Posted November 3, 20204 yr The Killers' epic "Mr Brightside" is, this week, notching up it's 248th week in the UK Top 100, but remarkably exactly 200 of those have now been spent in the 76-100 region of the chart. No. 76 1 No. 77 2 No. 78 2 No. 79 4 No. 80 6 No. 81 7 No. 82 5 No. 83 4 No. 84 6 No. 85 8 No. 86 10 No. 87 7 No. 88 9 No. 89 15 No. 90 12 No. 91 6 No. 92 17 No. 93 11 No. 94 6 No. 95 9 No. 96 10 No. 97 7 No. 98 11 No. 99 10 No. 100 15 I know it is a very good song and performance, but I'm not sure why it in particular still sells/streams enough virtually every week, 16 years on, to make the OCC Top 100 yet very rarely does enough to push into the Top 75. It holds the record for most weeks at all positions from No. 79 downwards with the exception of No. 83, where Take That's "Rule The World" rules the roost with 8 weeks. (The records for positions 79 & 82 are shared) The 17 weeks spent at No. 92 is beaten for any position solely by Frankie Laine's "I Believe" and that song's 18 weeks (in 3 spells) at Number One. The 200 weeks in the lower quarter of the chart is a massive 145 more than any other record, "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol being runner-up with 55 weeks. Only a handful of artists (other than The Killers) have 200 such weeks with all their hits combined. Ed Sheeran leads the way with 336, Drake has 300, Rihanna 250, Chris Brown 202 and Justin Bieber 200. Note: These figures only include data from the start of February 1999 to date. There maybe some artists who may have notched up lots of low ranking weeks before then, but chart runs were a lot shorter in those days so no individual record will come anywhere close to "Mr Brightside" Full chart run : {10}-26-38-60-x(26)-100-x(108)-100-x(2)-99-82-86-82-98-89-84-94-x(4)-91-x(2)-97-99 -x(2)-73-95-81-77-87-92-95-93-91-92-x(6)-86-97-x(2)-76-64-92-x(3)-89-78-90-89-93-82-81-91-x(1)-93 -98-79-100-100-90-87-x(9)-98-89-99-88-98-x(2)-92-90-85-79-86-94-x(2)-91-86-80-88-96-60-73-89-x(4) -99-86-96-90-89-98-98-90-93-87-x(12)-100-70-x(5)-96-x(5)-89-93-x(16)-59-75-x(1)-97-x(118)-48-47-52 -92-x(7)-95-50-47-93-x(1)-58-52-59-82-80-x(13)-79-57-x(20)-98-88-81-84-85-x(2)-87-x(16)-88-x(3)-75 -29-28-36-67-x(27)-92-x(2)-100-94-x(18)-74-x(14)-69-73-88-x(15)-84-x(1)-84-94-x(25)-93-100-53-65-78 -97-x(10)-86-88-84-86-88-92-85-89-90-92-90-89-82-87-85-79-88-89-89-85-83-95-91-99-100-90-49-81-73 -73-80-80-75-85-98-x(4)-95-92-x(2)-95-93-x(1)-80-83-97-90-83-69-55-45-45-53-55-50-89-92-86-96-x(1) -92-91-85-96-72-74-87-96-86-99-92-x(4)-72-x(1)-100-x(1)-98-92-x(2)-96-99-100-x(2)-99-x(14)-99-x(5) -100-x(17)-77-100-100-x(13)-95-x(2)-95-x(6)-54-68-84-90-81-80-83-87-81-98-96-x(1)-100-x(13)-75-x(14) -99-97-93-92-90-93-98-90-85-88-81-72-96-94-95-x(1)-100-94-92-89-89-93-92-89-92-x(1)-96-97-86
November 3, 20204 yr The 200 weeks in the lower quarter of the chart is a massive 145 more than any other record, "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol being runner-up with 55 weeks. If you go further back in time, Oasis - Whatever is on 61 weeks in that region.
November 3, 20204 yr it’s because the “Great” British public refuse to stop playing the same old songs all the time and this one just happens to be the favourite of the Old Songs. It’ll probably still be around this time next decade if the OCC don’t do something about it. I think we should just let it get to 250 weeks then say enough is enough and bring in the much needed recurrence rule.
November 3, 20204 yr On a similar theme to my earlier point, Oasis have a total of 431 weeks in the 76-100 region for their singles (compared to 420 weeks in the Top 75)
November 3, 20204 yr It should actually chart much higher than it does (probably mid 60’s) but obviously ACR forces it nearer the bottom of the chart and thus all the weeks in the bottom region it’s accumulated over the last 3 years are not truly reflective of how popular the song is
November 3, 20204 yr What's apparent with Mr Brightside is that its chart performance is, if anything, improving year-on-year: it's had 28 weeks in the Top 100 this year, compared with 17 last year and 10 in 2018. Although maybe that's not so much a sign of increasing popularity, as a sign that there has been less competition from new music e.g. so many other songs in the lower half of the Spotify top 100 are on ACR themselves and therefore downgraded to the same degree.
November 3, 20204 yr What's apparent with Mr Brightside is that its chart performance is, if anything, improving year-on-year: it's had 28 weeks in the Top 100 this year, compared with 17 last year and 10 in 2018. Although maybe that's not so much a sign of increasing popularity, as a sign that there has been less competition from new music e.g. so many other songs in the lower half of the Spotify top 100 are on ACR themselves and therefore downgraded to the same degree. In the end of year lists it was #87 for 2017, #80 for 2018, and #63 for 2019. ACR isn't factored into those so it is genuinely getting more popular (then again, it could just mean that everything else on the whole is getting less popular). Looks like it'll get higher again this year.
November 3, 20204 yr In the end of year lists it was #87 for 2017, #80 for 2018, and #63 for 2019. ACR isn't factored into those so it is genuinely getting more popular (then again, it could just mean that everything else on the whole is getting less popular). Looks like it'll get higher again this year. This is where the big casualty of the streaming era comes into effect. With unlimited access to catalogues and the lack of traditional single campaigns we are not seeing the number of new ‘classics’ which previous decades conjured up. It is something getting worse year on year as more rely on playlists instead of investing in songs and artists like they used to. Can’t see this week’s #1 for example being a classic building up radio/tv/streaming support a decade+ down the line (time will tell). Mr Brightside is one of those songs which is still played in clubs 15 years on and still sounds contemporary. It is to party playlists what all I want for Christmas is to Xmas playlists, the difference being party playlists aren’t a once a year listen.
November 3, 20204 yr Yes, there was a great article discussing this phenomenon a few years back: http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s...=182013&hl=
November 3, 20204 yr I know it's early to start discussing the chart of the 2020s but more than ever it could have significant numbers of non-current songs on it. If Mr Brightside keeps being streamed at its current level, which is about 500,000 chart sales per year, the 5 million it does over the course of the decade could put it very near the top indeed and certainly higher than its #12 position in the 2010s list.
November 4, 20204 yr This is where the big casualty of the streaming era comes into effect. With unlimited access to catalogues and the lack of traditional single campaigns we are not seeing the number of new ‘classics’ which previous decades conjured up. It is something getting worse year on year as more rely on playlists instead of investing in songs and artists like they used to. Can’t see this week’s #1 for example being a classic building up radio/tv/streaming support a decade+ down the line (time will tell). Mr Brightside is one of those songs which is still played in clubs 15 years on and still sounds contemporary. It is to party playlists what all I want for Christmas is to Xmas playlists, the difference being party playlists aren’t a once a year listen. Yeah it's kind of an inevitable result of fractured audiences. Music is being listened to en masse by millions, but there are so many options that people will opt for their specific interests, and thus there are less people to collectively take in the smaller set that are immortalised since 'everyone knows them'. But in a way, this is made to look worse by chart fanatics because a lot of songs & artists can reach huge audiences without the typical flightpath of a hit single of the past. Like, I still see people incredulously defining 'hits' as a question of whether or not a song reaches the top 40 (or some other bar), despite the fact that more and more songs are accruing gold & then some sales without coming close to those margins, as a increasingly greater percentage of all music consumption sits below the chart. But it's hard to define a classic because you're asking for a vague apparent audience reach that becomes harder and harder to manage because so many music fans have/will eventually stop listening to anything new, which is entirely reasonable, but then to them, The Killers, Adele, or the next big thing don't even register anymore. The canon is also constantly re-defined by the youth, who've often times shown to take interest in an entirely unpredictable selection of past music, smash hits & otherwise. I find it interesting to see these trends develop. B-)
November 4, 20204 yr Does anyone know the current-ish sales? 2.85M was given to the end of 2019. I’d estimate around 400k since, so maybe 3.25M?
November 6, 20204 yr If it's still getting played that much, then it should still be in the charts. People can't complain about ACR applied to Christmas songs in one day, and then say "kick out Mr. Brightside forever!" the next. It's currently #254 on iTunes, so people are still buying it, too. It usually gets into the top 75 around New Year, too, as it's on a lot of people's playlists around that time!
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