanna-be stars in a more personal and direct manner). Hulu, Clear Channel and MySpace are distributing "If I Can Dream," and each will take unique roles in pushing out the series and its stars.

"If I Can Dream, initially bypasses TV in favor of Hulu, with Ford and Pepsi on board as advertisers. The footage will be streamed live, 24/7, at IfICanDream.com, while viewers can also interact with the show via Facebook and Twitter."
Via Brand Republic

It will be interesting to see if MySpace's strategic focus on entertainment will stop its hemorrhaging of users and visits, as "monthly uniques continue to plunge, from 60 million in July to 48.5 million in November, according to a Compete analysis."

The battleground has shifted to the web in more ways than one...