Vaguely since about 2004/5 but properly in 2010.

I think the first time I was aware of what was number one was when Mary Hopkin topped the chart with Those Were The Days. That was around my eighth birthday, a couple months over 50 years ago.

I started following the charts properly in late 2011 I believe, around when The Saturdays released All Fired Up (lmao x). I became an avid chart show listener from the start of 2013, I think my first proper chart show was Christmas 2012! Before then, I had a brief period of following the charts in the mid 00s as a kid and I made my own charts with the CDs I'd bought :lol: but I think I paid more attention to the HMV charts then.

Since January 1974.

30th anniversary this year I Think were alone now was no.1

Since 1993

Same!

since 1989... but the past few years i've lost interest...

If I'm going to pinpoint a specific point in time, since about February/March 2000. It is quite saddening to witness how things descended into the state they are now.

I started in early 1997 so almost 22 years ago. I haven’t listened regularly for more than 3 years since it moved to a Friday. I only check here out of habit now because Chart music isn’t for me these days and streaming has effectively killed the excitement of it for me.

Since 2004 - I used to listen to the chart show religiously every week, the first chart I listened to being very early 2004 when LMC v. U2 was #1. I'm nowhere near as interested/obsessed as I once was but I still check in every week.

14th December 2003 was my first chart show. That was the week Rachel Stevens crashed out at #26 with Funky Dory, Madonna missed the Top 10 with Love Profusion and Ozzy & Kelly Osborne reached number one with Changes.

I think it was about 1974 when I started listening to the top 40 rundown on Sunday evenings. I wrote it down for a while but that only lasted a few months. In the 80s,I would record songs I liked from the top 40 on Sunday on to blank cassettes having already written down their numbers when the chart was announced on a Tuesday. From about 1983,I bought the Record Mirror every week which had the singles and album charts listed in full along with Alan Jones' chart analysis. I see from the 'Sales' thread on here that he is still doing it. From the mid 90s onwards,I looked up the chart on Ceefax. I lost interest in the singles chart a few years ago but since I joined Buzzjack,Suedehead's chart commentary has at least kept me in touch with what's going on.

In my 40 years of listening to the chart, I have to say the 80s music was pretty much my thing, and remembering 12 to 15 new entries per week in the 90s, the charts have really transformed, and revolutionised through to the digital age, and now the charts are so boring for me. Younger people now are listening and getting to grips with the digital and streamlining age, you can't really turn the clock back, sometimes the charts looks so obsolete. Indie rock is mainly my thing, its hardly booming now.

I've got a tape of the Top 40 from May 1994 (the week Manchester Utd climbed to #1) when I was some youth club thing and couldn't listen, so probably around or near then - more or less listened most Sundays growing up until around 2004.

 

We had the chart on at work yesterday afternoon and my god everything just seemed to merge into the same song. Complete lack of any diversity today - but you take any Top 10 from the 1990s or 2000s and there will be many different genres represented.

 

And the 1980s and even 1970s too probably....its sad how there is not so much music variety in the charts any more.

 

I started following the charts in 2009 with the 4Music top 40 countdown.

 

Although, I think I remember it saying on a music channel that Black Legend's 'You See The Trouble With me' was at #1 and I was unimpressed sadly, I liked the Barry White song but found the housey instrumental bit added on a bit jarring back then :( .

 

I did know though that Mel B went #1 in 2000 with 'I Turn To You' and that Victoria only went to #2 with 'Out Of My Mind' because it was stated on the music channel. I much preferred 'I Turn To You' anyway back then.

 

I was then disappointed to hear the result of the big hyped chart battle in 2003, I didn't listen to the actual chart but heard someone on the TV reveal the result. Britney Spears' Toxic of course beat Kylie's Red Blooded Woman to #1 in 2003, but I didn't like 'Toxic' much but thought 'Red Blooded Woman' was a great tune.

Edited December 1, 20186 yr by The Snow ❄️

since early 1988 when Kylie, Debbie Gibson & Tiffany were dominating the charts :)

Think I first started watching TOTP when I was six in early '89 when Like a Prayer was #1 and started listening to the Top 40 a few months after, definitely remember Ride on Time being #1 on a Sunday night. I'm 35 now and still tune in most Fridays when I can, even though the streaming age has sucked a lot of the excitement out of it. ACR has caused annoying chart runs but it was as frustrating as hell seeing songs barely move before.

Edited December 1, 20186 yr by 34yopoppicker

Started listening/analysing near enough religiously every Sunday since 2006, in a nice bit of symmetry, I only stopped in 2016 when it moved to Fridays as a culmination of fading interest and the fact it wasn't really practical for me to do anymore. I still check what's going on every week thanks mainly to this forum, I don't think I'll ever stop following it at all as it's just so ingrained in my life, but it's more for the stats, I care very little for the actual music.

I think it was about 1974 when I started listening to the top 40 rundown on Sunday evenings. I wrote it down for a while but that only lasted a few months. In the 80s,I would record songs I liked from the top 40 on Sunday on to blank cassettes having already written down their numbers when the chart was announced on a Tuesday. From about 1983,I bought the Record Mirror every week which had the singles and album charts listed in full along with Alan Jones' chart analysis. I see from the 'Sales' thread on here that he is still doing it. From the mid 90s onwards,I looked up the chart on Ceefax. I lost interest in the singles chart a few years ago but since I joined Buzzjack,Suedehead's chart commentary has at least kept me in touch with what's going on.

Glad to be of service :D

Almost exactly 25 years. I got a radio for Christmas in 1993 and started listening to the top 40 every week soon after and logging them in notebooks, until 2000 when dotmusic became my go-to site. My interest in the music itself has wavered at times, but I've at least read over the chart every week since. For me, 2007 was the most exciting time to follow the charts as suddenly anything could appear there, even if it wasn't in the shops, and we started to see songs climb gradually again.

The first live chart show I actually listened to was on Sunday 20th December 2009... on THAT legendary race for Christmas number one!

 

What an introduction!