Dave Pollock: Sadly, X Factor is all part of Cowell's plan to own pop music

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy An air of depressing inevitability hangs over The X Factor winner Joe McElderry's version of Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" as it grinds its way to the Christmas No 1 slot next week. An impressive rearguard action has been fought this year on Facebook by resistance fighters endeavouring to have Rage Against the Machine's anti-establishment rant "Killing in the Name" – a choice that's somewhat compromised by the fact the Californian anarcho-punks are signed to Sony, the same empire of which Cowell's X Factor-releasing Syco label is an arm. Besides, how to stand up to a pop cultural juggernaut which sees George Michael wheeled out to perform his own song like so much bronze-tinted window dressing, and Paul McCartney prostrating himself on the X altar with a version of "Drive My Car" alongside the ludicrously-coiffured novelty pop hydra Jedward and the other finalists? Certainly the song destined to crush the competition by next Sunday is a damper squib than most the X Factor has bent to its will – an aspirational ballad from Hannah Montana which notes in familiarly overblown terms that there's always going to be "another mountain" and "an uphill battle", and that "sometimes I'm gonna have to lose".