Well, good to know there's at least some people that think 2011 was the best year for music ever. :lol:

Ok, yeah, looking at the albums from 2004 that list is incredible. It just makes the singles chart look even more depressing...why turn down singles from the likes of Snow Patrol and Green Day and buy...Eamon somebody instead? Or a decade-old Peter Andre song :P

 

It says a lot that this was the year 'Mr Brightside' was released and it fell out the top 100 in four weeks. Almost universally heralded as a classic now and still played all the time, its chart run looking back is just bizarre. It's played as much as 'Sex On Fire' and that was a million selling number 1!

Ok, yeah, looking at the albums from 2004 that list is incredible. It just makes the singles chart look even more depressing...why turn down singles from the likes of Snow Patrol and Green Day and buy...Eamon somebody instead? Or a decade-old Peter Andre song :P

 

It says a lot that this was the year 'Mr Brightside' was released and it fell out the top 100 in four weeks. Almost universally heralded as a classic now and still played all the time, its chart run looking back is just bizarre. It's played as much as 'Sex On Fire' and that was a million selling number 1!

 

2004 was a strange time for singles. Album sales were at an all time high so once you have an album, why buy the single? Plus physical sales were way down and downloads, though not yet included in the charts, were just getting going-no.1 on the download chart would sell about 2k a week back then. This is why so many fantastic artists did so well on the album chart and yet not on the singles chart. We had 8 million selling albums that year and about a further 10 that would go on to sell a million in the long run. We can't say that about the album charts these days however singles are the strong force now.

It says a lot that this was the year 'Mr Brightside' was released and it fell out the top 100 in four weeks. Almost universally heralded as a classic now and still played all the time, its chart run looking back is just bizarre. It's played as much as 'Sex On Fire' and that was a million selling number 1!

 

Its current total is ~468k.

Its current total is ~468k.

 

Assuming for a second that nothing else from that year has trickle sold enough to stay ahead of it (even Numb / Encore, which can't be far off), it's now the 3rd biggest selling song from 2004. Wow.

1. Elton John - Candle In The Wind 1997 / Something About The Way You Look Tonight

2. Aqua - Barbie Girl

3. Puff Daddy & Faith Evans - I'll Be Missing You

4. Various Artists - Perfect Day

5. Teletubbies - Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh!

6. Will Smith - Men In Black

7. No Doubt - Don't Speak

8. Natalie Imbruglia - Torn

9. Spice Girls - Spice Up Your Life

10. Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

11. Hanson - Mmmbop

12. Oasis - D'You Know What I Mean

13. All Saints - Never Ever

14. R Kelly - I Believe I Can Fly

15. Spice Girls - Mama / Who Do You Think You Are

16. Eternal featuring Bebe Winans - I Wanna Be The Only One

17. Gala - Freed From Desire

18. No Mercy - Where Do You Go

19. Dario G - Sunchyme

20. Ultra Nate - Free

 

I think you are underestimating what is remembered and continues to be played. Dario G Sunchyme is a club classic, Will Smith Men in Black is on magic TV all the time. I'd even make a case for Spice up your Life and Freed from Desire (My lover's got no money, he's got his strong beliefs! ...love it). I personally will remember Where Do You Go as my Dance Tip cassette wore out a bit during that song and started playing the other side as interference.

 

lol. That 2004 list is way better than the 2011 list. Almost everybody agrees that 2011 has been a very, very poor year for music, it's not just me. And people are not going to remember Mr. Saxobeat, or Beautiful People, or Sweat, or On the Floor in 8 years time, trust me. A lot of people have probably already forgotten about those songs.

 

:huh:

 

Eamon

DJ Casper

Eric Prydz

Michelle McManus

Peter Andre

Frankee

Mario Winans

3 of a Kind

D12

Busted

 

Good?

 

That has to be the poorest list I have ever seen. Between 2004-2006 is a wasteland for pop music with great music not getting out regularly again until 2008. Its like comparing Tracey Emin to Picasso, none of them are Da Vinci but there is a gulf.

 

2004 was a fantastic year for music but the top of the charts didn't reflect that in the slightest. Well, the singles at least. "Hopes and Fears" and"American Idiot" are actually the only #1 albums from that year (I'm excluding those which made it later) that I really like although you also had:

 

Aha Shake Heartbreak

Collision Course

Franz Ferdinand

Funeral

Hot Fuss

Kasabian

Silent Alarm

Start Something

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge

Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)

You Are The Quarry

 

All of those had some commercial success, and album sales were very high so 2004 in general is a good argument for the idea that stronger sales periods coincide with stronger music. Although obviously all of those albums had great songs on them which didn't make #1, so maybe not :lol:

 

There was a reason I switched to MTV2 that year, the music and Brandon Boyd was so pretty

Edited January 7, 201213 yr by Paramore

have you got the total sales for Emeli Sande - Daddy? thanks.

I think you are underestimating what is remembered and continues to be played. Dario G Sunchyme is a club classic, Will Smith Men in Black is on magic TV all the time. I'd even make a case for Spice up your Life and Freed from Desire (My lover's got no money, he's got his strong beliefs! ...love it). I personally will remember Where Do You Go as my Dance Tip cassette wore out a bit during that song and started playing the other side as interference.

 

As I stated, it was purely in my opinion. I still hear Sunchyme and Freed From Desire occasionally too but I merely bolded the ones I still personally notice around the most, 1997-1999 were packed to the brim with classic huge hits, 2004 really definitely wasn't :lol: I will agree that 2004 had some classic albums though, four of my all time favourites in fact - Delta Goodrem's Mistaken Identity, The Corrs' Borrowed Heaven, Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten and Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow. I appreciate that none of these are generally regarded as classics though :lol: Definitely more a year for great albums than great singles, the majority of the great singles that did get released went completely under the radar.

 

The point I've been trying to make though is that I personally feel that the songs inside the top 20 of 2011 are almost entirely absolutely justified and earned their place there, so the sales =/= quality argument isn't an entirely black and white one one way or the other. The songs that defined 2004 were Mr Brightside, Take Me Out and Numb/Encore, so where on earth were they in the top 20 of the year? Absolutely nowhere near it, the low sales climate and fast moving charts meant that well and enduringly promoted crap could fairly easily end up in the year end top 20 :drama: I look back at my own personal end of year 2004 chart and it couldn't bear any less resemblance to the UK charts, slim pickings is an understatment. I certainly DON'T feel that Band Aid 20, Eamon and DJ Casper defined 2004, whereas Adele, Maroon 5 and LMFAO almost certainly DID define the charts of 2011.

 

Critics can put their rose tinted glasses on and use the 'new is bad' argument to claim that 2011 was the worst year ever for music if they want to but for me personally it was absolutely nowhere near it, not when that mess of eight years ago is in the history books!

I obviously didn't follow the charts in 2004, but I think the music in 2004 (for example, when you listened to the radio), was much better than now. It's just opinion I suppose, but every song I heard sounded amazing then, but now it's like 1 in 10 songs that are amazing to me. For me, 2009-2011 have been AWFUL, in the sense that I think most of the songs are really boring, and not very catchy anymore, or at least, not compared to then.

 

I wasn't following the charts, so it wasn't a big concern to me that there were 5 charity songs in the year-end top 20 or whatever. Maybe if I was, that would've annoyed me, but I loved the music itself back then. You've seen my rants about listening to the radio on here. :lol: It's not a pleasent experience compared to then, where songs didn't get overplayed, and generic songs like Give Me Everything, Break Your Heart, etc. wouldn't get played so much, and so on.

 

I've hated 2011, and I will not be listening to a lot of these songs ever again.

 

I definitely agree about Numb/Encore. That was such a popular song at my school at the time (is it reasonable for me to assume this was the case across the country in general? :rolleyes:), so I was very surprised many years later when I found out that it didn't get to #1, or even the top 10!

Edited January 7, 201213 yr by Eric_Blob

Numb/Encore and Mr Brightside especially were huge with almost everybody I knew and I just can't understand how that love translated into such mediocre initial chart success. Clearly the types of people buying singles in 2004 and 2011 were two completely different groups, none of that novelty crap would get anywhere near the EOY top 20 these days. That said, two of 2011's big hits - Loca People and Moves Like Jagger - could have quite feasibly come from 2004 so perhaps some of the 2004 singles buyers are still about :P To the interest of probably nobody, this was my personal top 40 of 2004, and their UK chart peaks (apologies for the poor formatting, it's copied straight from an old Word document where apparently I had no English skills;

 

1. Sarah McLachlan-World on fire #72

2. Shapeshifters-Lola's Theme #1

3. The Corrs-Summer sunshine #6

4. Natasha Bedingfield-These Words #1

5. Delta Goodrem-Out of the blue #9

6. Kelly Llorenna-This time I know its for real #14

7. The Corrs-Baby be brave N/A

8. Sarah McLachlan-Fallen #50

9. Natasha Bedingfield-Unwritten #6

10. Dannii Minogue VS Flower Power-You won't forget about me #7

11. Zero 7 feat Sia-Somersault N/A

12. Julie & Ludwig-On again...off again N/A

13. Lucie Silvas-What you're made of #7

14. The Corrs-Angel #16

15. Ruslana-Wild dances #47

16. Sarah McLachlan-Train wreck N/A

17. Motorcycle-As the rush comes #11

18. Sarah McLachlan-Stupid N/A

19. Delta Goodrem-Extraordinary Day N/A

20. The Corrs-Long Night #31

21. Flip 'n' Fill feat Karen Parry-Discoland #11

22. Mousse T-Is It cos I'm cool #9

23. Delta Goodrem-Throw it away N/A

24. Lena Philipsson-It hurts N/A

25. Atomic Kitten-Believer N/A

26. XTM feat Annia-Give me your love #28

27. LMC vs U2-Take me to the clouds above #1

28. Atomic Kitten-Ladies night #8

29. The Corrs-Humdrum N/A

30. Kylie Minogue-Chocolate #6

31. Delta Goodrem-Mistaken Identity N/A

32. Special D-Nothing I won't do N/A

33. Special D-Come with me #4

34. Atomic Kitten-Right now 2004 #8

35. Atomic Kitten-Nothing in the world N/A

36. Delta Goodrem-Electric Storm N/A

37. Neo Cortex-Elements N/A

38. Sarah McLachlan-Time N/A

39. Kylie Minogue-Red blooded woman #5

40. Natasha Bedingfield-Wild horses N/A

 

Certainly some good songs about, but nobody was buying them (save for Lola's Theme and These Words :wub:) Unwritten's #6 peak was another one that was criminal...and Dannii :drama:

Could I have the position and sales of pumped up kicks please?

Numb/Encore and Mr Brightside especially were huge with almost everybody I knew and I just can't understand how that love translated into such mediocre initial chart success. Clearly the types of people buying singles in 2004 and 2011 were two completely different groups, none of that novelty crap would get anywhere near the EOY top 20 these days. That said, two of 2011's big hits - Loca People and Moves Like Jagger - could have quite feasibly come from 2004 so perhaps some of the 2004 singles buyers are still about :P To the interest of probably nobody, this was my personal top 40 of 2004, and their UK chart peaks (apologies for the poor formatting, it's copied straight from an old Word document where apparently I had no English skills;

 

1. Sarah McLachlan-World on fire #72

2. Shapeshifters-Lola's Theme #1

3. The Corrs-Summer sunshine #6

4. Natasha Bedingfield-These Words #1

5. Delta Goodrem-Out of the blue #9

6. Kelly Llorenna-This time I know its for real #14

7. The Corrs-Baby be brave N/A

8. Sarah McLachlan-Fallen #50

9. Natasha Bedingfield-Unwritten #6

10. Dannii Minogue VS Flower Power-You won't forget about me #7

11. Zero 7 feat Sia-Somersault N/A

12. Julie & Ludwig-On again...off again N/A

13. Lucie Silvas-What you're made of #7

14. The Corrs-Angel #16

15. Ruslana-Wild dances #47

16. Sarah McLachlan-Train wreck N/A

17. Motorcycle-As the rush comes #11

18. Sarah McLachlan-Stupid N/A

19. Delta Goodrem-Extraordinary Day N/A

20. The Corrs-Long Night #31

21. Flip 'n' Fill feat Karen Parry-Discoland #11

22. Mousse T-Is It cos I'm cool #9

23. Delta Goodrem-Throw it away N/A

24. Lena Philipsson-It hurts N/A

25. Atomic Kitten-Believer N/A

26. XTM feat Annia-Give me your love #28

27. LMC vs U2-Take me to the clouds above #1

28. Atomic Kitten-Ladies night #8

29. The Corrs-Humdrum N/A

30. Kylie Minogue-Chocolate #6

31. Delta Goodrem-Mistaken Identity N/A

32. Special D-Nothing I won't do N/A

33. Special D-Come with me #4

34. Atomic Kitten-Right now 2004 #8

35. Atomic Kitten-Nothing in the world N/A

36. Delta Goodrem-Electric Storm N/A

37. Neo Cortex-Elements N/A

38. Sarah McLachlan-Time N/A

39. Kylie Minogue-Red blooded woman #5

40. Natasha Bedingfield-Wild horses N/A

 

Certainly some good songs about, but nobody was buying them (save for Lola's Theme and These Words :wub:) Unwritten's #6 peak was another one that was criminal...and Dannii :drama:

 

Yeah, not much correlation between that chart and the official year-end one. :lol: Unwritten, is another song that I'm surprised at its low peak. I used to hear it a lot. It was MASSIVE in the US though! :o

have you got the total sales for Emeli Sande - Daddy? thanks.

 

~27k

 

Could I have the position and sales of pumped up kicks please?

 

225k ~104th

Better than 2010, at least!

 

Ellie G's version of 'Your Song' was the only song of 2010 I really really liked, whereas there were 4-5 of that standard in 2011...

 

Birdy-Skinny Love

Christina Perri-Jar Of Hearts

Noah & TW - l.i.f.e.g.o.e.s.o.n

Clare Maguire-Last Dance

Pixie Lott-All About Tonight

 

Can't believe I omitted Lana Del Ray - Video Games!

Those songs won't be "remembered" though. As some people are demonstrating in this thread, songs that get "remembered" are songs which are still on the radio a lot in years to come (e.g. Heart FM, etc.). So that automatically excludes all songs with rapping and autotune any chance of being remembered. The adult radio stations will never play those songs, whilst they'll happily have Someone Like You and Moves Like Jagger on rotate for decades. Except we won't really need to remember those songs, since they'll never go away (kind of like I Gotta Feeling, the amount it's on the radio, it could've been a 2011 hit).

Eric, from someone who has been listening to the charts since the mid/late 80s, I can tell that a fair few 2011 songs will be remembered as classics in years to come. Plus an awful lot more songs that you will give credit for will be remembered as well. Lets come back in 10 years and see.

As I stated, it was purely in my opinion. I still hear Sunchyme and Freed From Desire occasionally too but I merely bolded the ones I still personally notice around the most, 1997-1999 were packed to the brim with classic huge hits, 2004 really definitely wasn't :lol: I will agree that 2004 had some classic albums though, four of my all time favourites in fact - Delta Goodrem's Mistaken Identity, The Corrs' Borrowed Heaven, Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten and Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow. I appreciate that none of these are generally regarded as classics though :lol: Definitely more a year for great albums than great singles, the majority of the great singles that did get released went completely under the radar.

 

The point I've been trying to make though is that I personally feel that the songs inside the top 20 of 2011 are almost entirely absolutely justified and earned their place there, so the sales =/= quality argument isn't an entirely black and white one one way or the other. The songs that defined 2004 were Mr Brightside, Take Me Out and Numb/Encore, so where on earth were they in the top 20 of the year? Absolutely nowhere near it, the low sales climate and fast moving charts meant that well and enduringly promoted crap could fairly easily end up in the year end top 20 :drama: I look back at my own personal end of year 2004 chart and it couldn't bear any less resemblance to the UK charts, slim pickings is an understatment. I certainly DON'T feel that Band Aid 20, Eamon and DJ Casper defined 2004, whereas Adele, Maroon 5 and LMFAO almost certainly DID define the charts of 2011.

 

Critics can put their rose tinted glasses on and use the 'new is bad' argument to claim that 2011 was the worst year ever for music if they want to but for me personally it was absolutely nowhere near it, not when that mess of eight years ago is in the history books!

 

I just had to find more extreme Rock/Dance at the time as the pop was stale and immature (and I was 16!). Talking about Albums I would say these were the soundtrack of my 2004:

 

Snow Patrol- Final Straw

Incubus- A Crow Left of the Murder

Maroon 5- Songs about Jane

The Killers- Hot Fuss

Auf Der Maur-Auf Der Maur

 

and these songs:

Lost Prophets- Last Summer

OutKast- Roses

Jay Z-99 Problems

Razorlight- Golden Touch

Keane- Bedshaped

Shapeshifters- Lola's Theme

JoJo- Leave (Get Out)- Guilty pleasure :wub:

Tomcraft- Loneliness

Basement Jaxx- Good Luck

David Guetta- A little More Love

Narcotic Thrust- I like it

Deepest Blue- Give it Away

Kelis ft Andre 3000- Millionaire

Brandy- Afrodisiac

Destiny's Child- Lose My Breath

Deep Dish- Flashdance

Usher ft Alicia Keys- My Boo

Natasha Bedingfield- Unwritten

Blink 182- I Miss You

Usher- Yeah

Interpol- Love Steals Us From Loneliness

36 Crazyfists- Bloodwork

The Strokes- Reptilia

Eric, from someone who has been listening to the charts since the mid/late 80s, I can tell that a fair few 2011 songs will be remembered as classics in years to come. Plus an awful lot more songs that you will give credit for will be remembered as well. Lets come back in 10 years and see.

 

I think maybe some songs will be remembered. As I said in my post though, it'll be the radio-friendly songs. The A Team, Jar of Hearts, Moves Like Jagger, Rolling in the Deep.

 

Sweat, Don't Go, Champion, will NOT be remembered, because most people will never hear those songs again.

Sweat, Don't Go, Champion, will NOT be remembered, because most people will never hear those songs again.

Some will still remember them (if they liked them/had some association with them) but yes, those 3 are not future classics I agree.

Some will still remember them (if they liked them/had some association with them) but yes, those 3 are not future classics I agree.

 

Yeah, I think I will remember those songs (certainly Don't Go), but most people won't.

 

For example, My Band was one of my favourite songs from 2004, and I still listen to it all the time, but now in this thread I'm seeing people list it as a novelty song. :( Maybe like 3% of the population still listen to My Band, but that's not enough for it to become a classic. Moves Like Jagger is going to be played to tens of millions of people on a regular basis for decades, so people will say that's a classic.

"Champion" may well get a boost from being played at or around the Olympic Games, and whenever TV need to show shots/montages of sports people celebrating winning anything.