February 18, 20214 yr I definitely feel the playlist-based chart isn't representative of the UK as a whole - several acts in the last few years have launched arena tours and headlined big festivals without ever having much singles chart success.
February 18, 20214 yr Some may celebrate the nigh-on clean sweep that grime/drill/trap/rap acts now enjoy in the Top 100 (and let's face it these sub-genres and their predecessors already performed pretty consistently well on sales even before streaming took over), some will bemoan the lack of distinction between most of the actual songs in terms of production, style and delivery, and it would make for a very monotonous long listen if one were to stream each one of the week's Top 40 in succession. I'm sure I've made posts very similar to this before but it bears repeating if people still have this attitude - your definition of 'nigh-on clean sweep' is... not one I agree with if that's how you'd describe the current presence of rap in the charts. Let's just have a look at the current top 100. Definitely fall into 'drill / trap / rap' (note: there are no grime songs in the top 100, as there usually isn't): 05 NE 01 Digga D and AJ Tracey ~ Bringing It Back 11 03 02 Fredo ~ Money Talks (feat. Dave) 19 NE 01 A1 x J1 ~ Latest Trends 21 NE 01 Cardi B ~ Up 29 29 16 Central Cee ~ Loading 31 21 02 Fredo ~ Ready (feat. Summer Walker) 32 18 02 Fredo ~ Burner On Deck (feat. Pop Smoke and Young Adz) 33 13 16 CJ ~ Whoopty 41 38 26 Internet Money ~ Lemonade (feat. Gunna, Don Toliver and Nav) 42 50 05 Saweetie ~ Best Friend (feat. Doja Cat) 54 61 18 Polo G ~ Martin & Gina 55 53 21 Pop Smoke ~ What You Know Bout Love 58 NE 01 Masked Wolf ~ Astronaut In The Ocean 59 56 16 Juice WRLD ~ All Girls Are The Same 64 55 21 Wes Nelson and Hardy Caprio ~ See Nobody 81 72 25 Cardi B ~ WAP (feat. Megan Thee Stallion) 84 45 02 Yxng Bane ~ Dancing On Ice (feat. Nafe Smallz and M Huncho) 91 63 02 Chip ~ Grown Flex (feat. Bugzy Malone) 100 73 05 Bugzy Malone ~ Notorious (feat. Chip) Could maybe lump these in as well although I'd primarily count them as being a different genre (including R&B songs here since that sometimes also gets lumped in with rap genres): 04 05 04 Anne-Marie, KSI and Digital Farm Animals ~ Don't Play 12 12 05 Doja Cat ~ Streets 18 17 07 SZA ~ Good Days 28 25 16 KSI ~ Really Love (feat. Craig David and Digital Farm Animals) 36 35 26 24kGoldn ~ Mood (feat. Iann Dior) 46 49 09 Yung Bleu ~ You're Mines Still (feat. Drake) 49 58 07 Rudimental ~ Be The One (feat. Morgan, Digga D and Tike) 75 NE 01 Dream and PmBata ~ Roadtrip (I've not heard this one but apparently PmBata is a rapper so) 78 62 02 B Young ~ Ride for Me 89 RE 65 Post Malone and Swae Lee ~ Sunflower (I'm highly hesitant to not put this in the last category but I guess it could be called R&B at a stretch) 98 NE 01 G-Eazy ~ Provide (feat. Chris Brown and Mark Morrison) Definitely do not fall into any of those genres unless your definition of that extends to 'has a short featured rap verse': 01 01 05 Olivia Rodrigo ~ Drivers License 02 02 03 Nathan Evans, 220 Kid and Billen Ted ~ Wellerman 03 04 13 The Kid Laroi ~ Without You 06 06 15 Meduza ~ Paradise (feat. Dermot Kennedy) 07 11 13 Tiësto ~ The Business 08 08 15 Shane Codd ~ Get Out My Head 09 09 06 Justin Bieber ~ Anyone 10 16 06 Hvme ~ Goosebumps 13 10 08 Ed Sheeran ~ Afterglow 14 14 15 Ariana Grande ~ 34+35 15 31 05 The Weeknd ~ Save Your Tears 16 24 04 Riton and Nightcrawlers ~ Friday (feat. Mufasa & Hypeman) 17 20 12 Miley Cyrus ~ Prisoner (feat. Dua Lipa) 20 26 63 The Weeknd ~ Blinding Lights 22 22 09 Taylor Swift ~ Willow 23 42 03 ATB, Topic and A7S ~ Your Love (9PM) 24 34 13 Glass Animals ~ Heat Waves 25 23 11 Nathan Dawe and Little Mix ~ No Time For Tears 26 27 32 Joel Corry ~ Head & Heart (feat. MNEK) 27 32 08 Jason Derulo and Nuka ~ Love Not War (The Tampa Beat) 30 07 16 Little Mix ~ Sweet Melody 34 15 24 Dua Lipa ~ Levitating 35 46 06 Ava Max ~ My Head & My Heart 37 19 29 Tate McRae ~ You Broke Me First 38 37 06 Raye and Rudimental ~ Regardless 39 78 06 Duncan Laurence ~ Arcade 40 44 50 Harry Styles ~ Watermelon Sugar 43 39 15 Jax Jones ~ I Miss U (feat. Au/Ra) 44 40 16 Ariana Grande ~ Positions 45 47 78 Tones & I ~ Dance Monkey 47 51 107 Lewis Capaldi ~ Someone You Loved 48 48 26 Miley Cyrus ~ Midnight Sky 50 NE 01 Navos ~ Believe Me 51 41 03 Sabrina Carpenter ~ Skin 52 NE 01 Foo Fighters ~ Making A Fire 53 NE 01 Foo Fighters ~ Waiting On A War 56 43 05 Bicep ~ Apricots 57 52 14 The Kid Laroi ~ So Done 60 92 02 Tom Grennan ~ Little Bit of Love 61 54 13 Olivia Rodrigo ~ All I Want 62 57 30 Paul Woolford and Diplo ~ Looking For Me (feat. Kareen Lomax) 63 28 15 James Arthur ~ Train Wreck 65 59 25 Jason Derulo ~ Take You Dancing 66 70 159 Ed Sheeran ~ Perfect 67 67 67 Pinkfong ~ Baby Shark 68 30 13 Billie Eilish ~ Therefore I Am 69 66 02 Clean Bandit ~ Higher (feat. Iann Dior) 70 89 03 Imanbek and Goodboys ~ Goodbye 71 68 254 The Killers ~ Mr Brightside 72 65 60 Lewis Capaldi ~ Before You Go 73 33 15 Harry Styles ~ Golden 74 82 50 Saint Jhn ~ Roses (the original version is a trap song but the version that's actually popular very much isn't, same as 'Goosebumps') 76 69 95 Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper ~ Shallow 77 NE 01 Foo Fighters ~ Shame Shame 79 87 02 James Hype ~ Afraid (feat. Harlee) 80 74 26 Fleetwood Mac ~ Dreams 82 75 25 BTS ~ Dynamite 83 96 07 Wilbur Soot ~ Your New Boyfriend 85 NE 01 Mimi Webb ~ Reasons 86 77 18 Sam Smith ~ Diamonds 87 71 18 Justin Bieber ~ Holy (feat. Chance the Rapper) 88 83 31 Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo ~ Savage Love (Laxed - Siren Beat) 90 NE 01 MK ~ Lies (feat. Raphaella) 92 RE 30 Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande ~ Rain on Me 93 88 56 Dua Lipa ~ Don't Start Now 94 36 12 Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber ~ Monster 95 86 19 Sigala and James Arthur ~ Lasting Lover 96 84 37 Harry Styles ~ Falling 97 NE 01 Sam Fischer and Demi Lovato ~ What Other People Say 99 98 10 The Neighbourhood ~ Sweater Weather So that's by my count 19/100, or stretching myself about as far as I can realistically go to inflate that number, 30/100. That's probably a higher number than your average chart from before the streaming era but it's very far from being the only genre in the charts. And for all people argue that there's no difference between the sound of each of the rap songs in the chart... sure a lot of them are fairly similar but I'd say that chart dance music is just as homogenised if not moreso (not to mention that so much of it these days is just lazy reworks of existing songs) and I rarely see anyone calling that out. I'd agree with your general point about streaming making the charts less varied but the blame doesn't lie solely on 'everything in the charts now is just rap', it's more like the chart has gone from being sort of open to all genres (though already with a bias to pop/dance/rap) to being nearly entirely pop/dance/rap with only a few token exceptions. One of which is always 'Mr. Brightside' naturally.
February 18, 20214 yr All of my favourite artists struggle to get a top 100 entry anymore, lol. It’s depressing because we have no hope of a Tina Turner or Cher style comeback in the 80s-90s
February 18, 20214 yr Ya i agree, i think its going to be so hard for any act like them to even pull off just 1 surprise hit.
February 18, 20214 yr Cheeky girls Shayne ward :rofl: :rofl: Yes Cheeky Girls were flying at the time and Chico.
February 18, 20214 yr That reminds me that a lot of older acts have done well in streaming with their Greatest Hits collections. And yet Madonna and Kylie I don’t think I see in the top 100 albums every week. Unusually, Whitney Houston has gone against the grain among the legacy pre 2000 diva acts in that her Greatest Hits collection is consistently in the Top 50 albums each week and is made up primarily on streams. She also enjoyed a #2 smash hit single with Higher Love only 18 months ago and which is now double platinum in the UK. Many of her classic hits, particularly I Wanna Dance With Somebody generates large streaming numbers every month. Not sure why she is outperforming her peers in this regard but perhaps Higher Love introduced her to a millennial audience who heretofore were not familiar with her back catalogue.
February 18, 20214 yr All of my favourite artists struggle to get a top 100 entry anymore, lol. It’s depressing because we have no hope of a Tina Turner or Cher style comeback in the 80s-90s Sia had a big comeback during the streaming era. And didn't Derulo just have a #1 hit after being away for a while. These comebacks are anomalies anyway, they might happen but are very unlikely in general. Edited February 18, 20214 yr by Sour Candy
February 18, 20214 yr :rofl: :rofl: Yes Cheeky Girls were flying at the time and Chico. Don't forget G4, practically the biggest boyband in the country until streaming came along.
February 18, 20214 yr I definitely feel the playlist-based chart isn't representative of the UK as a whole - several acts in the last few years have launched arena tours and headlined big festivals without ever having much singles chart success. This is very true, I'd say there are a lot of songs these days that don't trouble the charts but certain demographics would definitely see them as hits. Those type of songs that get A list radio 2 play or by artists doing the things you said but don't get playlist support. Melanie C's Blame it on me springs to mind. It got great radio airplay, was hanging around the download chart for a good period of time. She promoted it a lot too. I'm sure a certain age/demographic see that song as popular and a hit in metrics just not on the official chart. Like you say unless it gets playlisting it has no chance to chart no matter how well it does on other metrics.
February 18, 20214 yr It's been a while since The Beatles last had a hit :( Although Macca did (sort of) feature on one a few years ago. ;)
February 18, 20214 yr Although Macca did (sort of) feature on one a few years ago. ;) He, alongside John Lennon, were both in the top 40 as solo artists as recently as a month and a bit ago too.
February 18, 20214 yr We should start campaigning now for Have A Cheeky Christmas to get Christmas no.1.
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