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Posted by: awardinary 30th December 2019, 10:27 PM

Apologies if this counts as any sort of duplicate thread idea, but I was interested to see if the community could pick one defining moment of the last decade, a chart shocker or surprise, or some memorable chart moments that kept your interest peaked in UK chart music.

Here are some that I thought of that will perhaps be hard to match or beat in the future...


Pharrell Williams’ single Happy becoming the most downloaded song of all time in the UK by the end of 2014.

Drake’s 15 week dominance at #1 in 2016 with One Dance just a week shy of matching the all time record held by Bryan Adams.

Ed Sheeran’s occupancy of the entire UK Top 15 singles bar one position in 2017 upon the release of his album Divide.


I’m sure you can think of more, so over to you.

Posted by: ChristmaSteve201 30th December 2019, 10:31 PM

Probably the introduction of OAOS so we could listen or purchase a song immediately when it was available.

Posted by: Slade 30th December 2019, 10:35 PM

'Three Lions' returning to #1 last year and PJ & Duncan getting to #1 with 'Let's Get Ready To Rumble' both stand out massively to me *.*

Posted by: awardinary 30th December 2019, 10:35 PM

Also, it’s up for debate, but for me the best novelty #1 single of the decade has to go to this from 2012!

Posted by: awardinary 30th December 2019, 10:36 PM

Oh yes the PJ & Duncan return was quite a big surprise to many, including the artists!

Posted by: Sausage Rollo 30th December 2019, 10:41 PM

ELO having two number 1 albums in this decade. I never thought that would happen.

Posted by: ChristmaSteve201 30th December 2019, 10:50 PM

Def the novelty hit of the decade which will be remembered.

Posted by: Jester 30th December 2019, 10:52 PM

Adele's stratospheric rise after her BRITS performance of Someone Like You in 2011.

Oh and Ed Sheeran's near takeover of the top 10 in 2017.

Posted by: dancember 30th December 2019, 10:55 PM

Avicii 'Wake Me Up' entering at #1 with over 250k sales after having to have been brought forward a few weeks was amazing to witness – and I'd already had a Spotify subscription at that point so wasn't even part of that number

(although it does have a chart sale from me just from the amount of times I've played it since 2014 (would be about 2.5 chart sales if my 2013 streams counted))

Less of a singular moment but streaming coming into prominence has to be the big one - it has forever changed what it is that the charts measure. I was rather pleased to see it finally be too big for the OCC to ignore and have it count to the chart as I'd had a Spotify subscription for nearly 2 years at that point – even if it has led to some rather messy chart situations and funny rules.

Posted by: awardinary 30th December 2019, 11:23 PM

And one of the music industry’s saddest losses this decade too.

Posted by: ChristmaSteve201 30th December 2019, 11:31 PM

There's been so many when it comes to that too - Bowie another one 🙁

Posted by: Crazy Chris-tmas 31st December 2019, 07:50 AM

Ladbaby's two consecutive Christmas No.1's was great.

Posted by: AcerBen 31st December 2019, 11:31 AM

Although it is great not to have to wait weeks to get hold of a single these days (though tbh I had my ways of "obtaining" them pre-release anyway!), I much preferred the chart in the days of a pre-release build up with the aim of entering in the top 10. The chart seemed to be working quite nicely in the first half of the decade just before the (re-)introduction of OAOS around 2015, where holding back singles worked well for a lot of artists, but it wasn't necessarily the end of the story if you didn't do first week out. It was a happy medium of a chart that was reasonably fast-paced and it felt like everyone stood a chance of doing well. And as someone who is a proper 90s/early 00s pop lover, in hindsight I wish I'd appreciated 2012-2014 more than I did at the time, because it was a great time for pop.

Posted by: Jordan Lee 31st December 2019, 11:34 AM

2018 seeing Lady Gaga finally getting another UK #1 single. Plus album as well was a real highlight for me and quite the shock.

Whitney Houston having a #2 hit this year as well

Posted by: miichaelking21 31st December 2019, 12:59 PM

The Saturdays finally hitting Number 1 in March 2013 with What About Us

Posted by: slowdown73 31st December 2019, 02:16 PM

Adele’s success with 21. It was earth shattering. Selling over 5 million copies in the U.K. alone.

Posted by: Jonjo 31st December 2019, 02:22 PM

A Eurovision song becoming an actual hit! Reaching number 1 on iTunes and top 3 officially (and the decline not being a sharp drop) was amazing to see. Eurovision songs CAN still be hits! (granted that it's going to be much harder now with streaming involved)

Posted by: Marty 31st December 2019, 02:44 PM

I’d go with two...
1. Ella Henderson’s Ghost going no.1
2. Adele’s Hello going no 1 while first hearing it on holiday.

Posted by: awardinary 31st December 2019, 02:51 PM

Bad Romance being the first UK #1 of the decade was a great result as I’m sure Jade will tell you!

Posted by: 𝕮𝖖𝖒x 31st December 2019, 02:54 PM

Alexa reaching #1 in the charts tbh

Also Eleni Foureira having an actual UK Top 75 hit

Spotify now supports Eurovision songs, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a song took off soon!

Posted by: T Boy 31st December 2019, 02:57 PM

Maroon 5 having the comeback of the decade with Moves Like Jagger after being written off as over.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 31st December 2019, 02:59 PM

For me, along with those already mentioned and the introduction of streaming to the charts in the summer of 2014, it would have be Kiesza getting to #1 in April 2014 with “Hideaway”. One of my favourite #1s of the decade and the last time I shared a personal chart #1 with the official UK #1 single.

The only other occasion it happened in the 2010s was in 2013 with Daft Punk (“Get Lucky”).

Posted by: ChristmaSteve201 31st December 2019, 03:21 PM

Yeh I know you love the high entries as a 90s chart listener but I just felt looking back at 2012-14 time it led to a fast moving chart but became a bit ridiculous that there would be literally a new no1 every week as artists moved release date to get the top spot(sometimes missing out of thousands of potential buyers) and then fell relatively quickly afterwards as there was no build up of appeal for the song or people had obtained the song by other means.

We had No1s for artists like Riton never to be seen again. Some of the longest runners/genuinely popular songs ended up being the biggest hits such as All Of Me or Thinking Out Loud. Things came to ahead when Uptown Funk was performed a month before release on the 2014 XF final and the performing artist was selling bucketloads online clearly losing sales for the original so Mark Ronsons label were forced to release 5 weeks before impact release. That was the beginning of the end of held back music and other labels like MoS were forced kicking and screaming into the new world order in 2015.

I understand now the chart can be slow but think the ACR rules have tried their best to represent popularity with oaos and streaming behaviour when people will listen to a song numerous times so it would hang around much longer.

Posted by: dobcember 31st December 2019, 03:33 PM

The OA/OS obligation was definitely the best moment. The Charts were at their most ridiculous when fake versions kept flooding the Charts. Most farcical scenario of this was the Cheerleader situation where it had been held back for the best part of 6 months for no real reason whatsoever. Jess Glynne managed to grab a 3-week #1 with no competition at all (save for Nick Jonas - another great chart moment on this Forum especially) before then it nearly screwed itself over completely by releasing the same time as See You Again. It was VERY luckily it had enough enduring popularity to still get a month at #1 thereafter...

Posted by: Doctor Blind 31st December 2019, 03:35 PM

Actually you've just reminded me of Precision Tunes making #9 with “Payphone”! ICONIC. *.*

Posted by: Chez WreathBow 31st December 2019, 03:38 PM

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead almost topping the charts following Margaret Thatcher's death and everyone thrown off completely. Perhaps a little insensitive but still a classic moment *.

Posted by: ChristmaSteve201 31st December 2019, 04:02 PM

hilarious - that was the problem perfectly shown with holding a track back trying to get to no1! Were they waiting for Sing to end its run at the top?

Posted by: ChristmaSteve201 31st December 2019, 04:04 PM

Indeed the charts were always meant to be the cultural story of the uk and this moment is forever represented by this. Still wonder what young people thought of this at the time as they hadn't heard of her before.

Posted by: NellyEverySundae 31st December 2019, 04:21 PM

I mean, i was 14 and was aware of her from History lessons. My school just thought it was funny.

Posted by: Houdini 31st December 2019, 04:23 PM

For me it would be seeing how dramatically and how quickly the chart changed whenever a song was performed on a TV show in the earlier years of the decade. Also linked to that was the top 10 effects songs would get on iTunes once they broke into the top 10.

Posted by: ChristmaSteve201 31st December 2019, 04:35 PM

Cool, I never did about her in history mainly in politics lessons and was in school in the 90s anyway.

I'd say a lot who maybe don't like politics/history wouldn't understand as much.

Posted by: lewistgreen 31st December 2019, 05:07 PM

David Zowie snatching the #1 on just 5 days of sales *.*

Posted by: awardinary 31st December 2019, 05:10 PM

Another iconic moment for me was when videos like this one blew up on Youtube making Harlem Shake a viral #3 hit in 2013!

Posted by: Dappy New Year 31st December 2019, 05:25 PM

I seem to recall he was incredibly lucky it was a 5 day week too as otherwise Years & Years would have got it with Shine.
It also meant poor Lost Frequencies spent the shortest time at #1 ever as he had the last Sunday #1.

Posted by: Bré 31st December 2019, 05:27 PM

There was also missing data that week I'm pretty sure? (Which gave Birdy's 'Wings' and James Bay's 'Let It Go' top 10 peaks that they probably shouldn't have had iirc, although I don't remember if it called into question whether or not Y&Y should have been #1). Whatever the circumstances, Zowie definitely got extremely lucky. And 'Shine' never got to be #1 as a result which is an absolute win

Posted by: SKOB 31st December 2019, 05:46 PM

ICONIC Shallow reaching #1, without support by BBC Radio 1. Long may it smash (it reaches 1 billion listens on Spotify very soon)

Total dominations of Adele albums and Ed Sheeran singles

David Bowie and Prince passing away Those were more like cultural moments but still.

Posted by: Auld Lang Snake 31st December 2019, 06:03 PM

Dubstep becoming a thing in the early part of the decade, and introducing us to something completely different to anything else in the charts..

'The Swarm' and 'Drown becoming very unlikely rock hits - well 'Drown' was probably more unexpected than 'The Swarm' but both heavy rock and completely different to anything else in the chart.

Duke Dumont/AME and then Storm Queen becoming #1 - I didn't like them so much but it was undeniably a massive change in dance music trends.

Gangnam Style bringing K-pop to the UK chart for the first time.

Furthermore on the subject of novelty songs - Swede Mason's remix of Masterchef about a Buttery Biscuit Base going top 40 was quite a moment too.

I preferred it when Can You Blow My went top 40 - brilliant artist name!

Posted by: Crazy Chris-tmas 31st December 2019, 06:10 PM

TBH I can't see an album selling so many copies again, especially so many CD's too. Even Adele won't.

Posted by: SevenSeize 31st December 2019, 06:19 PM

Here's some off the top of my head~

- Somebody That I Used to Know reaching #1 (this would've been unthinkable a year prior, especially during the 'club banger' era)
- Get Lucky blowing up so suddenly
- Feel It Still taking off in the UK despite resistance from radio/hot hits
- Adele's domination in 2011
- Drake's 15 week run
- LadBaby becoming a chart icon
- Foals finally scoring a #1 album
- Everything Everything managing a top 40 single somehow
- the week Love Me Again got to #1 for...certain reasons
- various #psychic7 moments (too many to even name at once)

Posted by: Crazy Chris-tmas 31st December 2019, 06:19 PM

Yeah what a great single yet denied No.1.

Posted by: Auld Lang Snake 31st December 2019, 06:20 PM

On the subject of albums, Mumford and Sons' debut album becoming so big was also quite a shock.

Posted by: Crazy Chris-tmas 31st December 2019, 06:21 PM

Yes it was. Have given it a listen and just can't get in to it.

Posted by: Bré 31st December 2019, 06:22 PM

Sir Newman providing 2 of the most iconic iTunes threads of the decade tbh (first by conquering the Loreen evil, then by crushing The Saturdays into oblivion) *.*

Posted by: SevenSeize 31st December 2019, 06:24 PM

+ Trifoski scoring a real life chart hit with Sunlight (aptly charting at #7)

Posted by: SantaDalek32 31st December 2019, 06:56 PM

Even though I think it's not good to celebrate a person's death, The Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead campaign was quite amusing for me, mainly because of the controversy.
Plus Foals finally getting a number one album in the UK and Dominic The Donkey being so close to getting a record of 'longest time it took for a song to get to number one between its peak date and release date'

Posted by: Doctor Blind 31st December 2019, 07:23 PM

I'd forgotten about Sir John Newman. What a week! *.*

Posted by: Auld Lang Snake 31st December 2019, 08:03 PM

Yes it's overrated I think

Posted by: Auld Lang Snake 31st December 2019, 08:04 PM

It wasn't that big a shock that 'Love Me Again' would go to #1 though, I didn't think - it did sound like a #1 single and was played loads before its release date.

Posted by: Cody Snomberry 31st December 2019, 08:52 PM

that "jess glynne didn't deserve it again" moment, I think that was the first chart-related drama i experienced

Posted by: Djcheekymagpie 31st December 2019, 09:09 PM

Ed Sheeran get all he songs from 1 album chart almost whole top 10 chainsmokers was only non Ed Sheeran

Posted by: awardinary 31st December 2019, 09:11 PM

Now That’s What I Call Music reaching the milestone of 100 volumes by 2018, a date I anticipated some 15 years before it arrived (based on the 3 volumes per year sequence).

Posted by: Danny89 31st December 2019, 09:18 PM

One of my favourite battle for No. 1 was one week in October 2012.

Rihanna, One Direction, Ellie Goulding & Psy all competing for the top spot!

It looked like OD were going all the way, but Rihanna was not far behind, both neck & neck in the updates.

By the middle of the week it looked like “Diamonds” was going to be her seventh UK No. 1 Single...

But of course Adele released “Skyfall” that Friday with only 48 hours left to spare. God it was nailbiting! iTunes that morning was just crazy!!! I was checking many websites early afternoon on Sunday to see if Rihanna had done it😎

Posted by: ChristmaSteve201 31st December 2019, 09:23 PM

Fantastic chart battle!

Posted by: tgl92 31st December 2019, 09:54 PM

The Saturdays cementing their pop royalty status by going to number 1

Posted by: Robbie 31st December 2019, 11:31 PM

The defining moment to me of the decade was when Ed Sheeran held most of the top 20 positions one week back in 2017. It changed forever how the charts were compiled. It led to total artificiality as the compilers sought more ways to change the nature of the charts. First was "three songs per main act". Once that was introduced it led to a number of other changes, including the introduction of ACR.

Which in turn led to the most bizarre situation where Ed Sheeran was number 1... but the song was removed from the chart due to a combination of the "three tracks per artist" rule and ACR. In July 2019 'I Don't Care' had moved to ACR and in one week was the fourth highest positioned track by Ed. Yet had it not been for ACR it would have been number 1. And therefore would have not been the fourth placed song by Ed. Instead it dropped completely from the charts, from number 3 the previous week, only to re-enter at number 3 the next week. It turned the charts into a total farce.

Posted by: Mr. C. Joel 31st December 2019, 11:44 PM

That’s mine too! I remember seeing it fly up to #1 on iTunes with a large lead and they actually had the biggest sales week that year at the moment it hit #1.

I miss them.

Posted by: 𝕮𝖖𝖒x 31st December 2019, 11:46 PM

Oh yeah, Shallow/ASIB chart success is surely THE moment of the decade too?

Ava going #1 too ugh a moment we’ll never forget!

Posted by: Rush 1st January 2020, 01:01 AM

Yep, there was no Spotify data that week (probably due to a combination of the 5-day week and Spotify's own charts having fallen behind at the time), and Apple Music had only launched a week earlier so the remaining non-Spotify data was very small:
Which produced a pretty funny streaming chart with four Taylor Swift entries/re-entries in the top 50 even though 90% of streamers couldn't access her music. 'House Every Weekend' was ahead of 'Shine' on Spotify the whole time though (helped by having been available long in advance), so if Spotify data was present it would've only helped it pull further ahead.

However, 'Shine' was closing the gap over the course of the week (it was 5.5k behind on the first midweek update, compared to 900 copies in the end), so if it had been a full 7-day week, 'Shine' may well have gotten the #1 (possibly depending on if this hypothetical 7-day week included Spotify or not).

The same no-Spotify problem happened to the New Zealand charts that week (even though releases were already on Fridays there so no 5-day week was needed), which gave local artist Avalanche City a #1 hit that went 7-1-6.

On an unrelated note that just happens to be in a post responding to its #1 fan, the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread was 'Walking With Elephants' becoming a top 10 hit.

Posted by: Auld Lang Snake 1st January 2020, 04:23 PM

Both 'Walking With Elephants' and 'Bullit' were both very unpoppy dance top 10 hits. Not completely unexpected top 10 hits though as dance was so big in the charts during this time.

Zhu - Faded I liked better though because the synth riff after the drop reminded me of Kraftwerk and other early electronic music.

Posted by: dobcember 1st January 2020, 05:46 PM

Bullit wasn't a top 10 hit sadly, streaming scuppered its chances.

Posted by: Auld Lang Snake 1st January 2020, 05:50 PM

The other Sunlight by Modestep making the charts in 2011 was also quite something, I know there were dubstep hits before it but it was the first chart hit of the more extreme form of dubstep.

Posted by: Auld Lang Snake 1st January 2020, 05:53 PM

Oops...why did I think it was....

Posted by: xajnipi 1st January 2020, 08:11 PM

Idina Menzel's tenacity in the top 20 with 'Let it go' was fun to watch/follow

Posted by: shadow2009 1st January 2020, 11:08 PM

This was so rewarding for me as well. It really looked like they had missed their chance forever and were on a downward trajectory (again) after 30 Days flopped and the American release also went nowhere so to see them having a huge lead on iTunes, in fact just seeing their name as #1 on Kworb was bizarre. Seeing them cry with happiness at the announcement as well was so cute because they genuinely did deserve it at that point and they got their hopes up with Just Can't Get Enough, Missing You and All Fired Up only to keep losing. I know things went to shit afterwards and they never really made an impact the way Girls Aloud or Little Mix did, and it wasn't THAT big a #1 etc but just knowing that there was one week where The Saturdays were #1 with the fastest selling single of the year was what their fans always wanted.

Posted by: Supercell 2nd January 2020, 11:36 AM

Happy selling almost two million downloads I think for me is a highlight. Given the sales decline of the mid 00s, I honestly never thought we'd have a million selling single ever again let alone one that does almost two. I really do miss the download era. I do think the streaming sale units are way too inflated.

Adele 21/25 both of these are another. I doubt we'll see that level of selling power again for a long while, but I think what is more amazing is how one performance triggered all of it. Selling 100k of a single and the parent album simultaneously for three weeks is something I don't think anybody had done since the Spice Girls. Not only that, 21 selling over 100k for 12 straight weeks was nothing sort of incredible. It was a bit disheartening to see TGS overtake its run at no1 last year. Then 25 smashing 800k in a week with Hello topping every chart around the world was brilliant.

Drake getting 15 weeks was also fantastic to see. Again probably will never happen again but Tones and I certainly gave ACR a run for its money.

Finally, I think Gaga ascending to no1 with Shallow was my final big moment of the decade. She began the 10s as the biggest popstar in the world but by 2014 it felt as though everyone had tired of her. Then she grabs a no1 single out of nowhere with song that is tinged with country vibes making it all the more peculiar, with the soundtrack also being a no1 success.

Posted by: Spiceboy 2nd January 2020, 11:46 AM

The only Spice related top 20 single of this decade (and probably ever again) Loving you by Melanie C and Matt Cardle!

Posted by: N-S 2nd January 2020, 12:35 PM

How many weeks would One Dance be at #1 if ACR was implemented back then? And who would've been number 1 instead?

Posted by: Dappy New Year 2nd January 2020, 12:42 PM

8 weeks (his first chart week was at #21 - and he declined for 3 consecutive weeks before week 10)

the following would have been #1:
Justin Timberlake - CAN'T STOP THE FEELING! (1 week)
Kungs vs. Cookin' on 3 Burners - This Girl (4 weeks)
The Chainsmokers feat. Daya - Don't Let Me Down (1 week)
Jonas Blue feat. JP Cooper - Perfect Strangers (1 week)

Posted by: Riser 6th January 2020, 04:06 AM

I think all of the defining moments for me have already been mentioned, but I'll add the chart week that followed the Olympics closing ceremony in 2012, for the sheer amount of classics that re-entered the chart that week. Plus 'One Day Like This' rightfully getting a new peak of #4, and George Michael getting his final top 40 hit of his lifetime ().

Posted by: jimwatts 7th January 2020, 10:33 PM

Totally agree the Olympics closing ceremony week was pretty special. As well as One Day Like This reaching #4, the other song Elbow performed, Open Arms, got its only week in the UK chart, as did The Who's Baba O'Reilly and Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here - those things just wouldn't happen now with streaming so dominant.

Re: One Dance - ACR came in a year later in July 2017, but before that in January 2017 the streaming ratio changed from 100:1 to 150:1. Had the ratio stayed at 100:1, Shape Of You would have matched One Dance's 15-week run at #1 (and Sign Of The Times wouldn't have got there at all). Conversely, had the ratio been 150:1 in 2016, even without ACR in place, One Dance would have spent at most 8 and perhaps as few as 6 weeks at #1:

1st 3 weeks: #1 One Dance (unaffected as #1 on pure sales)
Weeks 4-5: #1 One Dance, but with a smaller margin (only 3,295 sales ahead of This Is What You Came For in week 5)
Weeks 6-7: #1 Can't Stop The Feeling (ahead by 8,581 and 4,435 respectively)
Week 8: can't tell from the sales data but #1 probably CSTF again
Week 9: #1 One Dance (but ahead by just 54)
Weeks 10, 12 & 13: #1 This Girl (ahead by 5,246, 2,433 and 2,402)
Week 11: can't tell for definite, but assuming This Girl's pure sales were at least 20.2k that would have been enough (more than likely since The Neales were #5 on pure sales with 18,938 that week)
Week 14: Perfect Strangers (#3 officially) ahead of One Dance by 943
Week 15: Dancing On My Own (#4 officially) ahead of One Dance by 252