53. Little Mix - Salute

 

I wish this would get a move on - seems to be stuck in the 50 region!

Sure, it's gonna be mainly fanbase pre-orders putting it here, so it'll drop down soon, but "chart manipulation" it is not, lol.

I actually disagree. It is definitely chart manipulation and that annoys me. But that's also the case with everyone else who's done it, e.g Lady Gaga impressing everyone so much with the initial performance of 'Do What U Want' when in reality it was not a particularly popular song and was only buoyed by album pre-orders. I'm pretty sure all "instant grat" songs end up with chart runs that don't tell the truth of their popularity, which is not something I'm a huge fan of. Between the artificial buoyancy and the joke that is "nominating" one song, the chart has became a much less accurate representation of what's popular in recent times imo.

I actually disagree. It is definitely chart manipulation and that annoys me. But that's also the case with everyone else who's done it, e.g Lady Gaga impressing everyone so much with the initial performance of 'Do What U Want' when in reality it was not a particularly popular song and was only buoyed by album pre-orders. I'm pretty sure all "instant grat" songs end up with chart runs that don't tell the truth of their popularity, which is not something I'm a huge fan of. Between the artificial buoyancy and the joke that is "nominating" one song, the chart has became a much less accurate representation of what's popular in recent times imo.

 

The charts are far from a perfect representation of what's popular anyway, even if there were no instant grat songs, for various reasons.

 

Firstly, the iTunes users don't accurately represent the demographics of the overall population (and despite what people on here want to believe, there WILL be differences in the popularity of songs amongst different genders, age groups, etc. and even in different parts of the country). A simple example to demonstrate my point: Most iTunes users are females (probably a similar case with most download sites), so certain artists that are more popular with females might benefit because of that in an all sales chart.

 

Secondly, I'm not really fussed by songs being held back, but that also means the charts don't reflect popularity as accurately, because in reality what we have are songs being popular, but not appearing in the chart at all because they're not released yet. For example, Rita Ora's song wasn't in the chart last week, but surely it would have been one of the 100 most popular songs in the country last week? On a true popularity chart, I think it would be extremely rare for songs to debut at #1, since in reality most songs can't come from nowhere to being the most popular song in the country in the space of 7 days, they usually take longer to spread about, even by the biggest music stars.

 

Thirdly, there's other smaller factors like discounts and so on. Does a song being 59p on iTunes mean it's one of the most popular songs of the week? To me I think people are simply seeing a song from a few years ago that they liked in the discount section and buying it because it's cheap (same when old songs get featured on TV). I don't think these discounted songs are really increasing in popularity (at least not on a big level).

 

Fourthly, lots of people buy albums. For example, Turning Tables by Adele is known by millions of people, yet it hasn't made the top 40. Artists like Arctic Monkeys, Mumford & Sons, etc. are stronger in albums. The true popularity of their singles are probably under-represented in the singles chart because people who like that kind of music tend to buy albums, go to live gigs, etc.

 

To measure what's really popular, they would have to track what everybody in the country listens to (or hears, depending on your definition of "popular"). Sales are good as a rough estimate of what's popular, but people shouldn't look too much into it imo. According to the charts Pitbull is a bigger star than Justin Bieber.

 

EDIT: I apologize in advance for this essay. My thoughts just came streaming out. :lol: :drama:

Edited May 14, 201411 yr by Eric_Blob

Oh trust me, I know all of that. I'm just annoyed that within the already imperfect formula we have, on top of other forms of chart manipulation such as holding back releases, we have another thing to distort the results on top of that.

I actually disagree. It is definitely chart manipulation and that annoys me. But that's also the case with everyone else who's done it, e.g Lady Gaga impressing everyone so much with the initial performance of 'Do What U Want' when in reality it was not a particularly popular song and was only buoyed by album pre-orders. I'm pretty sure all "instant grat" songs end up with chart runs that don't tell the truth of their popularity, which is not something I'm a huge fan of. Between the artificial buoyancy and the joke that is "nominating" one song, the chart has became a much less accurate representation of what's popular in recent times imo.

 

I think the nominating thing works well, it's just that record companies don't bother with nominating the right song at the right time. The only artist I can think of who has got the whole instant grat thing spot on is Eminem. When 'The Monster' first premiered, it was the fourth instant grat track to be released before his album. But rather than sticking with the debut single as the 'nominated' song (which is what most artists seem to do - Gaga, Coldplay etc) they switched it to The Monster. As a result, The Monster hit #1 straight away, and the other three tracks disappeared from the chart for a week.

 

That's what Gaga should've done with DWUW. When it was charting high on iTunes, it was ineligible because 'Applause' was the nominated track still. But Applause was way down the charts at this point. They should've nominated DWUW and scrapped Applause. Who would have missed Applause for a couple of weeks? No one. DWUW could've had the peak it deserved if they'd just made that one decision.

I'm a bit lost as to why instant grats exist. Do they really have a big effect on the sales of the album or anything? Because all I see is a song missing out on genuine sales because iTunes/OCC cannot be bothered to split between those and ones that appear free from the album pre-order. There must be some good to come from it if so many artists are following this strategy and are in fact have multiple instant grats.

 

Apologies if this is a question that's already been answered a thousand times before, just direct me to one of the answers if that's the case!

God, boy bands really have it so easy don't they? :o 5SOS, One Direction and The Vamps racking up the top three singles while The Saturdays, Little Mix and Neon Jungle are having average/poor success.

I think a big part of that is the impact they have on social media, and their presence on Twitter etc.

I think a big part of that is the impact they have on social media, and their presence on Twitter etc.

 

It's pretty much down to teenage girls fancying them and I guess it's always been like this (Westlife, JLS, 5ive, N-Sync, Backstreet Boys). It's annoying because half the time the girlbands are working harder and releasing better music and all the boy bands need to do is release a song and it'll fly up the charts. It is pretty weird how Union J have struggled so much, though?

I think a big part of that is the impact they have on social media, and their presence on Twitter etc.

I agree, it definitely seems to be more of a case of people have a problem with the fans looning around absolutely everywhere which makes people have a negative impression of the band. Of course acts like The Sats and Neon Jungle have fans, but I don't think they're hyped about outside of Buzzjack! :P

64. Dundee United - Scottish Cup Song

 

Dead.

I don't see much of a difference in quality between the music of boy bands and the music of girl bands tbh.

When 'The Monster' first premiered, it was the fourth instant grat track to be released before his album. But rather than sticking with the debut single as the 'nominated' song (which is what most artists seem to do - Gaga, Coldplay etc) they switched it to The Monster. As a result, The Monster hit #1 straight away, and the other three tracks disappeared from the chart for a week.

 

The first 3 singles were not released as instant grats - they were standard single releases which were then all deleted and replaced with instant grats as the album pre-order was put up, quite pointlessly just one week before its release, along with 'The Monster'.

God, boy bands really have it so easy don't they? :o 5SOS, One Direction and The Vamps racking up the top three singles while The Saturdays, Little Mix and Neon Jungle are having average/poor success.

Are The Vamps really doing much better than the girl groups though? Sure, their efforts debut high, but the last two have had poor longevity just like NJ/The Sats/LM's (Word Up) latest singles have. I certainly wouldn't say they were doing better than Little Mix, since their chart runs and sales are usually pretty decent by girlband standards. Oh and 1D are hardly doing brilliantly at the moment - 'You and I' isn't really taking off, so it looks like two consecutive flop singles. Not even The Saturdays can boast that. :lol:

Edited May 14, 201411 yr by Defaze

pre-order update

 

57. Stay With Me - Sam Smith

61. I Wanna Feel (Radio Edit) - Secondcity

88. Jubel - Klingande

121. Dangerous Love (feat. Sean Paul) - Fuse ODG

126. Problem (feat. Iggy Azalea) - Ariana Grande

130. Sing - Ed Sheeran

132. Don't Stop - 5 Seconds of Summer

154. That's Not Me (feat. JME) [Radio Edit Explicit] - Skepta

168. Gecko (Overdrive) [Radio Edit] - Oliver Heldens & Becky Hill

178. Ghost - Ella Henderson

211. West Coast - Lana Del Rey

231. Extraordinary (feat. Sharna Bass) - Clean Bandit

257. Heart and Soul - Twin Atlantic

344. Don't Stop (Calum Demo Vocal) - 5 Seconds of Summer

353. Here For You (feat. Laura Welsh) - Gorgon City

390. Budapest - George Ezra

395. Chandelier - Sia

467. Beating Heart - Ellie Goulding

662. Wasted (feat. Matthew Koma) - Tiësto

674. Me and My Broken Heart - Rixton

712. Good Kisser - Usher

836. Ten Feet Tall (feat. Wrabel) - Afrojack

 

1268. eez-eh - Kasabian

Oh and 1D are hardly doing brilliantly at the moment - 'You and I' isn't really taking off, so it looks like two consecutive flop singles. Not even The Saturdays can boast that. :lol:

 

Mainly because for years they've been far too petrified to release anything post-album (without essentially deleting it prior to impact week and selling it for 59p, that is :magic:)

 

Anyway, it isn't exactly concerning that the fourth single from a 770k-selling album has been lingering outside the top 40 for a month :P.

 

I should be a 1D loon :banana:.

It's pretty much down to teenage girls fancying them and I guess it's always been like this (Westlife, JLS, 5ive, N-Sync, Backstreet Boys). It's annoying because half the time the girlbands are working harder and releasing better music and all the boy bands need to do is release a song and it'll fly up the charts. It is pretty weird how Union J have struggled so much, though?

 

Yeah but then again, you don't see them lasting as long as the saturdays/girls aloud do you? :D (Bar Westlife and One D)

Are The Vamps really doing much better than the girl groups though? Sure, their efforts debut high, but the last two have had poor longevity just like NJ/The Sats/LM's (Word Up) latest singles have. I certainly wouldn't say they were doing better than Little Mix, since their chart runs and sales are usually pretty decent by girlband standards. Oh and 1D are hardly doing brilliantly at the moment - 'You and I' isn't really taking off, so it looks like two consecutive flop singles. Not even The Saturdays can boast that. :lol:

 

I'd say Wild Heart and Last Night haven't done that badly, Wild Heart's still top 200 and has been top 100 for most of the weeks since its release, which isn't bad considering its disappointing top 40 run. At least their album's having great longevity anyway, something that The Saturdays definitely cannot claim :P

 

You & I still has its EP release to come also, so I wouldn't totally write a new peak off for it yet.

'You And I' already has a #19 peak anyway, I'm not sure it'll beat that.

'You And I' already has a #19 peak anyway, I'm not sure it'll beat that.

 

It *could* do, what with it having an EP release soon (plus the fact that the single version is selling better than Midnight Memories' was anyway). Should go higher than #39 regardless :kink: