A piece by the late, great American composer/music theorist John Cage, to be "recorded" today by an extended ensemble that includes Billy Bragg and Pete Doherty, will go head to head against this weekend's winner for the Sunday finale of the phenomenally popular British television talent contest The X-Factor for the much coveted #1 position on the Christmas pop chart. Until last year that top slot on the UK pop charts automatically got taken by the winner of The X-Factor, ever since it began airing in 2004.

However, that all changed last Christmas after disgruntled music fans, who were sick of the overbearing blase pop of the mainstream Simon Cowell-created contest (Cowell is also a judge), banded together via a Facebook campaign to all purchase another single and drive it, through sales, to the top position on the Christmas week pop chart. The song they chose, based on the name of the band and the song title, was the 1992 Rage Against the Machine track "Killing In The Name."

Continuing in the "Rage Against The Machine" theme (The X-Factor being the machine), this year's song is by a one-off band named Cage Against the Machine, who today were scheduled to "record" the song by John Cage -- and not just any old Cage composition, either, but the composition "4' 33."" Even by the avant garde artist's standards this is a challenging track since it is a completely silent piece that runs for 4 minutes and 33 seconds.

The "recording" of this piece begs the question: how come Bragg, Doherty, the Kooks, Imogen Heap, Orbital and the others in Cage Against The Machine needed to book recording time today in a London studio? Well, as noted in a piece in today's UK Guardian, the Cage composition is not all silence. "It is composed of three short movements. For each, the score instructs the performer to sit at his or her instrument, not playing -- the 'music' consists of the small surrounding noises, the ambient creaks and accidental coughs. Since its premiere in August 1952, '4'33"' has become one of the world's most famous pieces of conceptual art." And already bookies in the UK, such as Ladbrookes, are taking bets for the Xmas week number one single. As of today, Ladbrokes is offering odds of 8-1 that Cage Against The Machine will take the top chart slot on Christmas week.