For me, there has been a particular downturn in the quality of music in the charts over the past 5 years since the flood of releases from shows like ex factor, which have been swamping the charts. Many of the acts seem to release tiredsome cover versions with the exception of Will Young and Lemar. Sales of singles have dived since the end of the 1990s and although I feel this is partially due to the effects of downloads, but part of the blame might be attituted to the lack of genuine artists in the chart releasing good quality music. Artists like Madonna can still shift relatively high amounts of singles. Hung up sold nearly 400k, so this goes to show that single sales arent entirely flat.

 

 

Charts wise, for me 2003, this was the first dire year for single sales. Then Downloads were added along with a load of stupid and confusing chart rules :angry:

I dont think there's been anything wrong with the music released over the past few years - I think it's the people that always go on about how dire it is that has made the charts 'die'

Reality shows on TV, r´n´b, rap, and indie ruined the charts. But I still think the UK charts is kinda good compared to others.

The charts arnt THAT bad, there has been MUCH worse in the past! <_<

The fact is loads of people are downloading illegaly, using the likes of Limewire and getting away with it! that is what is trully killing the charts!

Yeh - it's not the music thats bad it's the sales - and that is down to illegal downloading.

Funny how when downloads were added to the oficial charts, sales have gone worse not better?!? :huh:

Whats goin on there then? <_<

I think you have o remember that pre-sales are not included (at least I don't think they are). SexyBack and I Don't Feel Like Dancing had loads of legal downloads which were not chart eligable.

When singles were promoted prior to being released - at some point in the mid 1990s.

You have a good point agreed. But the era I quoted was prior to the video becoming fully fledged.

Video = image, so the power of the image was enhanced, perhaps sacrificing a little the influence of the tune.

 

 

think radio is still a mega provider of hits. as well as the press to a lesser extent (with teletext about 0.000000000006 seeing as nobody's ever heard of any of the band that 8/10 on launchpad in the so called 'indie' section)

...but for me it has come alive again.

 

It died in mid 1995 when most singles entered at their peak positions. This made them uninteresting.

 

Now with the downloads singles climb go back down and some climb back again. HMMMM! interesting.

 

As for the music this century as we've been flooded with rubbish such as:

R&B, Hip Hip, Westlife, McFly, Busted, Beyonce.

 

I could have written that. Agree with every word.

It died in mid 1995 when most singles entered at their peak positions. This made them uninteresting.

 

Totally. Although the real cause is the rise of music television, strict radio 1 playlists and tactical scheduled releases. The size of sales is irrelevant as you can always have a chart as positions are always relative.

 

You can almost blame Radio 1 for kicking out the old DJs - they used to get hold of a record two or three weeks after its release and start playing it - only THEN did it enter the top 40. These days everyone knows every song about a month before it comes out.

 

You can almost blame Radio 1 for kicking out the old DJs - they used to get hold of a record two or three weeks after its release and start playing it - only THEN did it enter the top 40. These days everyone knows every song about a month before it comes out.

Very good point. Also the Radio playlist madness has a lot to answer for. Radio Dj's have become musically ignorant, because they don't have to know anything about the music. For this reason I find myself listening more and more to local radio where at least the DJ can choice what he or she wishes to play.

 

The charts are still alive now, although somewhat different then years ago.

 

Very good point. Also the Radio playlist madness has a lot to answer for. Radio Dj's have become musically ignorant, because they don't have to know anything about the music. For this reason I find myself listening more and more to local radio where at least the DJ can choice what he or she wishes to play.

 

The charts are still alive now, although somewhat different then years ago.

 

 

Local radio - BBC and commercial even more so use playlists like Radios 1 & 2. The DJ might be able to slip one or two in per hour - or take the odd request but it is still playlisted. In fact nearly every run of the mill local commercial station has a blander music policy than Radio 1. The probable exeptions are the more niche stations; Kiss, Galaxy, Choice, Kerrang & XFM. That's if we're talking about FM/AM - digital is more diverse but with generally dire qudio quality on DAB (Freeview, Sky & cable are not as bad).

 

 

Very good point. Also the Radio playlist madness has a lot to answer for. Radio Dj's have become musically ignorant, because they don't have to know anything about the music. For this reason I find myself listening more and more to local radio where at least the DJ can choice what he or she wishes to play.

 

The charts are still alive now, although somewhat different then years ago.

 

 

Local radio - BBC and commercial even more so use playlists like Radios 1 & 2. The DJ might be able to slip one or two in per hour - or take the odd request but it is still playlisted. In fact nearly every run of the mill local commercial station has a blander music policy than Radio 1. The probable exeptions are the more niche stations; Kiss, Galaxy, Choice, Kerrang & XFM. That's if we're talking about FM/AM - digital is more diverse but with generally dire qudio quality on DAB (Freeview, Sky & cable are not as bad).

 

So I find it interesting that you choose to listen to local radio because DJ's have become musically ingnorant. I thought that most local commercial DJ's were bland, musically ignorant and unable to do anything other than press a button to play the next playlisted track and read out station info or stuff from the papers. I'd be interested to know what local station you're refering to!

 

 

As for when the charts died - that's eveyone's personal opinion influenced by lot's of things.

For me good chart years were 1984, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998 & 2000.