I wasn't sure where I should have put this thread....please move it if there is a more appropriate place for it.

 

____________________________________

 

I was just in the Confirmed Million Sellers thread and it has once again hit my how amazing sales were at the end of 1997. Each week from the chart dated Oct 25 to the end of the year there were multiple (future) million sellers in the Top 5. In fact 7 of the Top 10 on the 20th Dec were or went on to be million sellers.

 

1 Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh! - Teletubbies

2 Perfect Day - Various Artists

3 Barbie Girl - Aqua

4 Never Ever - All Saints

5 Angels - Robbie Williams

6 Together Again - Janet Jackson

7 Baby Can I Hold You / Shooting Star - Boyzone

8 Torn - Natalie Imbruglia

9 Wind Beneath My Wings - Steve Houghton

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

 

This is where ALL 10 ( :o ) stood in the Year to date Top 40 at the end of 1997

 

1 Candle In The Wind 1997 / Something About The Way You Look Tonight - Elton John 4,770,000

2 Barbie Girl - Aqua 1,590,000

4 Perfect Day - Various Artists 1,270,000

5 Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh! - Teletubbies 900,000

8 Torn - Natalie Imbruglia 810,000

13 Never Ever - All Saints 690,000

28 Wind Beneath My Wings - Steven Houghton 410,000

26 Baby Can I Hold You / Shooting Star - Boyzone 420,000

34 Together Again - Janet Jackson 360,000

38 Angels - Robbie Williams 340,000

 

By the end of 1997 alone cumulative sales for those 10 records were 11.56 million. With Angels, Never Ever and Together Again all clocking up hundreds of thousands more in 1998 their cumulative sales must now be over 14 million.

 

 

All of the Top 5 on the Christmas chart sold over 100,000 - the first time this ever happened, I believe.

 

All in all - a fascinating time for single sales.

Edited February 1, 201213 yr by tonyttt31

I love 97 as well for sheer huge sales and quality. I have always had a soft spot for 2000 with its 40+ #1s!

yeah, 12 one-weekers in a row....in 2000

 

2004-5 kind of fascinates me because sales were so incredibly awful that had the internet been as powerful as it is now it would have been incredibly easy for campaign songs to do well regularly. Of course the paradox is that as that became more and more possible sales went back up.

1997 and 2000 also :)

For me it was the quality of music that I grew up with in the early late 70s and early 80s, such as bands like Ultravox, Human League, Police, Blondie, Kim Wilde, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Japan, the list is endless with the new romantic era. I wasn't really into the sales malarky side of it. The 80s music was just quality which you don't see too often these days as acts like them in the present era don't do too well in the charts now, for example Erasure, Human League etc etc.

89-93 for me. If I had to sit through a top 40, I'd pick any from this era with a level of confidence. I'd struggle to sit through any top 40 of the last 6 or so years though!

the 90s in general quite fascinated me, there seemed to be so many different varieties of music, 1995-1999 in particular, 2000 was good too

89-93 for me. If I had to sit through a top 40, I'd pick any from this era with a level of confidence. I'd struggle to sit through any top 40 of the last 6 or so years though!

This is exactly the same period for me! I really started getting into music in 1989 and I used to listen to the Top 40 every Sunday religiously. I also recorded Top Of The Pops and The Chart Show every week over this time and still even have some of the videos! I blame SAW for getting me hooked on the charts, as I was the ultimate fan! :D

My days as a chart geek began in 1994 when Wet Wet Wet had their long running number one. I'd say from that moment on until now, because I truly love all periods since then. However, since 2008 I've been observing things more professionally because it's part of my work now. These days I'm fascinated by little quirky facts more than the certain periods in general.

 

Musically, I think the late 90s and early 00s have been the best.

Edited February 1, 201213 yr by SKOB

1984 - the year where virtually every entry is a classic

1996 - where britrock, Spice Girls et al and dance tracks cohabited in harmony

2000 - the year when anyone and anything could shoot straight to #1

1997 was a funny year for charts I think... the first half was kinda quiet, lacking in many big hits, a lot of flash-in-the-pan "fanbase" #1s. Then the second half was mad - mega-hyped comebacks, a handful of huge charity singles, and a sea of future classics. Strange year chart-wise, I think, I can't think of many years with such a contrast like that; if you look at the end of year-chart for 1997 the first half is sorely under-represented in the top 40/50 or so. Looked like a fun year though, too bad I was one or two years too late to follow it.

 

Plus it should also be noted that it had the fastest overall chart turnover ever, with an average of 22 new entries top 75 per week! I know a lot of older chart watchers hated that kind of thing but I've always been of the opinion the more new entries the better, though I can see how it was a mess for people with a more casual interest.

 

But yes, that period at the end of 1997 was just crazy! There was something kind of similar (on a lesser scale, at least sales wise) in March 2001 too. Hear'Say, Shaggy, Atomic Kitten and Westlife were in the weekly top 4 together for two straight weeks and ended up #1, #2, #4 and #6 on the year-end chart. Also Wheatus and Gorillaz were lower down the weekly top 10 at the same time and were #9 and #11 on the year-end chart. Only two of them made a million though, but 6 of the Y/E top 11 in the weekly top 10 together is still pretty impressive...

 

Anyway, to actually answer the question rather than rambling; from a chart fan perspective I don't think the charts have ever not been somewhat fascinating, even in slug-paced 2008. I loved the turnover in the late 90s/early 00s (when I started following the charts) and in a different way I like the nature of the charts now - in fact, if record companies would only let go of the past with holding back releases I think the charts could truly be the most fascinating they've ever been with more songs veering unpredictably alá Coldplay - Paradise.

March 2001 too. Hear'Say, Shaggy, Atomic Kitten and Westlife were in the weekly top 4 together for two straight weeks and ended up #1, #2, #4 and #6 on the year-end chart.

 

 

They spent a few months as the Top 4 YTD.

1997 had a huge amount of number 1 singles selling over 100,000 weekly. I think it broke the record at the time - from the 22nd June (Puff Daddy's first week) until the end of the year the number 1 sold at least 100,000.

Edited February 1, 201213 yr by tonyttt31

I suppose there's two answers to this question...what period the actual workings of the chart (sales/new entries/etc) you're fascinated by, and what period you think the music it was simply the best.

 

Although I was too young to appreciate it at the time, 1991-1992 is really cool to look at if you're a fan of old school rave. With conventional pop music suffering from a post-Stock/Aitken/Waterman but pre-Take That low, the charts are full of the weirdest, most uncommercial and underground sounding songs that you really couldn't see charting so high either a few years earlier or later. Some examples:

 

Kicks Like A Mule - The Bouncer (number 7)

Bizarre Inc - Such A Feeling (number 13, and five weeks in the top 20)

The Prodigy - Out of Space (probably one of the maddest and most exhilarating top 5 hits ever)

Praga Khan - Injected With A Poison (number 16)

 

The charts of early 2005 are bizarre to look back on now too. They're an absolute joke...the number 1 barely reaching 20k, and weren't the number 3s less than 10k? It meant songs like Erasure's 'Breathe' and Dana Rayne's 'Object Of My Desire' (both of which I love) became top 10 hits out of nowhere!

 

But for what era I thought was the best...I'd say about 1987 (the beginnings of house music) to 2000 (the last few great trance anthems). Those thirteen years contain almost all my favourite songs of all time!

1999 was interesting - the releases weren't stacked quite like they were the following year so you had quite a few two and three week #1s, but everything was still held back so a song that caught the public imagination - regardless of genre - could sell like hot cakes seemingly out of nowhere. Classic example being The Offspring scoring a #1 selling 140k in a week and in the run of chart-toppers it's sandwiched between 911 and Armand Van Helden. Then you had the emergence of Britney as a pop phenomenon, some of the best regarded 'novelty' hits ever and popular classics of pretty much every genre going, from Britrock (Tender) to country (That Don't Impress Me Much) to trance (Better Off Alone).

I love 97 as well for sheer huge sales and quality. I have always had a soft spot for 2000 with its 40+ #1s!

 

Juast as well I wasn't following the charts in 2000.

 

From what I've subsequently heard of that year's #1's, quality was often sacrificed in favour of quantity...

Edited February 2, 201213 yr by vidcapper

yeah, 12 one-weekers in a row....in 2000

 

Surely 2000-2002 showed the culmination of domination of the chart by marketing companies like Sycho though with all the one weekers?

1999 was interesting - the releases weren't stacked quite like they were the following year so you had quite a few two and three week #1s, but everything was still held back so a song that caught the public imagination - regardless of genre - could sell like hot cakes seemingly out of nowhere. Classic example being The Offspring scoring a #1 selling 140k in a week and in the run of chart-toppers it's sandwiched between 911 and Armand Van Helden. Then you had the emergence of Britney as a pop phenomenon, some of the best regarded 'novelty' hits ever and popular classics of pretty much every genre going, from Britrock (Tender) to country (That Don't Impress Me Much) to trance (Better Off Alone).

 

Excellent summary, which I wholeheartedly agree with. 1998 and 1999 were incredibly diverse, and both produced some real classic hit singles, from practically any genre going. I loved listening each week!

 

2000 and the 42 #1's just annoyed me I'm afraid, although just about every popular act going got a look in at the top spot :lol:

Everyone talks about eras when new genres came along to dominate mainly due to changes in technology, eg New Romantics in the earky 80s, Punk in the late 70s, glam rock in the early 70s, house in the late 80s but is there anything which symbolises the now or do we just have a mismatch of everything?