I want to pay homage to Lilly Allen as I think she’s been pretty amazing this last few years. She burst into our consciousnesses in summer of 2006 with that great track ‘Smile’ and since then has proved she has real talent, is an intelligent and uncomprimising young woman and a real voice of her generation.

I must admit I did have my doubts at first. It’s all too easy to think of her as a poor little rich girl with a famous daddy who gave her a leg-up into the entertainment industry, but 2 albums and several media storms later, she’s getting more and more interesting and producing work of greater depth and maturity. The lyrics of her recent songs 22 and The Fear (which debuted at No 1 earlier this year) show that she has real insight into our times.

22 tells the story of a girl who at ‘nearly 30′ finds her life empty of meaning. She wants a boyfriend but only gets one-night-stands. She has an OK job, but ‘not a career’ and wistfully looks back at her early twenties when the world was at her fingertips. There is so much pathos in this track it’s actually quite moving. And I know quite a few women of the 30ish age who have taken real offence to it – a sign that Lilly has got something right.

The Fear is a perfect song for the Noughties. It wittily and succinctly reveals how we are all in the grip of consumer culture and yet has a wonderful lightness of touch that superbly reflects the flippant ‘whatever’ generation’s attitude. Lines such as; “I want loads of clothes and fuck loads of diamonds/I heard people die while they’re trying to find them” and “Life’s about film stars and less about mothers/ It’s all about fast cars and cussing each other/But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic/and that’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic”

She’s had a rough time in her personal life, with heartbreak, miscarriage, weight loss and gain and several short-lived flings. There was also the big row when she upset the Grande Dame of pop Elton John (she wasn’t showing any respect, apparently) and the infamous spat with brawling chav turned X factor golden girl, Cheryl Cole.  There was that terrible chat show on BBC3 and too many cringey TV appearances to mention, but this is how real human beings act – they get pissed, believe their own hype and fall over in public. She’s young enough to have learned from her mistakes and become better for having made them.

But what I love about Lilly is that whatever she does, she does it with all her heart. She’s a real artist and deserves recongnition and I believe that by the end of the next decade she will have made herself one of Britian’s most successful and respected media figures.

So – Rage Against the Machine did it! The rap rock anthem Killing In The Name beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry to the coveted No 1 spot for Christmas 2009, and secures its place in history.  I, for one, am excited by the charts for the first time in ages.

The KITN campaign is a perfect example of how the internet has empowered individuals at a time when the homogenisation of our culture is all but overwhelming. Fed up with the X Factor’s domination of the charts, and the seemingly unquestionable right of its winner to take the Christmas No 1, Jon and Tracy Morter decided to start a Facebook group to launch a rival bid. In a matter of weeks it had attracted almost a million like-minded members. As of tonight, over 600,000 people have bought the single.

But it could never have happened without Facebook and iTunes. Facebook allowed Jon and Tracy to re-package their widely-held frustrations into a fun, viral campaign and to instantaneously communicate it around the world. iTunes (and digital music in general) allowed that feeling to be turned into something the music business understands – sales. 

Only since music has been downloadable have the general public been able to influence the charts to such an extent. We’re no longer bound by what the industry puts out as singles, but can choose anything that’s out there. How those music marketing execs must be weeping.

Previous quirks of this happy side-effect of the digital age were 2008′s Christmas No 2 – Jeff Buckley’s Halleluja (to X Factor winner Alexandra Burke’s No 1 version) and the Phil Collins 1981 hit In The Air Tonight which reached No 14 in the Singles chart in 2007  after being featured in the brilliant Cadbury’s ‘Drumming Gorilla’ ad. There was also that 30-second record-breaker The Ladies Bras by Johnny Trun & Wisbey which reached no. 27 in the Singles charts on download only, off the back of DJ Scott Mills’ air play. The artists in all cases have been flattered and somewhat bemused.

RATM’s members (unsurprisingly) got right behind the Facebook campaign. But also proved they were worthy of being chosen to front the people’s bid by promising live on air, during the BBC Radio 1 chart countdown tonight, to stage a free gig in the UK as a thank-you to fans. They’re also donating proceeds from the single to Shelter and the UK charity Youth Music. 

This wasn’t just a case of one song or another reaching the top spot. It’s what each of these records stand for that got people buying. RATM’s Tommy Morello said in an interview with BBC6 Music this week “I think people are fed up of being spoon-fed some sugary ballad that sits on top of the charts. It’s a little dose of anarchy.” The band’s front man Zack de la Rocha told Radio 5 Live that the campaign was: “a wonderful statement… it says something about the real tensions that people are experiencing all over the UK and US as well, as people would love to experience something which reflects this.”

There are 3 reasons I think KITN beat Geordie Joe’s The Climb into second place tonight. First of all, we are indeed sick of the monotonous dredge of X Factor chart toppers. Secondly, KITN is a play-it-loud, rock-out track which is about as far from The Climb as it’s possible to get. Thirdly, I think KITN perfectly expresses the simmering feeling of frustration and disenchantment that most people have about corporations, politics and the media at the moment. Listen to the lyrics. Just think about the name of the band for a second – it’s all there.

Simon Cowell may well think the campaign “cynical”, “stupid” and “Scrooge” but couldn’t he easily be accused of cynicism and thinking the public stupid? And what could be more “Scrooge” than moaning about members of the public launching their own right to reply?

So, here’s to hope this Christmas. Hope because at the end of this decade, that has seen more erosion of civil liberties and curtailing of free expression than possibly any other decade before it, the public has put a song on the top of the UK charts which proclaims “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.”