September 79, Police were #1 with Message In A Bottle, when I bought the single on 7inch vinyl for 50p I got a copy of the top 40 chart inside free, and my interest in the charts began.

 

Peter Powell used to rundown the chart on a Tues evening after 6pm, listening to the chart with a bit of a paper writing down the chart as the chart was revealed. I could go on, but I start waffling.

 

I feel I'm stuck on repeat, could have swore I created this topic 6 months ago or more. :unsure:

 

Maybe you did, but the archive search facility here is awful. :(

2002. The passion lasted until year 2008, during which the spark has died. The peak was probably around year 2004/2005. I was MAD about charts at that time!

 

I can't believe now how easily I could go BERSERK when I realised I couldn't catch a chart that week. :lol:

it was a bit weird for me i hated music until i was around 13/14 and had no interest but i always loved history (general and social) then I started to wonder why each christmas they would play the same songs like slade/wham and band aid and started wondering were they got to in the charts at the time they were first released...(i always wondered how class it would be to hear great classic songs like merry xmas everyone for the first time back when they first came out). then I got interested in the charts because I was interested in social history (of which popular music is a massive part) and then my overall interest in music increased and now Im a chart fanatic and all my mates know it!!! :lol:

I suspect those of us who are chart veterans, really relish the speed & ease of availabilty of chart info now.

 

When I was at school in the early 80's. the charts weren't announced until around 1pm on Tuesday on R1 (IIRC). I think they started by playing the T5 in reverse order, than read out the rest of the T40 afterwards.

 

I may still have some chart rundowns on tape from that period! :)

I would say about the Summer of 1988- the charts were great back then- Jason, Kylie, Bros et al- their was great rivalry back then and no mids info on any sales knowledge really- sunday was edge of the seat time! I recall "Loco-motion" being stuck behind "The Only way is Up" for 4 weeks- I hated Yazz with such a vengence for years haha..

 

I never missed a chart show through to about 2003 when I started to lose interest. I still keep up to date with what's going on but more as an impassioned observer these days

Edited July 23, 201113 yr by gezza76

i love the charts but dont necessarily have to avidly listen to the radio each sunday if you know what imean, especially with reggie as presenter now.though i never miss the xmas countdown, always amazing!!!

1998ish I think. I just used to listen and record the songs I liked because I was only about 10 at the time. I wrote them down sometimes but not religiously. My peak was in the early 2000s and though I still check the chart every week without fail, I can count the number of chart shows I have listened to since 2005 on one hand. It's not that my obsession with music or the charts have died down, I just couldn't stomach listening to the hosts (JK & Joel put me off and since those two the hosts have just gotten more and more hideous).

2002. The passion lasted until year 2008, during which the spark has died. The peak was probably around year 2004/2005. I was MAD about charts at that time!

 

I can't believe now how easily I could go BERSERK when I realised I couldn't catch a chart that week. :lol:

 

This. Except it was around 2007/2008! :lol:

I stopped listening to the chart show every week in 2002, when Mark Goodier left. Although it wasn't really a case of stopping as soon as he left in some kind of outrage/disgust, it was more that I just didn't worry too much about missing it after that. Plus 2002 had been such an awful year for chart music anyway so my interest was probably hampened a bit by that (even though 2003 turned out to be one of my absolute favourite years, although of course I didn't realise that at the time) and I had already stopped writing down the charts by the end of 2001. I did briefly jump over to the Smash Hits Chart when I heard Mark Goodier was presenting it but that didn't last long.

 

And I've only listened to the chart show twice this year (and both times not the full show, only a bit of it), but I still check the charts online every Sunday night without fail. Even if I don't know/haven't heard 4/5 of the top 5 like the situation is currently :lol: I'm very neutral these days and really don't care much who gets #1 or top 10 or whatever, plus it's not that often a song I really love gets that high in the charts anyway...

Edited July 23, 201113 yr by superbossanova

1984 for me ;-)

I remember the times when Modern Talking started to dominate in Europe.

1985-1989, but it was 87 when i really started getting into it.

1981 - the best year for pop music IMO!

 

Christmas 1980 - my parents bought a hi-fi and my dad wanted to tape John Lennon's hits off the Top 40 as he had recently died.

 

And so it began... I was 6 years old and the Top 40 was fascinating: Adam & The Ants, Bucks Fizz, Shakin' Stevens, Kim Wilde, Toyah, Hazel O'Connor, Soft Cell, OMD, Toyah, Human League, Dollar...

 

It seemed as if every track in the Top 40 was worth hearing in that year.

And so it began... I was 6 years old and the Top 40 was fascinating: Adam & The Ants, Bucks Fizz, Shakin' Stevens, Kim Wilde, Toyah, Hazel O'Connor, Soft Cell, OMD, Toyah, Human League, Dollar...

 

This was my era, I was heavily into the New Romantic genre Spandau Balllet, Ultravox, Police, Duran Duran, Human League, Heaven 17, the beautiful Kim Wilde/Debbie Harry at the time :D the list is endless, I could go on and on.

Around 1995/6 for me when I was 10/11. This was when the likes of Britpop where dominating the chart, plus we had the pop acts of Eternal, Take That in the dying days of their first era and people like Mariah Carey and Celine Dion with their beautiful power ballads.

 

There was so much variety then, and there was always an element of surprise such as "Dreamer" by Living Joy being #1.

 

Now, there is too much of the same with all this rap/dance crap with Pitbull and David Guetta making a fast buck with the same song each release. Sadly Amy's passing has given the chart some life with the possibilities of two or three of her songs in the top 40. On top of that, even by the name of the act you know they will have a number one e.g JLS.

 

I think something needs to be done and the onus is on radio stations to vary their playlists and given local acts and newcomers the chance to prove themselves and attention.

This was my era, I was heavily into the New Romantic genre Spandau Balllet, Ultravox, Police, Duran Duran, Human League, Heaven 17, the beautiful Kim Wilde/Debbie Harry at the time :D the list is endless, I could go on and on.

 

 

I was a little young to properly embrace the era, but I loved the tunes on their own merits.

 

And my first crush was Clare Grogan after seeing Altered Images' "Happy Birthday" on Top Of The Pops in October 1981, after which the lovely Jay Aston became foxier and foxier with each Bucks Fizz video... :D

Edited July 23, 201113 yr by eightiespopkid

Around 1995/6 for me when I was 10/11. This was when the likes of Britpop where dominating the chart, plus we had the pop acts of Eternal, Take That in the dying days of their first era and people like Mariah Carey and Celine Dion with their beautiful power ballads.

 

There was so much variety then, and there was always an element of surprise such as "Dreamer" by Living Joy being #1.

 

Now, there is too much of the same with all this rap/dance crap with Pitbull and David Guetta making a fast buck with the same song each release. Sadly Amy's passing has given the chart some life with the possibilities of two or three of her songs in the top 40. On top of that, even by the name of the act you know they will have a number one e.g JLS.

 

I think something needs to be done and the onus is on radio stations to vary their playlists and given local acts and newcomers the chance to prove themselves and attention.

 

To be honest I am sick of the whole "club"/"dancefloor" obsession - it's been 2 years now and shows no sign of waning. Could artists, writers, record companies, radio stations etc please exercise some imagination?

To be honest I am sick of the whole "club"/"dancefloor" obsession - it's been 2 years now and shows no sign of waning. Could artists, writers, record companies, radio stations etc please exercise some imagination?

 

 

Amen. It seems people are only interested in a fast buck. The likes of Pitbull should be banned from stepping near a recording studio.

To be honest I am sick of the whole "club"/"dancefloor" obsession - it's been 2 years now and shows no sign of waning. Could artists, writers, record companies, radio stations etc please exercise some imagination?

 

I agree. I'm sick of it, and I'm a teenager. Even just a few years ago it was so different. It seemed about 2007 it started getting more and more popular, but now it's just completely spun out of control. I hate it.

 

I don't think Pitbull should be banned from releasing songs, but something needs to be done imo. I don't actually think radio is to blame. All people have to do is press a button to stop listening to Radio 1 and go listen to Kerrang!

 

There's a massive problem though. I can't stand it anymore.

I think one way to stop it is have the chart around 85% singles sales and 15% jury. This way it could penalise these acts and even penalise people who have to feature a rapper just to get a hit e.g. Olly Murs.

 

As well as the country in recession, I think the music charts and industry is in one.

I think one way to stop it is have the chart around 85% singles sales and 15% jury. This way it could penalise these acts and even penalise people who have to feature a rapper just to get a hit e.g. Olly Murs.

 

As well as the country in recession, I think the music charts and industry is in one.

 

I think your jury thing is a silly idea though. How do you determine if the rapper is in the song "just to get a hit"? And you'd assume the jury was full of people who had the same opinion of music as you. If the jury had people who had the same opinion of music as me, you'd probably find the rap songs would chart higher, and the guitar songs would chart lower.

 

And if you got a jury of a wide variety of people with different musical tastes, their opinions would all cancel each other out and there'd be little effect on the chart.

 

I do agree with you that there's too much of the club/rap stuff at the moment, but I think the jury idea isn't an appropriate method of dealing with the problem. :lol:

 

Although I find I put down other people's ideas, yet I can't think of any myself. However, part of me thinks this honestly must be the peak now. I think club music will start dieing down soon, and I think rock and RnB will make a bit of a comeback again (it's crazy, since it seems like yesterday those genres were dominating!).