its a bit of both... music quality and originality has regressed since the 80s and 90s, and even the 2000s.. there are some good music released but its mostly rehashes of old songs... if u look at the top 40 now and the top 40 from 10,20 or 30 years ago u’ll notice that big gap between the old songs and the new ones...

 

The current chart on totp 1987 is full of older 50s songs and rerelease too though such as Reel petite and Hot Chocolate and Freeze!

The current chart on totp 1987 is full of older 50s songs and rerelease too though such as Reel petite and Hot Chocolate and Freeze!

And both 'Stand By Me' by Ben E King and 'When A Man Loves A Woman' by Percy Sledge were inside the top 40 too and would climb to numbers 1 and 2, something that annoyed the lead singer of Curiosity Killed The Cat as 'Down To Earth' ended up stalling at number 3 because of those two old singles.

 

What a fantastic run of no1s from then too Robbie - Xmas no1 Boney M/YMCA and then Hit Me With Your Rythmstick, one of the biggest hits of the year!!

 

Also a NE at 6 for Blondie wasn't half bad either!!

All were massive sellers too, Boney M, the Village People and Blondie singles all sold over a million and Ian Dury sold over 900,000. Then we had more massive sellers from The Bee Gees, Gloria Gaynor and Art Garfunkel (another million seller) in the next couple of months. Singles sales reached a then all time high in 1978 and 1979 with the period of July 1978 to April 1979 having overall sales at a level which had never been seen before. What makes it more interesting is that sales in early 1979 were absolutely phenomenal at a time when the whole country was hit by a very snowy winter with heavy snowfall. Think of December 2010, that's what it was like for three months. I can even remember it snowing in mid May! It was amazing that record shops were able to get enough stock given how bad the weather was.

The current chart on totp 1987 is full of older 50s songs and rerelease too though such as Reel petite and Hot Chocolate and Freeze!

 

And also you could say in the late 80s pop in the charts got generic with the whole Stock Aitken Waterman trend. The same with the whole EDM-pop trend getting generic in 2010-12. But at least there were a lot of tracks in the charts which didn't conform to these trends at least, like house, R&B and indie in the late 80s, and dubstep, progressive house and drum and bass in the early 10s!

And both 'Stand By Me' by Ben E King and 'When A Man Loves A Woman' by Percy Sledge were inside the top 40 too and would climb to numbers 1 and 2, something that annoyed the lead singer of Curiosity Killed The Cat as 'Down To Earth' ended up stalling at number 3 because of those two old singles.

I looked at the chart runs of Stand By Me & When A Man Loves A Woman and they both got really high in the chart in the 2nd week, were singles released towards the end of a week back then?

I looked at the chart runs of Stand By Me & When A Man Loves A Woman and they both got really high in the chart in the 2nd week, were singles released towards the end of a week back then?

Monday releases were becoming more common then but some singles still did get released towards the end of the week. However a Monday release date back then was the day when records were dispatched from the pressing plants to record shops so some stores wouldn't get the record until later in the week. It was only in the 90s when singles started being sent to record shops in advance of a Monday release date. According to the BPI Certfied database both singles were released on Monday 2 February 1987 but very high new entries were still the exception rather than norm in early 1987.

 

I think "straight to #1 and then down" type of chart runs were a norm quite a short time in chart history actually, from late 90s to early 00s and then briefly later?

Edited January 26, 20196 yr by SKOB

I think "straight to #1 and then down" type of chart runs were a norm quite a short time in chart history actually, from late 90s to early 00s and then briefly later?

 

Probably from like 1996 - 2006, and then obviously earlier this decade until about 2015.

My interest in the charts has declined significantly since the introduction of streaming. I no longer listen to the charts show. I find the charts too slow moving and cluttered with the same usual suspects. There are lots of great songs which don’t even reach the T40 but are far better tracks. Streaming makes it much harder for new acts to break into the market and older artists are more disadvantaged as most people streaming tend to be younger. I generally feel there is less good music making it into the charts and this will probably continue unless the charts company revamp the rules on streaming.

 

Am I alone in thinking we need some form of ACR in the album charts now, as well as in singles?

 

Music today is shit. The music in this decade was decent up to 2012

the charts have always been a mix of good and bad music, but there's always something I like in the charts to, that I can root for

most of my favourites don't make the charts anymore, but has been like that for ages, it's not due to streaming or recent

 

good music is always there, you have to make an effort and find it, but sure it's there, it's pretty childish to say artists don't make good music anymore, it's not that same as saying it's not in the charts

I might actually stop looking at the charts because they are so frustrating and depressing. So many songs I do like are unable to crack the Top 100 even when Radio 1 and various other stations put their weight behind them. And the old hits that won't go away...This is Me, Shotgun and 2002 really need to do one! Even One Kiss has had its time and I love that. Definitely wouldn't say "music is shit", it's just the mainstream is now dominated with slow and dull songs that I don't understand the appeal of at all. It's disheartening to see things that would have easily done something chart-wise in the past get nowhere. Really getting into Sam Fender at the moment but know it's very unlikely he will ever have a Top 100 hit despite Radio 1 A-listing, acclaim and hype.

 

Xanax has also done terrible things to the hit parade.

Edited January 27, 20196 yr by Hiyaluv

Music today is shit. The music in this decade was decent up to 2012

 

So that's 2-3 years. Quite short period of good music regarding the history of pop :lol:

Look at all those dance producers who sold their soul to this future-bass thing in the end.

 

Yes, people like Zedd and Garrix seem particularly guilty of this. Guetta has become a trend-chaser in that respect too. A lot of people saw Guetta as trashy (and I certainly did for a bit when I was still a bit of an indie snob) in the early 10s and his hits probably weren't the height of elegance but they were incredibly thrilling in hindsight. Then he changed his style to stay relevant and farted out plodding tropical rubbish like that Zara Larsson Euro 16 song. And Don't Leave Me Alone with Jessie J II!

Edited January 27, 20196 yr by Hiyaluv

Guetta is hardly getting big hits any more, he's been in top ten only twice in recent three years. But I agree to your point, the songs these dance dj's have released in recent years haven't even been big hits so wonder why they keep releasing that dishwater.

I would agree with the general discussion points here that the music you enjoy and like is typically very much a product of that which is popular and on-trend during the time when you are developing your music tastes through your teens and early 20s. Music doesn't stand still and will always evolve, often it is shaped by events in the world and Popbitch found that songs are getting sadder and slower recently, which is probably why the charts seem so depressing right now. It is therefore quite easy to feel left behind and alienated by the charts when you reach your adult years, especially as this is the age that life becomes busier and you have less time to select and enjoy music to listen to and instead replace this with either radio or (more recently) playlists from Spotify or Apple Music, which are generally aimed at those with younger and more receptive/developing tastes.

 

Personally I thought there were high points with the charts in the 2010s but 2016 was a major low, with just 75 Top 10 hits, the lowest since 1952 (which only had 9 chart weeks!) and just under half the post-download highs of 2010, 2013 and 2014 where there were 152 Top 10s, and of course there was Drake spending 23 weeks there (most since Doris Day's 27 weeks in 1954) with “One Dance”. There has always remained a significant amount of music that I love just outside the chart throughout the last 10 years and long may that continue!

Am I alone in thinking we need some form of ACR in the album charts now, as well as in singles?

I don't know about that but I do know that the album charts are clogged up with old albums that will seemingly never go away thanks to constant streaming. Introducing ACR to the albums chart would be a nightmare to implement though.

 

 

Obviously age plays a factor, I’m 33 and long for the days of pop, dance and tuneful R&B being the dominant forces in music. Music was a much happier affair. When have you been to a wedding or party and heard the DJ play anything of note from the past three years? Generally, you can’t get out on the dancefloor to anything post Uptown Funk and Can’t Stop The Feeling.

 

I still listen to new music every single week and I love discovering new artists and songs. That said, as soon as anything by an artist such as Dave, Fredo, Post Malone et al. begins, I am ready to dislike it. There’s a few exceptions, but I generally find this mumble rap/trap/drill music that has emerged in the past few years to be utter dross - it’s depressing, tuneless and full of swearing.

 

I feel as though Drake’s One Dance was the end of the charts as we knew them. Since that song, and subsequent rule changes, the charts are a new beast. One Dance, historically, would’ve been a four week summer chart topper at very best. Streaming has shown how our listening habits as a nation, especially young people’s, are utterly stagnant. Our listening habits had never been exposed this way before and now we are faced with a chart that barely moves, and only does so due to OCC manipulation.

 

Spotify allows me to discover and re-discover more music than I ever dreamed of, but the charts are of no real interest to me anymore (unless Kylie is on the brink of a top 40 hit).

I think the charts could become more interesting again when the demographic of people who uses streaming services widens.